Exam Questions and All Correct
Answers (2025-2026) Update.
Empiricism - Answer the view that knowledge originates in experience and that science
should, therefore, rely on observation and experimentation
Structuralism - Answer an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the
elemental structure of the human mind
Functionalism - Answer a school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral
processes function - how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish
Experimental Psychology - Answer the study of behavior and thinking using the experimental
method
Behaviorism - Answer the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2)
studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today
agree with (1) but not with (2).
Humanistic Psychology - Answer historically significant perspective that emphasized the
growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth
Cognitive Neuroscience - Answer The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity (including
perception, thinking, memory, and language) linked with cognition.
Psychology - Answer the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Nature-Nurture Issue - Answer the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions
that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.
Today's science sees traits and behaviors arising from the interaction of nature and nurture
Natural Selection - Answer the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations,
those that lead to increased reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to
succeeding generations
,Biopsychosocial Approach - Answer an integrated perspective that incorporates biological,
psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis
Biological Psychology - Answer a branch of psychology that studies the links between
biological (including neuroscience and behavior genetics) and psychological processes
Evolutionary Psychology - Answer the study of the roots of behavior and mental processes
using the principles of natural selection
Psychodynamic Therapy - Answer therapy deriving from the psychoanalytic tradition that
views individuals as responding to unconscious forces and childhood experiences, and that
seeks to enhance self-insight
Behavioral Psychology - Answer the scientific study of observable behavior, and its explanation
by principles of learning
Cognitive Psychology - Answer the scientific study of all the mental activities associated with
thinking, knowing, remembering, and communicating
Social-Cultural Psychology - Answer the study of how situations and cultures affect our
behavior and thinking
Psychometrics - Answer the scientific study of the measurement of human abilities, attitudes,
and traits
Basic Research - Answer pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
Developmental Psychology - Answer a branch of psychology that studies physical, cognitive,
and social change throughout the life span
Educational Psychology - Answer the study of how psychological processes affect and can
enhance teaching and learning
Personality Psychology - Answer the study of an individual's characteristic pattern of thinking,
feeling, and acting
, Applied Research - Answer scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
Industrial-Organizational Psychology - Answer The application of psychological concepts and
methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces
Human Factors Psychology - Answer the study of how people and machines interact and the
design of safe and easily used machines and environments
Counseling Psychology - Answer a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in
living (often related to school, work, or marriage) and in achieving greater well-being
Clinical Psychology - Answer a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people
with psychological disorders
Psychiatry - Answer a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by
physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as
psychological therapy
Hindsight Bias - Answer the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would
have foreseen it
Critical Thinking - Answer thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions.
Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses
conclusions
Theory - Answer an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and
predicts observations
Hypothesis - Answer a testable prediction, often implied by a theory
Operational Definition - Answer a statement of the procedures (operations) used to define
research variables. For example, human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an
intelligence test measures
Replication - Answer repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different