Exam 1: What Is Psychology

A psychologist from the biological perspective would be likely to view violence as resulting from brain damage caused by birth complications.

A fortune teller reads Haifa's palm and tells Haifa that she will fall in love during spring break when she travels to Cancun. As a critical thinker enrolled in a general psychology class, how would Haifa react to this news? What critical-thinking guidelines would be important for her to consider?

The learning perspective is an approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings, and thoughts.

The learning perspective is an approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person's actions.

A psychologist argues that human behaviour is not determined by inner conflicts nor controlled by external forces, but rather that humans are capable of free will and personal growth. It is likely that this psychologist has been influenced by:

A contemporary research specialty known as positive psychology follows in the footsteps of humanist psychology.

Psychologists from the behavioural perspective would be likely to agree that anxious people often think about the future in distorted ways.

If you are a critical thinker, reading a psychology textbook should be approached as:

Describe the differences between psychobabble and scientific psychology.

Credit for founding modern psychology is generally given to Wilhelm Wundt.

Basic psychology is the study of psychological issues in order to seek knowledge for its own sake rather than for its practical application.

Psychobabble is pseudoscience and quackery covered by a veneer of psychological language.

Which of the following would be an example of "argument by anecdote"?

Which modern psychological perspective emphasizes the role of unconscious influence on behaviour?

The text notes that the field of psychology is like a giant mosaic. Explain why this is an appropriate metaphor, using examples from the textbook to support your points.

Humanist psychology is a psychological approach that emphasizes the scientific understanding and assessment of human behaviour.

Which of the following practitioners typically has a graduate degree in psychology?

Freud's first book, The Interpretation of Dreams, sold only 600 copies in the eight years following its publication.

During the early decades of psychology's existence as a formal discipline, three schools of psychological thought became popular. The school of ________ soon disappeared as a separate school but continued to influence the field of psychology.

Scholars of the past who wanted to understand human behaviour tended to rely too heavily on empirical evidence.