Question 1

The use of learning principles to change problems, such as overeating, unrealistic fears, or temper tantrums, is called

Accepted Answer

Behavior therapy focuses on changing undesirable behaviors through conditioning techniques, making it the correct approach for addressing issues like overeating, unrealistic fears, or temper tantrums.

Question 2

Psychologists in which school of thought believed that thinking, learning, and perception should be studied in whole units rather than analyzing these experiences into smaller parts?

Accepted Answer

Gestalt psychology emphasizes understanding psychological phenomena by viewing them as organized and structured wholes rather than the sum of their parts. This approach contrasts with structuralism, which aimed to break down mental processes into their most basic elements.

Question 3

Skinner's contribution to behaviorism lies in his insistence that

Accepted Answer

Skinner's work in behaviorism emphasized the role of rewards and punishments in controlling behavior, through the concept of operant conditioning.

Question 4

To study learning, which psychologist created his famous conditioning chamber that now bears his name and presented stimuli to animals, such as rats and pigeons, and recorded their responses?

Accepted Answer

B. F. Skinner is known for creating the Skinner box, a conditioning chamber used to study operant conditioning by presenting stimuli to animals and recording their responses.

Question 5

With its emphasis on stimuli and responses, which school of thought helped make psychology a natural science, rather than a branch of philosophy?

Accepted Answer

Behaviorism, with its focus on observable behaviors and the ways in which they're learned, played a key role in transitioning psychology from a philosophical to a more empirical, natural science discipline.

Question 6

If you heard only the individual notes of your favorite song played one per hour, you would not recognize it. However, when these notes are played together in the correct order and close in time as a melody, your favorite song is easily recognizable. The importance of being able to hear a melody rather than individual notes illustrates which school of thought in psychology?

Accepted Answer

Gestalt psychology emphasizes the idea that the whole is different from the sum of its parts, which aligns with the concept of recognizing a melody only when notes are played together in the correct sequence and timing, rather than individually.

Question 7

The best known behaviorist who believed that behavior is controlled by rewards and punishments was

Accepted Answer

B. F. Skinner is most associated with the behaviorist perspective, emphasizing that behavior is determined by its consequences, rewards, and punishments.

Question 8

Stimuli, responses, conditioning, and learning are key concepts in the thinking of

Accepted Answer

Behaviorists focus on observable behaviors and the ways in which they're learned, including through stimuli, responses, and conditioning.

Question 9

Pavlov's contribution to behaviorism lies in his discovery of

Accepted Answer

Pavlov's contribution to behaviorism is most notably his discovery of the conditioned response, which he identified through his experiments with dogs, demonstrating how a neutral stimulus, when paired with an unconditioned stimulus, could elicit a conditioned response.

Question 10

A learned reaction to a particular stimulus is called a(n)

Accepted Answer

A conditioned response is a learned reaction to a previously neutral stimulus that has become associated with an unconditioned stimulus through conditioning.

Question 11

Which psychologist advanced the theory that a "designed culture" based on positive reinforcement could encourage desirable behavior?

Accepted Answer

B.F. Skinner is known for his work in behaviorism and for advancing the theory that using positive reinforcement can shape and encourage desirable behavior in society, which he referred to as a "designed culture."

Question 12

Watson realized that he could study the behavior of animals even though he could not ask animals questions simply by observing the relationship between any stimuli and an animal's response, with the term response being defined as any

Accepted Answer

John B. Watson, the founder of behaviorism, emphasized the importance of observable behaviors in psychology. He argued that psychology should focus on the observable relationship between stimuli (any environmental event) and responses (observable behaviors). In this context, a response is defined as any muscular action, glandular activity, or other identifiable aspect of behavior, which can be observed and measured without needing to ask the subject questions or understand their internal states. This approach allowed for the study of both human and animal behavior in a scientific and objective manner.

Question 13

Which of the following statements about B. F. Skinner is FALSE?

Accepted Answer

B. F. Skinner was a behaviorist who focused on observable behaviors and the external stimuli that could be manipulated to shape behavior, rather than internal mental events.

Question 14

Because he rejected introspection and believed that covert mental events, such as thinking, were inappropriate TOPIC (B-HEAD)s for scientific psychology and not needed to explain behavior, B. F. Skinner would be considered a

Accepted Answer

B. F. Skinner is best known for his work in radical behaviorism, which emphasizes the study of observable behavior over internal mental states.

Question 15

Which school of thought in psychology is known for developing the proper use of reward, punishment, and conditioning to change problems?

Accepted Answer

Behaviorism focuses on observable behaviors and how they're learned through interaction with the environment. It emphasizes the role of reinforcement, punishment, and conditioning in shaping behavior.

Question 16

Strict, or radical, behaviorists were criticized for overlooking the role that which of the following plays in our lives?

Accepted Answer

Strict or radical behaviorists, like B.F. Skinner, focused primarily on observable behaviors and the ways they are influenced by the environment, often neglecting the internal processes such as thinking, reasoning, and cognition. Critics argue that this perspective overlooks the significant role that mental processes play in shaping behavior.

Question 17

Which psychologist said, "Give me a dozen healthy infants ... and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select ..."?

Accepted Answer

John Watson, the founder of behaviorism, made this famous statement to emphasize the role of the environment and learning over innate traits in human development.

Question 18

Skinner's view of psychology has led to some criticism of his tendency to

Accepted Answer

Skinner, a behaviorist, argued that behaviors could be explained through external stimuli and consequences without the need to consider internal mental states like thoughts or feelings.

Question 19

The behaviorist approach that rejects both introspection and any study of covert mental events, such as thinking, as inappropriate TOPIC (B-HEAD)s for scientific psychology is called __________ behaviorism.

Accepted Answer

Radical behaviorism, associated with B.F. Skinner, emphasizes the study of observable behavior and rejects introspection and the study of mental processes, considering them outside the realm of scientific inquiry.

Question 20

To explain most behavior, John B. Watson adopted the concept of conditioning developed by

Accepted Answer

John B. Watson, the founder of behaviorism, adopted the concept of conditioning from Ivan Pavlov, who is famous for his work on classical conditioning demonstrated through experiments with dogs.

Quiz 1: Psychology, Critical Thinking, and Science