Oakdale High School s1

Oakdale High School Advanced Placement Psychology Mr. Simoncini Chapter 1 Reading Response Questions

Part 1: pp. 1-8

1. With regard to the core concept, how do the authors differentiate between mental processes and behaviors?

2. What is an empirical approach to psychology? What has making the empirical approach the standard for all psychological research enabled the psychological establishment to do?

3. Give yourself the “Do It Yourself” quiz—but be sure to cover the answers before you take the test. After going over the answers, what facts presented, if any, surprised you the most? Be prepared to discuss in class.

4. Define pseudopsychology and be prepared to provide examples of types of pseudopsycholotgy.

5. In what ways can confirmation bias negatively affect psychological research?

6. Be prepared to discuss the vignette regarding facilitated communication and what the authors’ purpose was in relating it.

7. What are the three ways of doing psychology? If you earned a doctorate in psychology, in which of those three ways would you be most likely to work?

8. Be prepared to discuss each of the applied psychological specialties.

9. What sets psychiatry apart from psychology? What are psychiatrists and what things about their training and practice set them apart from psychologists?

Part 2: pp. 9-14

10. According to the authors, how Plato related to modern psychology?

11. What disciplines from Asia and Africa have contributed to modern psychology?

12. According to the authors, what traditions most influenced the development of Western psychology as a science? How?

13. How did the theories of Rene Descartes revolutionize beliefs about human sensations and behaviors? Discuss in detail.

14. What were the basic assumptions of and techniques attributed to structuralism? What were the contributions of Wilhelm Wundt to the development of structuralism?

15. In what ways did William James criticize structuralism and what were the basic tenets of functionalism? 2

16. What have been some of the practical uses of functionalism?

17. Discuss the basic principles and early prominent practitioners of Gestalt psychology.

18. How did John B. Watson and other behaviorists differ from others in their approach to psychology?

19. How did Sigmund Freud and other pioneers of the psychoanalytic method expand the science of psychology?

20. According to the Zimbardo et al, what two important points in the study of psychology does the Necker Cube demonstrate?

Part 3: pp. 15-22

21. What is the biological view of psychology? Why is it currently a “hot” area?

22. What is evolutionary psychology and what are the primary beliefs of its practitioners?

23. What are the primary areas of study of developmental psychologists?

24. What is the basic belief of the cognitive view of psychology and what areas are studied by cognitive psychologists?

25. Discuss both main groups of the clinical view of psychology.

26. According to Zimbardo et al, what is the greatest contribution to psychology provided by the behaviorists? In your discussion, be sure to draw in the individual the authors assert is the most influential American behaviorist.

27. What is the sociocultural view of psychology?

28. How does culture contribute to psychology, particularly social psychology?

29. According to Zimbardo, et al, nearly half of the world’s half-million psychologists live and work where? What affect has that fact had on the study of psychology? Additionally, what is interesting about most of the new doctorates being awarded in psychology?

30. Be sure to stuffy Table 1.1 on p. 19 in the textbook.