Wendy, a psychology student, is keen to learn why human beings cry when they are sad and laugh when they are happy. she wants to know how these emotions human beings adapt to changes in the environment. which historical perspective of psychology are wendy's interests most reflective of?

The answer is "Functionalism".

Functionalism alludes to a mental theory that considers mental life and conduct as far as dynamic adjustment to the individual's environment. As such, it gives the general premise to creating mental hypotheses not promptly testable by controlled investigations or applied psychology.

Functionalism emerged in the U.S. in the late nineteenth century as an option to structuralism. While functionalism never turned into a formal school, it based on structuralism's anxiety for the life systems of the brain and prompted more prominent worry over the elements of the psyche, and later to behaviourism.