Exam 1: A: Introducing Psychological Science

Health psychologists are interested in how lifestyle choices and other behaviours combine with genetics and environment to affect physical health.

Most of the helping professions in psychology require graduate degrees and provincial licensure or certification.

Psychology became a scientific discipline in the 1600s.

Theories are basically the same thing as opinions or beliefs.

A good hypothesis is one that is stated in the most general terms possible.

The cognitive perspective is an approach that emphasizes mental processes in thinking,memory,language,and other areas of behaviour.

Psychology is best defined as the study of mental illness and abnormal behaviour.

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

A hypothesis is a testable prediction about processes that can be observed and measured.

Sigmund Freud's work using hypnosis to cure patients made him realize that many of his patients' symptoms had mental,not physical,causes and this led to the development of psychoanalysis.

Critical thinking involves exercising curiosity and skepticism when evaluating the claims of others,and with our own assumptions and beliefs.

Humanistic psychology is an approach emphasizing that psychologists need to focus on the whole of the perception and experience,rather than its parts.

Structuralism was an early psychological approach that emphasized the purpose of behaviour and consciousness.

Credit for establishing psychology as an independent field of science is generally given to William James.

Psychoanalysis emphasizes the influence of unconscious urges and memories on behaviour.

Empiricism means that knowledge about the world is based on careful observation,not common sense or speculation.

Critical thinkers realize that all opinions are created equal.

Phrenologists suggested that specific mental traits and dispositions could be read by examining the surface of the skull.

Part of being scientifically literate is being able to apply scientific knowledge to real-world situations.

Only a small percentage of this year's Bachelor-level psychology graduates will go on to work in psychological fields.