Modern Psychology Exam Review – Practice Flashcards

A comprehensive set of question-and-answer flashcards covering key people, concepts, methods, and controversies from Wundt to cognitive and evolutionary psychology, designed for rapid exam review.

Why did Wundt’s and Titchener’s systems fail to thrive in the U.S.?

They were judged not pragmatic—American psychologists preferred approaches that solved practical problems.

Which economic force most fueled the growth of applied psychology in America?

The rapid expansion of public education, business, and military needs, all of which demanded psychological tests and consulting.

What was James McKeen Cattell’s main research focus that shifted U.S. psychology?

Measurement of individual human abilities (mental tests) rather than the study of consciousness.

How did Cattell publicize psychology to the general public?

By editing and rescuing the journal Science and founding The Psychological Corporation to distribute tests.

Cattell vs. Binet: What was the biggest difference in their testing philosophy?

Cattell relied on sensorimotor measures; Binet assessed higher-level cognitive processes tied to school performance.

Why is intelligence testing considered both psychology’s ‘greatest contribution’ and ‘biggest shame’?

It provided valuable educational placement tools but also fueled biased policies, eugenics, and cultural discrimination.

Lightner Witmer’s key innovation in 1896 was _.

Opening the first psychological clinic, launching modern clinical and school psychology.

Walter Dill Scott applied psychology primarily to which two practical arenas?

Advertising and personnel selection (industrial/organizational psychology).

What three applied areas did Hugo Münsterberg pioneer?

Industrial/organizational psychology, forensic psychology, and psychotherapy.

Why were early women psychologists often steered toward applied rather than academic work?

University posts were largely closed to them; applied settings offered the few professional openings available.

Why did the FDA take Coca-Cola to court in 1911?

Because the drink contained caffeine (answer b).

Who testified for Coca-Cola in the 1911 caffeine trial?

Harry Hollingworth.

Which early psychologist strongly advocated eugenics, including cash incentives for ‘fit’ couples?

James McKeen Cattell.

What was the purpose of the Army Alpha and Beta tests in WWI?

Group measurement of soldiers’ intellectual ability for placement and selection.

What did Woodworth’s Personal Data Sheet attempt to detect in WWI recruits?

Neurotic tendencies that might impair combat performance.

Which African-American psychologist showed that environment influences IQ scores, challenging racial bias?

Herman Canady Bond.

Who developed the Draw-A-Man Test?

Florence Goodenough.

What child-focused field did Witmer label ‘clinical psychology,’ now called _.

School psychology.

Which advertising principle did Scott call the ‘law of suggestibility’?

Consumers are not rational and will do what they are told in direct commands.

Why are the Hawthorne studies (1920s–30s) historically important?

They demonstrated the impact of social and psychological work conditions on productivity, birthing organizational psychology.

Which therapist-centered approach characterized Münsterberg’s psychotherapy?

The therapist gives direct suggestions for symptom relief, emphasizing will-power.

In 1919 the APA increased applied-psychologist membership by doing what?

Lowering membership requirements to include more practitioners.

John B. Watson defined psychology’s goal as _.

The prediction and control of behavior.

Watson banned which four terms from scientific psychology?

Mind, consciousness, image, and introspection.

What methodology did Watson adopt from Pavlov and Bekhterev?

The conditioned-reflex method.

Which three infant emotions did Watson label innate?

Fear, rage, and love.

Who first de-conditioned a learned fear (the Peter study)?

Mary Cover Jones – a forerunner of behavior therapy.

Define ‘intervening variable’ in Tolman’s purposive behaviorism.

An internal process that links stimulus to response (e.g., expectation) and is inferred from operational definitions.

Hull’s drive-reduction theory states that reinforcement occurs when _.

A response reduces a biological drive (need), strengthening habit.

Skinner distinguished between respondent and operant conditioning; what is the key difference?

Respondents are elicited by antecedent stimuli; operants are emitted and shaped by their consequences (reinforcement).

What schedule of reinforcement did Skinner find most resistant to extinction?

Variable-ratio schedules.

Bandura’s concept of vicarious reinforcement shows that learning can occur _.

By observing others being rewarded, without direct reinforcement.

Rotter’s ‘locus of control’ refers to _.

Whether people perceive reinforcement as contingent on their own behavior (internal) or on external factors (external).

Gestalt psychology’s key mantra regarding perception was _.

‘The whole is different from the sum of its parts.’

What perceptual phenomenon (apparent motion) challenged Wundt’s atomism?

The phi phenomenon, discovered by Wertheimer.

Köhler’s studies of chimpanzees introduced what learning concept?

Insight – sudden restructuring of the problem field.

Lewin’s ‘life space’ represents _.

The total psychological field of the individual, including goals, needs, and environmental forces.

Freud’s three ‘great shocks’ to the human ego: Name the third.

The discovery that humans are not rational masters of their own minds (psychoanalysis).

Anna Freud’s major theoretical contribution was her elaboration of _.

Defense mechanisms of the ego.

Object-relations theorists (e.g., Klein) emphasize which developmental bond?

The early mother–infant relationship and internalized object images.

Jung’s collective unconscious consists of inherited _.

Archetypes – universal symbols and predispositions shared by humanity.

Adler’s ‘striving for superiority’ is motivated by feelings of _.

Inferiority arising in childhood.

Horney replaced Freud’s penis-envy with what central construct?

Basic anxiety stemming from disturbed parent-child relationships.

Maslow’s hierarchy: What must be satisfied immediately before self-actualization?

Esteem needs (achievement/respect).

Rogers defined unconditional positive regard as _.

Accepting and valuing a person without conditions, fostering a congruent self-concept.

Positive psychology, launched by Seligman, studies _

Human strengths, well-being, and flourishing rather than pathology alone.

Cognitive psychology re-introduced which early method, now in a refined form?

Introspection, re-branded as phenomenological ‘think-aloud’ or retrospective verbal reports.

In the computer metaphor, hardware = brain; software = _.

Cognitive processes (programs for encoding, storing, and retrieving information).

What test did Alan Turing propose to judge machine intelligence?

Interrogators try to distinguish computer from human via typed conversation; if they cannot, AI is achieved.

Searle’s Chinese Room argument targets what claim?

That symbol-manipulating computers truly understand or ‘think’ like humans.

Define ‘cognitive neuroscience.’

An interdisciplinary field mapping mental processes to brain structures using imaging methods (e.g., fMRI, PET).

Evolutionary psychology’s central assumption about behavior is _.

Many psychological traits are adaptive solutions shaped by natural selection.

What is ‘biological preparedness’ (Seligman)?

An evolved readiness to learn certain associations (e.g., snake fear) more easily than others.

Sociobiology, a precursor to evolutionary psychology, was popularized by _.

E.O. Wilson’s 1975 book ‘Sociobiology: A New Synthesis.’

Which four fundamental questions guide evolutionary psychology?

(1) Why is the mind as it is? (2) How is it designed? (3) What are its functions? (4) How do mental mechanisms interact with environment to produce behavior?

Why did many behaviorists resist evolutionary explanations?

They assumed all behavior is learned; genetic predispositions challenged that premise.

What contemporary finding supports unconscious cognitive processing?

Subliminal perception experiments show stimuli below awareness can influence preferences and behavior.

Explain ‘instinctual drift’ (Breland & Breland).

Trained animal behaviors revert to species-specific instincts, demonstrating biological limits on conditioning.

How did the Hawthorne effect inform cognitive and social psychology?

It showed worker performance changes when they believe they are being observed, highlighting perception and motivation.

In Tolman’s classic latent-learning maze, unrewarded rats later showed sudden improvement. What did this demonstrate?

They had formed cognitive maps without reinforcement; learning can occur without performance.

Why is Lashley’s principle of equipotentiality a challenge to strict localization?

It showed that many cortical areas can substitute for each other in learning, opposing simple S-R neural mapping.

Skinner’s air crib illustrated what broader theme of his work?

Applying behavioral engineering to improve human environments.

What is the ‘Zeigarnik effect’ identified by Lewin’s student?

Unfinished tasks are remembered better than completed ones due to tension states seeking closure.

Which Gestalt law explains why we group nearby dots together?

Law of proximity.

What does the phi phenomenon reveal about perception?

The mind creates motion perception from static stimuli, challenging elementistic explanations.

Describe Freud’s method of free association.

Patient says whatever comes to mind without censorship, revealing unconscious material for analysis.

What sparked Freud’s self-analysis and dream work?

His own worsening neurotic symptoms and his father’s death.

Define ‘catharsis’ in psychoanalysis.

Emotional release that occurs when repressed ideas are brought to consciousness.

Name two ego defense mechanisms identified by Anna Freud.

Examples: repression, projection, displacement, rationalization, reaction formation, sublimation.

According to Rogers, what is ‘incongruence’?

Mismatch between a person’s self-concept and actual experience, leading to anxiety.

Positive psychology research finds happiest people typically share what trait?

Strong social relationships and meaningful engagement, not necessarily wealth or fame.

How did cognitive psychology influence behaviorism’s later forms?

By inspiring cognitive-behavioral therapies that blend conditioning with thought pattern modification.

Why do evolutionary psychologists critique cognitive models?

They argue cognition must be understood in terms of evolved functions, not just information processing.

What is the current ‘status’ of Gestalt principles in psychology?

They are standard explanations in perception, problem solving, and visual design fields.

How did Maslow’s focus differ from Rogers’s?

Maslow outlined a motivation hierarchy; Rogers emphasized the therapeutic conditions fostering a fully functioning person.

Which modern technique allows real-time tracking of brain activity during cognitive tasks?

Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI).

What is ‘object permanence’ and which theorist studied its development?

Understanding that objects exist when unseen; studied by Jean Piaget in sensorimotor stage.

Why is introspection considered useful again in cognitive research?

Think-aloud protocols and retrospective reports can reveal strategies and mental representations when objectively checked.

Define ‘schema’ in cognitive psychology.

An organized knowledge structure guiding perception and memory for related information.

What did Kasparov’s loss to IBM’s Deep Blue illustrate about AI?

Computers can surpass humans in specific cognitive tasks through brute-force processing, though true understanding remains debated.

Conclude: What common thread unites the diverse schools in modern psychology’s history?

Each introduced unique questions and methods that merged into today’s eclectic, evidence-based discipline.