intro to psych ch. 1
How is natural selection related to psychology?
Humans behave as they do in part because that behavior promotes survival.
Which statement reflects a reasonable attitude for a good student of psychology to have toward any claim about human behavior?
Skepticism is advisable until an idea is proven right.
The year 1879 might be thought of as the beginning of psychology as a science because that is the year
Wilhelm Wundt developed and opened the first psychology laboratory.
Plato's allegory of the cave indicates that
truths about reality are not always obvious.
Which of the following perspectives argues that human behavior develops in certain ways because it serves a useful purpose?
Functionalism
What is a mainstream psychologist most likely to think about Sigmund Freud?
Freudian theory is untestable and not grounded in science.
The hallmarks of psychology as a science are
careful experimentation and the application of critical thinking.
Parents who agree with John Locke's notion of tabula rasa would most likely
expose their children to a rich variety of sensory experiences.
Cognitive psychology
focuses on how people think, remember, store, and use information.
A researcher presents his participant with a series of flashing lights at varying intervals. After each presentation of a light, he asks the participant to fully describe her internal experiences, a method known as
introspection
The study of the nervous system is called
neuroscience
Which of the following approaches to psychology did Edward Titchener advocate in the late 1800s?
structuralism
An important principle to remember when studying psychology is that
the act of learning changes the physical structure of the brain.
Psychology is best defined as the study of
the mind and behavior.
According to the social brain hypothesis, each of us can deal effectively with social interactions with roughly 150 people. This implies that
we are capable of maintaining social networks of up to 150 people throughout our lives.