PSYC 290 Exam Prep Units 1-10 2026
Exam Questions and Answers | A+ Score
Assured
William James - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔founder of functionalism; 'stream of
consciousness"
John B Watson - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔founder of behaviourism; observable
behaviours; influenced by environment; scientific approach; rise in animal
research; stimulus-response research; Little Albert
Six major contemporary theoretical perspectives - 🧠 ANSWER
✔✔Behavioural: observable stimulus-response
Psychoanalytic: unconscious drives behaviour, early childhood experiences
,Humanistic: free will and personal potential, unique
Cognitive: mental processes; acquired, stored, processed
Biological: physiological influences; structures, biochemical
Evolutionary: traits that encourage survival
Positive psychology - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔Martin Seligman; positive, adaptive,
creative, fulfilling
Seven major areas in psychology - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔1. Developmental:
lifespan
2. Social: interpersonal behaviour; social forces
3. Experimental: traditional core topics
4. Physiological: genetic factors; other body systems
5. Cognitive: higher mental processes; memory, reasoning, language,
problem-solving)
6. Personality: consistency iand factors
7. Psychometrics: measurement
Three goals of the scientific enterprise - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔Measurement and
description
,Understanding and prediction
Application and control
* clarity and precision/ relative intolerance of error
Theory - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔explain a set of observations; testable;
constructed in steps: theory is developed, hypothesis is developed,
empirical research
Descriptive / correlational method - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔when variables cannot
be manipulated: naturalistic observation, case-studies, surveys
Statistics - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔- descriptive: organize, summarize data
- inferential: interpret data, draw conclusions
Central tendency - what constitutes a typical or average score
Three measures of central tendency are:
Median - exact middle
Mean - calculated average (generally most useful but can also be
influenced by extreme scores in which case median is better)
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STATEMENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
3
, Mode - most frequent
Frequency distribution - frequency of scores
Symmetrical frequency distribution - when measures of central tendency
fall together
Neg skewed distribution - scores pile up on high end
Pos skewed distribution - scores pile up on low end
Variability - how much scores differ from each other and the mean
Standard deviation - the index of the amount of variability in a set of data
(large = greater variability, small = lower variability)
Relative measures - how people compare to one another
Percentile score - percentage of people who score at or below a particular
score (ex. if score is 10% that means that 10% score same or below you,
means you did poorly because 90% scored above you
Exam Questions and Answers | A+ Score
Assured
William James - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔founder of functionalism; 'stream of
consciousness"
John B Watson - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔founder of behaviourism; observable
behaviours; influenced by environment; scientific approach; rise in animal
research; stimulus-response research; Little Albert
Six major contemporary theoretical perspectives - 🧠 ANSWER
✔✔Behavioural: observable stimulus-response
Psychoanalytic: unconscious drives behaviour, early childhood experiences
,Humanistic: free will and personal potential, unique
Cognitive: mental processes; acquired, stored, processed
Biological: physiological influences; structures, biochemical
Evolutionary: traits that encourage survival
Positive psychology - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔Martin Seligman; positive, adaptive,
creative, fulfilling
Seven major areas in psychology - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔1. Developmental:
lifespan
2. Social: interpersonal behaviour; social forces
3. Experimental: traditional core topics
4. Physiological: genetic factors; other body systems
5. Cognitive: higher mental processes; memory, reasoning, language,
problem-solving)
6. Personality: consistency iand factors
7. Psychometrics: measurement
Three goals of the scientific enterprise - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔Measurement and
description
,Understanding and prediction
Application and control
* clarity and precision/ relative intolerance of error
Theory - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔explain a set of observations; testable;
constructed in steps: theory is developed, hypothesis is developed,
empirical research
Descriptive / correlational method - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔when variables cannot
be manipulated: naturalistic observation, case-studies, surveys
Statistics - 🧠 ANSWER ✔✔- descriptive: organize, summarize data
- inferential: interpret data, draw conclusions
Central tendency - what constitutes a typical or average score
Three measures of central tendency are:
Median - exact middle
Mean - calculated average (generally most useful but can also be
influenced by extreme scores in which case median is better)
COPYRIGHT©NINJANERD 2025/2026. YEAR PUBLISHED 2025. COMPANY REGISTRATION NUMBER: 619652435. TERMS OF USE. PRIVACY
STATEMENT. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
3
, Mode - most frequent
Frequency distribution - frequency of scores
Symmetrical frequency distribution - when measures of central tendency
fall together
Neg skewed distribution - scores pile up on high end
Pos skewed distribution - scores pile up on low end
Variability - how much scores differ from each other and the mean
Standard deviation - the index of the amount of variability in a set of data
(large = greater variability, small = lower variability)
Relative measures - how people compare to one another
Percentile score - percentage of people who score at or below a particular
score (ex. if score is 10% that means that 10% score same or below you,
means you did poorly because 90% scored above you
