General Psychology, Unit 1

Professor Brody attempts to measure the relative contributions of inborn traits and social influences on sexual preferences and behavior patterns. Her research efforts best illustrate the interests of the ________ perspective.

Behavior genetics

The view that psychology should be an objective science that studies observable human activity without reference to mental processes is known as

Behaviorism

Which psychological perspective is most likely to be concerned with identifying the powers and the limits of human reasoning?

Cognitive

Dr. Santaniello conducts research on how children's moral thinking changes as they grow older. It is most likely that Dr. Santaniello is a(n) ________ psychologist.

Developmental

The risk of being color deficient is greater for men than for women. This best illustrates an important

Gender difference

Professor Lopez believes that severe depression results primarily from an imbalanced diet and abnormal brain chemistry. Professor Lopez favors a ________ perspective on depression.

Neuroscience

In the context of debates over the origins of psychological traits, nature is to nurture as

Plato is to Aristotle.

Discovering and promoting human strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive is the major focus of

positive psychology.

Mrs. Alfieri believes that her husband's angry outbursts against her result from his unconscious hatred of his own mother. Mrs. Alfieri is looking at her husband's behavior from a(n) ________ perspective.

psychodynamic

Dr. Mills conducts research on why individuals conform to the behaviors and opinions of others. Which specialty area does his research best represent?

social psychology

Functionalism was a school of psychology that focused attention on the

adaptive value of thoughts and behaviors.

Investigating patterns of brain activity that accompany people's recollections of a stressful experience would be of most direct interest to the specialty area known as

cognitive neuroscience.

Critical thinking most clearly involves

evaluating evidence

Psychological differences between the genders are

far outweighed by gender similarities

Cognitive neuroscience studies relationships between

thought processes and brain functions.