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Introductory Psychology CLEP Questions and
Answers (100% Correct Answers) Already
Graded A+
Psychology Ans: Scientific study of human behavior and mental
processes.
Answers philosophical questions about human nature.
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Uses methods borrowed from other disciplines.
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Wilhelm Wundt Ans: German. Set up first psychology lab. Was a
Structuralist.
Studied how people sense and perceive world around them.
Structualists Ans: Believed that consciousness was made of basic
elements. combined in different ways to produce different perceptions.
They wanted to discover the form or elements of mental experience.
introspection Ans: Technique favored by structuralists for examining
mental experience. Involves reporting one's own conscious thought and
feelings. It fell out of favor, too subjective, not usable on children or
animals.
Edward Titchener Ans: Set up first American psychology lab, was a
structuralist.
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Functionalists Ans: Believed mental experiences were adaptive, or
functional for people. Believed behavior and consciousness allowed
people & animals to adjust to environments.
William James Ans: a most notable functionalist.
Current state of the study of psychology Ans: psychologists study both
the structure and functions of behavior. both are methods, are of many
that are used to study psychology.
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Approaches to understanding human behavior Ans: Biological,
Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive Approach, Humanistic
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Biological approach Ans: Focus on physiological and biochemical
processes might produce psychological phenomena.
Psychodynamic approach Ans: Thoughts, feelings and behaviors stem
from the interaction of innate drives and restrictions on those drives. Most
important drives according to Sigmund Freud are that of sexual and
aggression.
[we have drives]+[society, limitations]=[conflicts]
how we approach conflicts determines personality.
The reason for much of your behavior are unconscious and rooted in
childhood.
Behaviorist approach Ans: Explains behavior in terms of learned
responses to predictable patterns of environmental stimuli.
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Pavlov (and his dogs) = classical conditioning
Skinner = operant conditioning
They study animals in order to understand people more often than the
other approaches. They don't believe in expectations, feelings or
thoughts.
Cognitive approach Ans: reaction against behaviorism.
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Focuses on explaining behavior in terms of expectations, feelings, and
thoughts.
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Humanistic approach Ans: They believe that people are not machines
based on genetic code, stimuli, or calculations, but instead humans
have the desire for optimal growth & development (i.e. self-
actualization).
They believe people are basically good and focus on positive aspects of
development.
experiments Ans: cause and effect relationships
independent variables Ans: The "cause" & always involves treating
subjects in at least two different ways
experimental group Ans: exposed to cause
control group Ans: not exposed to cuase
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dependent variable Ans: the "effects" of the cause
placebo effect Ans: different behavior because the subject knows they
are being tested/getting special treatment
placebo Ans: fake special treatment
blind study Ans: subjects unaware if they are reciving special treatment
or not
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double blind study Ans: both experimenter and experimetee are
unaware of who has recivied special treatment
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correlational studies Ans: assessing the relationship between two
variables
positive relationship Ans: high score in one variable results in/correlates
to a high score in another variable (+1)
negative relationship Ans: high score in one variable results in/correlates
to low scores in another variable (-1)
correlation coefficient Ans: (+/-)1, the higher the absolute value = more
correlation, +/- indicates type of relationship, 0 is no relationship
surveys Ans: participants fill out questionaries that ask about variables,
researchers determine patterns
case studies Ans: in-depth analysis of only one person (Freud used these
a lot).