Psychology 201 - Chapter 1

Derris is a research assistant in Dr. Smith's psychology lab. When the participant asked him what the conditions of the study were, Derris replied "I do not know". This is an example of

a double-blind study

When you are training a pet, you are most likely relying on which of the following psychological perspectives?

behaviorist

The _____ perspective works on the assumption that thoughts, fantasies, and dreams -- and the inborn or instinctive behavior patterns of various species -- are made possible by the nervous system and especially by the brain

biological

_____ primarily study how we perceive and mentally represent the world, how we learn, remember the past, plan, problem solve, and use language

cognitive psychologists

An association among variables is known as

correlation

A(n) _____ expresses the strength and direction (positive or negative) of the relationship between two variables

correlation coefficient

_____ is defined as a way of evaluating the claims and comments of other people that involves skepticism and examination of evidence

critical thinking

Jane is a practicing psychologist who assesses the mental status of people charged with crimes and shares her findings with the courts. Jane is most likely a(n)

forensic psychologist

Which of the following statements is a principle of critical thinking?

insist on evidence

Which of the following statements is true of applied research?

it is designed to find solutions to specific personal or social problems

On his first day as a school psychologist, Daniel took a trip to the school ground and quietly sat in the corner watching the children play. He noticed several patterns in the way children behaved with each other, especially when they were playing games. Daniel is most likely using the method of

naturalistic observation

When a patient insists on having a medical cure but a physician does not believe that medicine is necessary, the physician may prescribe sugar pills. Such fake pills are called

placebos

Which of the following statements is true of the scientific method?

psychologists are guided by principles of critical thinking as they try to draw conclusions from research evidence collected through the scientific method

Research that is undertaken primarily because the researcher is interested in a research topic is called

pure research

Sofia does not like eating vegetables. To ensure that she eats vegetables, her mother offers her an extra helping of dessert every time Sofia finishes her vegetables. In the context of behaviorism, this is known as

reinforcement

Professor Schwiesow is trained as which of the following?

school psychologist

A hypothesis is a

statement about behavior of mental processes that is testable through research

B.F. Skinner proposed

that organisms learn to behave in certain ways because their behavior has a positive outcome

According to the American Psychological Association's Handbook of Ethics in Psychology, which of the following criteria must be met for psychologists to use deception in their experiments?

the participants are debriefed afterward