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40 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
Psychology
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The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
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Science
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The use of systematic methods to observe the natural world, including human behavior, and to draw conclusions.
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Behavior
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Everything we do that can be directly observed.
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Mental Processes
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The thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly.
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Critical Thinking
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The process of thinking deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating the evidence.
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Neuroscience
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Study of structure, function, developement, geneteics, and bio-chemistry of the nervous system, emphasizing that the brain a nd nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion.
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Biological Approach
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Approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system.
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Behavioral Approach
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Approach to psychology emphasizing the study of observable behavioral responses and the environmental determinants.
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Psycodynamic Approach
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Approach to psychology emphasizing unconcious thought, the conflict between biological drives, and the societies demands and early childhood family experiences
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Humanistic Approach
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Approch to psychology emphasizing a person's positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny.
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Cognitive Approach
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Approach to psychology emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.
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Sociocultural Approach
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Approach to psychology that examines the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior.
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Variable
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Anythin that can change.
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Theory
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Broad idea or set of ideas that attempt to explain observations and to make predictions about future observations.
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Hypothesis
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An educated guess that derives from theory.
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Operational Definition
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Provides an objective description of how a variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study.
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Case Study
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In-depth look at a single individual
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Correlational Research
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Examines the relationship between variables, whose purpose is to examine whether and how two variables change together.
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Third Variable Problem
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Circumstance where a variable that has not been measured accounts for the two other variables.
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Longitudinal Design
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A special kind of systematic obersvation, used by correlational researchers, that involves obtaining measures of the variables of interest in multiple waves over time.
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Random Assignment
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Researchers' assignment of participants to groups by chance, to reduce the likelihood that an experiment's results will be due to preexisting differences between groups.
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Independent Variable
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What we are controling
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Confederate
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Person who is given a role to play in a study so the social context can be manipulated.
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Dependent Variable
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Outcome/What we measure.
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Experimental Group
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Participants in an experiment who receive the drug or other treatment under study.
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Control Group
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Participants in an experiment who do NOT receive the drug or other treatment under study.
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Validity
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Soundness of the conclusions that a researcher draws from an experiment.
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External Validity
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Degree to which an experimental design actually reflects the real-world issues it is supposed to address.
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Internal Validity
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Degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable.
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Experimenter Bias
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Influence of the experimenter's expectations on the outcome of research.
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Demand Characteristics
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Any aspects of a study that communicate to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave.
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Research Participant Bias
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Influence of participants' expectations, and of their thoughts about how they should behave, on their behavior.
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Placebo Effect
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Situation where participants' expectations, rthat than the experimental treatment, produce an experimental outcome.
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Placebo
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In a drug study, a harmless substance that has no physiological effect, given to participants in a control group so that they are treated identically to the experimental group except for the active agent.
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Double-Blind Experiment
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Experimental design in which neither the experimentor nor the paricipants are aware of which participants are aware of which participants are in the experimental group and whicha re in the control group.
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Population
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The entire group about which the investigator wants to draw conclusions.
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Sample
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Subset of the population chosen by the investigator for study.
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Random Sample
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Sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected
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Naturalistic Obersvation
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Observation of behavior in a real-world setting.
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Nervous System
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Body's electrochemical communication circuitry.
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