PSY 101 Straighterline Latest Compiled Questions and Correct Answers (Updated)

psychology - the scientific study of behavior and mental processes science - psychology uses systematic methods to observe human behavior and draw conclusions behavior - everything we do that can be directly observed mental process - The thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly critical thinking - thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions. empirical method - gaining knowledge through the observation of events, the collection of data, and logical reasoning structuralism - focus on identifying the elemental parts or structures of the human mind; William Wundt functionalism - A school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish; William James natural selection - A process in which individuals that have certain inherited traits tend to survive and reproduce at higher rates than other individuals because of those traits; Charles Darwin neurons - a nerve cell; the basic building block of the nervous system glial cells - cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons cell body - Largest part of a typical neuron; contains the nucleus and much of the cytoplasm dendrites - Branchlike parts of a neuron that are specialized to receive information. axon - the extension of a neuron, ending in branching terminal fibers, through which messages pass to other neurons or to muscles or glands