Psychology · Unit 16

Schools of Psychology

The big approaches and the people behind them

Psychology has been rebuilt several times on incompatible assumptions, and knowing which school a claim comes from explains a great deal about what it will and will not say.

The unit covers Wundt and structuralism, psychoanalysis, behaviourism, humanism, and the cognitive approach.

This unit breaks down into 23 short steps and 120 questions, starting at difficulty 1 and building to 4. Below you can see exactly what it covers, how the path is structured, and worked examples with explanations.

Steps: 23
Questions: 120
Difficulty: 1-4

What this unit covers

The Cognitive Approach
Humanism
Wundt and Structuralism
Psychoanalysis
Behaviorism

Where this fits

Best after several content units, so the approaches have material to apply to.

Where people slip

Freud's specific theories are largely rejected as science and his influence on the culture is enormous. Both facts are true and the unit covers him for the second reason.

How the unit is structured

Schools of Psychology runs as 23 short steps that unlock in order. 17 are practice rounds and 6 are challenge rounds that pull together everything before them. Questions start at difficulty 1 and climb to 4 as you progress.

Step 1 · easierStep 23 · harder

Challenge rounds

Example questions

30 real questions from this unit, with the answer and the reason behind it, grouped by what they practise. There are 120 in the unit altogether.

Behaviorism

Choose all that applyLevel 2
1. Which two ideas fit behaviorism? Pick two.
- observable behaviorcorrect
- rewards and punishmentscorrect
- the hidden unconscious
- the meaning of dreams
Behaviorism studies observable behavior and how rewards and punishments shape it.
Fill the blankLevel 2
2. B.F. ____ became famous for studying how rewards and punishments shape behavior.
- Skinnercorrect
- Freud
- Piaget
- Pavlov
B.F. Skinner studied how consequences shape what we do.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
3. Who is known as the founder of behaviorism?
- John B. Watsoncorrect
- Wilhelm Wundt
- Carl Jung
- Jean Piaget
John B. Watson launched behaviorism and argued psychology should focus on behavior.
Odd one outLevel 2
4. Which idea does NOT fit behaviorism?
- the unconscious mindcorrect
- observable behavior
- conditioning
- reinforcement
The unconscious mind belongs to Freud's psychoanalysis, not behaviorism.
True or falseLevel 2
5. Behaviorists mainly study the hidden unconscious mind rather than observable behavior.
Answer: False
Behaviorists do the opposite: they study observable behavior, not the hidden mind.
Guess the numberLevel 3
6. In what year did Watson publish the article that launched behaviorism?
Answer: 1913 year
Watson's 1913 article is often called the behaviorist manifesto.

Humanism

True or falseLevel 1
7. Humanistic psychology has a positive view of people and believes they want to grow.
Answer: True
Humanism sees people as basically good and motivated to improve.
Type the answerLevel 1
8. What is the last name of the psychologist famous for the hierarchy of needs?
Answer: Maslow
Abraham Maslow made the hierarchy of needs, so the answer is Maslow.
Fill the blankLevel 2
9. In Maslow's theory, reaching your full potential is called self-____.
- actualizationcorrect
- conscious
- esteem
- control
Self-actualization sits at the top of Maslow's pyramid of needs.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
10. Which humanistic psychologist developed person-centered therapy?
- Carl Rogerscorrect
- John Watson
- Sigmund Freud
- Wilhelm Wundt
Carl Rogers built person-centered therapy around warmth and acceptance.
Odd one outLevel 2
11. Which name does NOT belong with humanistic psychology?
- John Watsoncorrect
- Abraham Maslow
- Carl Rogers
- self-actualization
John Watson was a behaviorist; the others go with humanism.
Put in orderLevel 3
12. Order Maslow's needs from the bottom of the pyramid to the top.
Answer: physical needs -> safety -> love and belonging -> esteem -> self-actualization
Maslow's pyramid rises from physical needs to safety, love, esteem, and finally self-actualization.

Psychoanalysis

Type the answerLevel 1
13. What is the last name of the doctor who created psychoanalysis?
Answer: Freud
Sigmund Freud created psychoanalysis, so the answer is Freud.
Fill the blankLevel 2
14. Freud split the personality into the id, the ego, and the ____.
- superegocorrect
- reflex
- neuron
- synapse
Freud's three parts of personality are the id, the ego, and the superego.
Match the pairsLevel 2
15. Match each Freud term to its meaning.
Answer: id = basic wants and urges; superego = sense of right and wrong; unconscious = thoughts outside our awareness
The id holds urges, the superego holds morals, and the unconscious holds what we cannot see.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
16. Psychoanalysis focuses on the hidden part of the mind called the what?
- unconsciouscorrect
- cerebellum
- retina
- eardrum
Freud believed the unconscious holds thoughts and wishes we are not aware of.
True or falseLevel 2
17. Freud believed that hidden wishes we are not aware of can affect our behavior.
Answer: True
A core Freud idea is that unconscious wishes shape what we do.
Choose all that applyLevel 4
18. Which three are parts of Freud's model of personality? Pick three.
- the idcorrect
- the egocorrect
- the superegocorrect
- the archetype
- the reflex
Freud split personality into the id, the ego, and the superego.

The Cognitive Approach

Multiple choiceLevel 1
19. Which of these is a mental process studied by the cognitive approach?
- Memorycorrect
- Digestion
- Sweating
- Sneezing
Memory is a mental process; the others are body functions.
Choose all that applyLevel 2
20. Which of these are mental processes the cognitive approach studies? Pick three.
- memorycorrect
- attentioncorrect
- problem solvingcorrect
- sweating
- sneezing
Memory, attention, and problem solving are all mental processes.
Fill the blankLevel 2
21. Cognitive psychologists study mental ____ such as attention and memory.
- processescorrect
- muscles
- bones
- reflexes
Mental processes like attention and memory are the focus of the cognitive approach.
Sort into groupsLevel 2
22. Sort each idea by the school it belongs to.
Answer: observable behavior = Behaviorism; reward and punishment = Behaviorism; the mind as a computer = Cognitive; memory and attention = Cognitive
Behaviorism studies actions and their rewards, while the cognitive approach studies the mind like a computer.
Guess the numberLevel 4
23. About how many items can short-term memory hold at once, according to George Miller?
Answer: 7 items
Miller's famous number is about seven items, plus or minus two.
Put in orderLevel 4
24. Order these schools of psychology from the earliest to rise to the most recent.
Answer: Structuralism -> Behaviorism -> Humanism -> Cognitive approach
Structuralism came first, then behaviorism, then humanism as the third force, and later the cognitive approach.

Wundt and Structuralism

True or falseLevel 1
25. Wilhelm Wundt is often called the father of experimental psychology.
Answer: True
Because he made psychology a lab science, Wundt earned the nickname father of experimental psychology.
Type the answerLevel 1
26. What is the last name of the man who opened the first psychology laboratory in 1879?
Answer: Wundt
Wilhelm Wundt opened that first lab, so the answer is Wundt.
Fill the blankLevel 2
27. Looking inward to describe your own thoughts and feelings is a method called ____.
- introspectioncorrect
- digestion
- meditation
- invention
Introspection means observing and reporting your own inner experience, the method Wundt's lab relied on.
Guess the numberLevel 2
28. In what year did Wilhelm Wundt open the first psychology laboratory?
Answer: 1879 year
Wundt opened his lab in 1879, the date often used for the birth of scientific psychology.
Multiple choiceLevel 2
29. Structuralism tried to understand the mind by breaking conscious experience into small units it called what?
- elementscorrect
- organs
- habits
- muscles
Structuralism broke experience into elements, a bit like listing the ingredients of a thought.
Odd one outLevel 2
30. Which one does NOT belong with structuralism?
- Skinner boxcorrect
- introspection
- conscious experience
- basic sensations
The Skinner box belongs to behaviorism; the others are all part of structuralism.

Where these questions come from. Each unit starts as a plan of the concepts it should cover and the difficulty it should span. Questions are written against that plan with AI assistance, then checked by a validator that rejects anything without a single defensible answer, an explanation, or plausible wrong options. How we write questions sets out the whole process, and corrections are fixed in the bank and reach the site and the app the same day.

How you practise

This unit mixes 10 different question formats, so you are recalling and applying rather than recognising the same layout every time.

Choose all that apply
Fill the blank
Guess the number
Match the pairs
Multiple choice
Odd one out
Put in order
Sort into groups
True or false
Type the answer

Practise Schools of Psychology

120 questions across 23 steps. Start with step one and crawl at your own pace.

Play this unit

More units in Psychology

See all 18 units in Psychology →