PSYCH 121 MIDTERM STUDY GUIDE QUESTIONS WITH CORRECT ANSWERS LATEST UPDATE 2026
Research psychologists - Answers use scientific methods to create new knowledge about the causes
of behavior
Psychologist practitioners - Answers use existing research to enhance the everyday life of others
Empirical methods - Answers include the processes of collecting and organizing data and drawing
conclusions about those data
Scientific method - Answers The set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientists use to
conduct empirical research
What is the underlying process of a lower level of explanation - Answers Biological
What is the underlying process of a middle level of explanation - Answers Interpersonal
What is the underlying process of a higher level of explanation - Answers Cultural and social
What are 3 challenges of studying psychology - Answers 1. People vary and respond differently in
different situations
2. Almost all behaviour is multiply determined
3. Human behaviour is caused by factors that are outside of our conscious awareness, making it
impossible to really understand
Who are the 2 earliest psychologists that we know about - Answers Plato and Aristotle
Dualism - Answers That the mind is fundamentally different from the. Each animal body
What did Wilhelm Wundt do? - Answers Developed a psychology laboratory in Leipzig Germany
What did William James do - Answers Founded a psychology laboratory at Harvard university
Structuralism - Answers school of psychology that aimed to identify the basic elements of
psychological experience
Evolutionary psychology - Answers A branch of psychology that applies the Darwinian theory of
natural selection to human and animal behaviour
Fitness - Answers The extent to which having a given characteristic helps the individual organism
survive and reproduce at a higher rate than do other members of the same species who don't have
the characteristic
Psychodynamic psychology - Answers An approach to understanding human behaviour that focuses
on the role of unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories
Psychoanalysis - Answers Talk therapy and dream analysis to patients explore unconscious drives
Behvaiourism - Answers Based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the the
mind, and therefore that psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behaviour itself
Pavlov's dog - Answers Ivan Pavlov found that a stimulus would produce the response of salivation in
the dogs
Little Albert - Answers Watson found that systematically exposing a child to fearful stimuli in the
presence of objects that did not themselves elicit fear could lead the child to respond with a fearful
behaviour to the presence of the objects
Skinner box - Answers Skinner used the ideas of stimulus and response, along with the application of
rewards or reinforcements to train pigeons and other animals
Cognitive psychology - Answers Studies mental processes, including perception, thinking memory,
and judgement
Social norms - Answers The ways of thinking, feelings, and behaving shaped by group members and
perceived by them as appropriate
Culture - Answers The common set of social norms, including religious and family values and other
moral beliefs, shared by the people who live ion a geographical region
Collectivism - Answers Value interdependence and a focus on developing harmonious social
relationships with others
Paradigm - Answers Equips scientists and practitioners with a set of assumptions about what is to be
studied
What are the three elements of psychology - Answers why, how, what
What does "why" deal with - Answers Evolution, environment, culture
What does how deal with - Answers Cognition, behaviour, subconscious
What does what deal with - Answers Sensations, thoughts, emotions, perceptions, actions
Frontal lobe - Answers Involved in motor skills, higher level cognition, and expressive language
Occipital lobe - Answers Interpreting visual stimuli and information
Research psychologists - Answers use scientific methods to create new knowledge about the causes
of behavior
Psychologist practitioners - Answers use existing research to enhance the everyday life of others
Empirical methods - Answers include the processes of collecting and organizing data and drawing
conclusions about those data
Scientific method - Answers The set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientists use to
conduct empirical research
What is the underlying process of a lower level of explanation - Answers Biological
What is the underlying process of a middle level of explanation - Answers Interpersonal
What is the underlying process of a higher level of explanation - Answers Cultural and social
What are 3 challenges of studying psychology - Answers 1. People vary and respond differently in
different situations
2. Almost all behaviour is multiply determined
3. Human behaviour is caused by factors that are outside of our conscious awareness, making it
impossible to really understand
Who are the 2 earliest psychologists that we know about - Answers Plato and Aristotle
Dualism - Answers That the mind is fundamentally different from the. Each animal body
What did Wilhelm Wundt do? - Answers Developed a psychology laboratory in Leipzig Germany
What did William James do - Answers Founded a psychology laboratory at Harvard university
Structuralism - Answers school of psychology that aimed to identify the basic elements of
psychological experience
Evolutionary psychology - Answers A branch of psychology that applies the Darwinian theory of
natural selection to human and animal behaviour
Fitness - Answers The extent to which having a given characteristic helps the individual organism
survive and reproduce at a higher rate than do other members of the same species who don't have
the characteristic
Psychodynamic psychology - Answers An approach to understanding human behaviour that focuses
on the role of unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories
Psychoanalysis - Answers Talk therapy and dream analysis to patients explore unconscious drives
Behvaiourism - Answers Based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the the
mind, and therefore that psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behaviour itself
Pavlov's dog - Answers Ivan Pavlov found that a stimulus would produce the response of salivation in
the dogs
Little Albert - Answers Watson found that systematically exposing a child to fearful stimuli in the
presence of objects that did not themselves elicit fear could lead the child to respond with a fearful
behaviour to the presence of the objects
Skinner box - Answers Skinner used the ideas of stimulus and response, along with the application of
rewards or reinforcements to train pigeons and other animals
Cognitive psychology - Answers Studies mental processes, including perception, thinking memory,
and judgement
Social norms - Answers The ways of thinking, feelings, and behaving shaped by group members and
perceived by them as appropriate
Culture - Answers The common set of social norms, including religious and family values and other
moral beliefs, shared by the people who live ion a geographical region
Collectivism - Answers Value interdependence and a focus on developing harmonious social
relationships with others
Paradigm - Answers Equips scientists and practitioners with a set of assumptions about what is to be
studied
What are the three elements of psychology - Answers why, how, what
What does "why" deal with - Answers Evolution, environment, culture
What does how deal with - Answers Cognition, behaviour, subconscious
What does what deal with - Answers Sensations, thoughts, emotions, perceptions, actions
Frontal lobe - Answers Involved in motor skills, higher level cognition, and expressive language
Occipital lobe - Answers Interpreting visual stimuli and information
