Final answer:
Functionalism is the school of thought influenced by James and Darwin's work, focusing on how mental and behavioral processes function to help an organism adapt and survive. The correct option is b.
Step-by-step explanation:
The early school of thought promoted by James and influenced by Darwin that explored how mental and behavioral processes function to enable organisms to adapt, survive, and flourish is known as functionalism.
William James, along with John Dewey and Charles Sanders Peirce, were key figures in establishing functional psychology, which accepted Darwin's theory of evolution by natural selection as an explanation for an organism's characteristics.
Unlike structuralism, which focused on the individual components of the mind, functionalism concentrated on how the mental activities of the whole mind contributed to an organism's adaptation to its environment.
This approach uses various methods, including introspection and the examination of the anatomy and physiology, to study mental activities. The correct option is b.