Final answer:
William James was an advocate for functional psychology, an approach that looks at mental processes in terms of their role in adapting to the environment.
Step-by-step explanation:
William James, a renowned American psychologist, espoused functional psychology, an approach that emphasizes the processes of the mind over its structure. His perspective, known as functionalism, was fundamentally inspired by evolutionary concepts and focused on studying how mental activities enhance an organism's adaptation to its environment. Unlike structuralism, which seeks to understand the mind by examining its smallest components, functional psychology aims to understand the mental operations as a whole and their practical applications in real-world environments.
Structuralists, like Wilhelm Wundt, used introspection to dissect cognitive experiences into elemental parts; however, James incorporated both introspective methods and more objective measures, such as recording devices and physiological analysis, to study mental activities. Therefore, the correct answer to the student's question is c) Functional Psychology.