INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
(EXAM 1)QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
What is Psychology? - ANSWERThe study of mind and behavior.
What is Nativism (Nature)? - ANSWERNativism is the theory that knowledge is innate
and inborn. Our biological endowment makes up who we are.
What is Empiricism (Nurture)? - ANSWEREmpiricism is the idea that we gain
knowledge through experience and surroundings. Our environment makes up who we
are.
Plato - ANSWERHe believes in the philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge
are innate and inborn (nativism/nature).
Aristotle - ANSWERHe believes in philosophical empiricism which states that
knowledge is gained through experience.
Wilhelm Wundt - ANSWERHe believes in the idea of structuralism. Structuralism is
when you analyze the brain by breaking it down to its main components.
William James - ANSWERHe believes in the idea of functionalism. Functionalism is
when you see how someone functions or adapts to new aspects in their environment.
John Watson - ANSWERHe believed that psychology and the mind was not able to be
studied through scientific inquiry. Instead, he was a behaviorist who focused more so
the actions of humans to explain their train of thought.
B.F. Skinner - ANSWERHe was another behaviorist that believed in Pavlov's
experiments and Watson's theories. He studied how behavior was learned according to
circumstance.
Sigmund Freud - ANSWERHe came up with psychoanalytic theory which is very much
so used today. Psychoanalysis is the study of unconscious mind and how it affects a
person's thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Behaviorism - ANSWERan approach that advocates that psychologists restrict
themselves to the scientific study objectively observable behavior
Cognitive Psychology - ANSWERthe scientific study of mental processes including
perception, thought, memory, and experience
, Evolutionary Psychology - ANSWERa psychological approach that explains mind and
behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by
natural selection (Influenced by Darwin, James, and EO Wilson)
Humanistic Psychology - ANSWERan approach to understanding human nature that
emphasizes the positive potential of human beings
Social Psychology - ANSWERA subfield of psychology that studies the causes and
consequences of interpersonal studies
Cultural Psychology - ANSWERStudy of how cultures reflect and shape the
psychological processes of their members
Emergence of Cognitive Psychology - ANSWERIt became a thing when Max
Wertheimer began to study illusions and errors when it came to the mind. He came up
with the Gestalt theory that states that we rather perceive the "sum" over the "parts".
Kurt Lewin believed that we saw the world as we saw it and not at all how it actually
was. The invention of computers made most psychologists ignore this and see
psychology objectively.
Operational Definition - ANSWERIt is the description of a property in concrete,
measurable terms. For example, you can operationally define happiness as the amount
of times that someone smiles.
Dependent variable - ANSWERA variable whose value depends on another variable
Independent variable - ANSWERA variable who is manipulated for an experiment, but
does not depend on another
Reliability - ANSWERIt is the tendency for an instrument to produce the same
measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing.
Power - ANSWERAn instrument's ability to detect change in the property.
Validity - ANSWERThe goodness with which a concrete event defines a property
Demand Characteristics - ANSWERThe aspects of an observational setting that caused
people to behave as they think they should
What is a correlation? - ANSWERThey are two variable that are said to be correlated
when variation of one variable is synchronized with the variation in the value of another.
However, correlation does not equate to causation.
What is the third variable problem (confounding variable)? - ANSWERIt is the chance
that two variable are only related because of each are causally related to a third one.
(EXAM 1)QUESTIONS & ANSWERS
What is Psychology? - ANSWERThe study of mind and behavior.
What is Nativism (Nature)? - ANSWERNativism is the theory that knowledge is innate
and inborn. Our biological endowment makes up who we are.
What is Empiricism (Nurture)? - ANSWEREmpiricism is the idea that we gain
knowledge through experience and surroundings. Our environment makes up who we
are.
Plato - ANSWERHe believes in the philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge
are innate and inborn (nativism/nature).
Aristotle - ANSWERHe believes in philosophical empiricism which states that
knowledge is gained through experience.
Wilhelm Wundt - ANSWERHe believes in the idea of structuralism. Structuralism is
when you analyze the brain by breaking it down to its main components.
William James - ANSWERHe believes in the idea of functionalism. Functionalism is
when you see how someone functions or adapts to new aspects in their environment.
John Watson - ANSWERHe believed that psychology and the mind was not able to be
studied through scientific inquiry. Instead, he was a behaviorist who focused more so
the actions of humans to explain their train of thought.
B.F. Skinner - ANSWERHe was another behaviorist that believed in Pavlov's
experiments and Watson's theories. He studied how behavior was learned according to
circumstance.
Sigmund Freud - ANSWERHe came up with psychoanalytic theory which is very much
so used today. Psychoanalysis is the study of unconscious mind and how it affects a
person's thoughts, feelings, and emotions.
Behaviorism - ANSWERan approach that advocates that psychologists restrict
themselves to the scientific study objectively observable behavior
Cognitive Psychology - ANSWERthe scientific study of mental processes including
perception, thought, memory, and experience
, Evolutionary Psychology - ANSWERa psychological approach that explains mind and
behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by
natural selection (Influenced by Darwin, James, and EO Wilson)
Humanistic Psychology - ANSWERan approach to understanding human nature that
emphasizes the positive potential of human beings
Social Psychology - ANSWERA subfield of psychology that studies the causes and
consequences of interpersonal studies
Cultural Psychology - ANSWERStudy of how cultures reflect and shape the
psychological processes of their members
Emergence of Cognitive Psychology - ANSWERIt became a thing when Max
Wertheimer began to study illusions and errors when it came to the mind. He came up
with the Gestalt theory that states that we rather perceive the "sum" over the "parts".
Kurt Lewin believed that we saw the world as we saw it and not at all how it actually
was. The invention of computers made most psychologists ignore this and see
psychology objectively.
Operational Definition - ANSWERIt is the description of a property in concrete,
measurable terms. For example, you can operationally define happiness as the amount
of times that someone smiles.
Dependent variable - ANSWERA variable whose value depends on another variable
Independent variable - ANSWERA variable who is manipulated for an experiment, but
does not depend on another
Reliability - ANSWERIt is the tendency for an instrument to produce the same
measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing.
Power - ANSWERAn instrument's ability to detect change in the property.
Validity - ANSWERThe goodness with which a concrete event defines a property
Demand Characteristics - ANSWERThe aspects of an observational setting that caused
people to behave as they think they should
What is a correlation? - ANSWERThey are two variable that are said to be correlated
when variation of one variable is synchronized with the variation in the value of another.
However, correlation does not equate to causation.
What is the third variable problem (confounding variable)? - ANSWERIt is the chance
that two variable are only related because of each are causally related to a third one.
