Modern psychology is best defined as the scientific study of what?
Mind and behavior
✓
The soul and its fate
Brain anatomy alone
Social institutions
Correct Answer
Mind and behavior
Psychology uses scientific methods to study both mental processes and observable behavior. The soul and its fate is a topic for religion and philosophy, not an empirical science. Brain anatomy alone is too narrow, since psychology also studies thoughts, emotions and actions. Social institutions are the main focus of sociology rather than psychology.
Category: Defining Psychology
Question 2
Who opened the first laboratory devoted to experimental psychology, at the University of Leipzig in 1879?
William James
Wilhelm Wundt
✓
Edward Titchener
Sigmund Freud
Correct Answer
Wilhelm Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt, a German scientist, founded his Leipzig laboratory in 1879 and is often called the first psychologist. William James was the leading early American psychologist associated with functionalism. Edward Titchener was Wundt's student who developed structuralism. Sigmund Freud was an Austrian neurologist who developed psychoanalytic theory.
Category: Early Schools of Thought
Question 3
Wundt asked trained observers to examine and report their own conscious experiences as objectively as possible. What is this method called?
Free association
Dream analysis
Introspection
✓
Naturalistic observation
Correct Answer
Introspection
Introspection means looking inward at one's own sensations, thoughts and feelings and describing them, and Wundt used a controlled form he called experimental introspection. Free association and dream analysis are Freud's techniques for reaching unconscious material. Naturalistic observation means watching behavior in its everyday setting, not reporting one's own experience.
Category: Early Schools of Thought
Question 4
Edward Titchener founded a school of thought that tried to break conscious experience down into its basic elements. Which school was it?
Functionalism
Behaviorism
Gestalt psychology
Structuralism
✓
Correct Answer
Structuralism
Structuralism studied the contents or structure of the mind by identifying the basic elements of conscious experience. Functionalism asked instead what mental processes do and how they help an organism adapt. Behaviorism rejected the study of conscious experience in favor of observable behavior. Gestalt psychology argued that experience cannot be understood by reducing it to separate parts.
Category: Early Schools of Thought
Question 5
Influenced by Darwin, William James and other functionalists focused on which question about the mind?
How mental activity helps organisms adapt
✓
Which basic elements make up a sensation
How unconscious conflicts shape personality
How reinforcement strengthens a response
Correct Answer
How mental activity helps organisms adapt
Functionalism drew on the theory of evolution by natural selection and studied what the mind does and how it helps an organism survive in its environment. Which basic elements make up a sensation was the structuralist question. How unconscious conflicts shape personality was the concern of psychoanalysis. How reinforcement strengthens a response was studied by behaviorists such as Skinner.
Category: Early Schools of Thought
Question 6
A therapist asks a patient to say whatever comes to mind, without censoring anything, in order to uncover hidden thoughts. Which technique is the therapist using?
Operant conditioning
Free association
✓
Client-centered therapy
Token economy
Correct Answer
Free association
Free association was one of Freud's main techniques for gaining access to unconscious feelings and urges, along with dream analysis and attention to slips of the tongue. Operant conditioning changes behavior through its consequences. Client-centered therapy is Carl Rogers's humanistic approach in which the client directs the session. A token economy is a behavior modification system that rewards target behaviors with exchangeable tokens.
Category: Early Schools of Thought
Question 7
Which school of thought, founded by Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Köhler, held that people perceive organized wholes rather than a collection of separate parts?
Structuralism
Functionalism
Gestalt psychology
✓
Behaviorism
Correct Answer
Gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychologists argued that the whole of a perception is different from the sum of its parts, and their principles still shape research on sensation and perception. Structuralism did the opposite by breaking experience into elements, which is why Gestalt ideas contradicted Wundt and Titchener. Functionalism focused on how the mind helps an organism adapt. Behaviorism set aside perception and the mind to study observable behavior.
Category: Early Schools of Thought
Question 8
Whose research showed that dogs repeatedly given food after a tone would eventually salivate to the tone alone?
B. F. Skinner
John B. Watson
Edward Tolman
Ivan Pavlov
✓
Correct Answer
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist, discovered this form of learning, now called classical conditioning, while studying digestion in dogs. B. F. Skinner studied operant conditioning, in which consequences shape behavior. John B. Watson founded behaviorism and built on Pavlov's ideas but did not run these dog studies. Edward Tolman was a behaviorist known for studying rats learning mazes.
Category: Behaviorism
Question 9
John B. Watson argued that psychology should study only observable behavior because consciousness cannot be measured objectively. Which school of thought did he found?
Behaviorism
✓
Humanism
Psychoanalysis
Functionalism
Correct Answer
Behaviorism
Watson is called the father of behaviorism, which studied learned behavior using objective methods and often used animal subjects. Humanism focused on personal growth and free will, which behaviorists set aside. Psychoanalysis focused on the unconscious mind, which Watson considered impossible to study scientifically. Functionalism still studied the mind and its role in adaptation.
Category: Behaviorism
Question 10
B. F. Skinner's operant conditioning chamber was designed to study how behavior is shaped by what?
Unconscious wishes and conflicts
Consequences such as reinforcement and punishment
✓
An inborn drive toward personal growth
The grouping of parts into perceptual wholes
Correct Answer
Consequences such as reinforcement and punishment
In the Skinner box, an animal's response such as pressing a lever is followed by a consequence, and Skinner measured how reinforcement and punishment changed later behavior. Unconscious wishes and conflicts were the focus of Freud. An inborn drive toward personal growth is a humanistic idea associated with Maslow and Rogers. The grouping of parts into perceptual wholes was studied by Gestalt psychologists.
Category: Behaviorism
Question 11
In Abraham Maslow's hierarchy of needs, which need sits at the top, to be pursued once lower needs are largely met?
Esteem
Belongingness
Self-actualization
✓
Safety
Correct Answer
Self-actualization
Maslow placed self-actualization, the realization of one's full potential, at the top of his hierarchy, above basic survival needs and higher social needs. Esteem needs, such as achievement and recognition, sit just below the top. Belongingness needs involve love and relationships and sit in the middle. Safety needs sit near the bottom, just above physiological needs such as food and water.
Category: Humanism and Cognition
Question 12
A therapist lets the client direct each session and offers unconditional positive regard, genuineness and empathy. This approach was developed by which psychologist?
Abraham Maslow
Sigmund Freud
B. F. Skinner
Carl Rogers
✓
Correct Answer
Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers developed client-centered therapy, a humanistic approach in which the client leads and the therapist provides acceptance, genuineness and empathy. Abraham Maslow was also a humanist but is best known for the hierarchy of needs, not this therapy. Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis, in which the therapist interprets unconscious material. B. F. Skinner was a behaviorist whose methods change behavior through consequences.
Category: Humanism and Cognition
Question 13
Starting in the 1950s, linguistics, neuroscience and computer science renewed scientific interest in mental processes, and Ulric Neisser published the first textbook on the topic in 1967. What is this movement called?
The cognitive revolution
✓
The humanistic movement
The rise of functionalism
The psychoanalytic movement
Correct Answer
The cognitive revolution
The cognitive revolution brought the study of the mind back into scientific psychology after decades in which behaviorism had focused only on outward behavior. The humanistic movement emphasized personal growth and free will rather than information processing. The rise of functionalism happened in the late 1800s with William James. The psychoanalytic movement began with Freud around the turn of the twentieth century.
Category: Humanism and Cognition
Question 14
Who was the first woman to be awarded a doctorate in psychology, earning it in 1894?
Mary Whiton Calkins
Margaret Floy Washburn
✓
Mary Cover Jones
Mamie Phipps Clark
Correct Answer
Margaret Floy Washburn
Margaret Floy Washburn earned her doctorate in 1894, and her book The Animal Mind was a standard text for more than 20 years. Mary Whiton Calkins completed all requirements for a Harvard PhD but was refused the degree because she was a woman. Mary Cover Jones is known for eliminating a young boy's fear of rabbits. Mamie Phipps Clark is known for doll studies with African American children.
Category: Diversity in Psychology
Question 15
Which psychologist of Mexican heritage argued that intelligence tests unfairly disadvantaged Mexican American children because of language and cultural barriers?
Francis Cecil Sumner
Kenneth Clark
George I. Sanchez
✓
G. Stanley Hall
Correct Answer
George I. Sanchez
George I. Sanchez challenged the fairness of intelligence testing for Mexican American children and also opposed segregated schooling. Francis Cecil Sumner was the first African American to earn a PhD in psychology in the United States. Kenneth Clark, with Mamie Phipps Clark, studied doll preferences among African American children. G. Stanley Hall was the first president of the American Psychological Association.
Category: Diversity in Psychology
Question 16
A researcher studies how a drug changes sleep patterns by altering activity in the nervous system of rats. Which subfield does this work belong to?
Personality psychology
Social psychology
Forensic psychology
Biopsychology
✓
Correct Answer
Biopsychology
Biopsychology studies how biology, especially the structure and function of the nervous system, influences behavior, and its topics include sleep and drug effects. Personality psychology studies the patterns of thought and behavior that make each person unique. Social psychology studies how people think about and influence one another. Forensic psychology applies psychology to the legal system.
Category: Subfields of Psychology
Question 17
Stanley Milgram's famous studies of obedience to authority figures belong to which subfield of psychology?
Social psychology
✓
Developmental psychology
Clinical psychology
Health psychology
Correct Answer
Social psychology
Social psychology examines how other people influence our thoughts and actions, including obedience, prejudice, attraction and attribution. Developmental psychology studies change across the lifespan. Clinical psychology focuses on diagnosing and treating psychological disorders. Health psychology studies how biological, psychological and social factors affect physical health.
Category: Subfields of Psychology
Question 18
A company hires a psychologist to improve its hiring process, raise productivity and design a better work environment. What kind of psychologist is the company most likely hiring?
Counseling psychologist
Industrial-organizational psychologist
✓
Sport and exercise psychologist
Evolutionary psychologist
Correct Answer
Industrial-organizational psychologist
Industrial-organizational psychology applies psychological principles to the workplace, including personnel selection, organizational structure and productivity. A counseling psychologist helps relatively healthy people with emotional, social and career concerns. A sport and exercise psychologist focuses on athletic performance and the effects of exercise. An evolutionary psychologist studies the ultimate, adaptive causes of behavior.
Category: Subfields of Psychology
Question 19
Which doctoral degree in psychology places more emphasis on applying psychology in clinical settings and less emphasis on research?
Doctor of philosophy (PhD)
Master of arts (MA)
Doctor of psychology (PsyD)
✓
Bachelor of science (BS)
Correct Answer
Doctor of psychology (PsyD)
The PsyD is a doctoral degree, increasingly popular in clinical psychology, that emphasizes clinical practice over research training. The doctor of philosophy (PhD) is the traditional research-focused doctorate in most areas of psychology. A master of arts (MA) is a graduate degree but not a doctorate. A bachelor of science (BS) is an undergraduate degree.
Category: Careers in Psychology
Question 20
A researcher tracks how children's moral reasoning changes between ages 5 and 15. Which subfield does this research belong to?
Cognitive psychology
Personality psychology
Evolutionary psychology
Developmental psychology
✓
Correct Answer
Developmental psychology
Developmental psychology studies physical, cognitive, moral and social change across the lifespan, so tracking how reasoning changes with age fits this subfield. Cognitive psychology studies thought processes such as memory, attention and problem solving, but not specifically how they change with age. Personality psychology studies the stable patterns that make individuals unique. Evolutionary psychology studies the adaptive, ultimate causes of behavior.
Category: Subfields of Psychology