Ap Psych Key Terms

Front 1

Applied Psychology

Back 1

The branch of psychology concerned with everyday, practical problems.

Front 2

Behavior

Back 2

Any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism.

Front 3

Behaviorism

Back 3

A theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior.

Front 4

Clinical Psychology

Back 4

The branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders.

Front 5

Culture

Back 5

The widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations.

Front 6

Empiricism

Back 6

The premise that knowledge should be acquired through observation.

Front 7

Ethnocentrism

Back 7

tendency to believe that one's own group is the standard, the reference point by which other people and groups should be judged.

Front 8

Evolutionary psychology

Back 8

Theoretical perspective that examines behavioral processes in terms of their adaptive value for a species over the course of many generations.

Front 9

Theory

Back 9

A system of interrelated ideas that is used to explain a set of observations.

Front 10

Functionalism

Back 10

A school of psychology based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure.

Front 11

Humanism

Back 11

A theoretical proposition orientation that emphasizes the unique qualites of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth.

Front 12

Introspection

Back 12

Careful, systematic observation of one's own conscious experience.

Front 13

Natural Selection

Back 13

Principle stating that heritable characteristics that provide a survival reproductive advantage are more likely than alternative characteristics to be passed on to subsequent generations and thus come to be "selected" over time.

Front 14

Positive Psychology

Back 14

An approach to psychology that uses theory and research to better understand the positive, adaptive, creative, and fulfilling aspects of human existence.

Front 15

Psychiatry

Back 15

A branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders.

Front 16

Psychology

Back 16

The science that studies behavior and the psychological and cognitive processes that underlie it, and the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems.

Front 17

SQ3R

Back 17

survey, question, read, rehearse, review.

Front 18

Structuralism

Back 18

A school of psychology based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and to investigate how these elements are related.

Front 19

Testwiseness

Back 19

The ability to use the characteristics and format of a cognitive test to maximize one's score.

Front 20

Unconscious

Back 20

According to Freud, thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behavior.

Front 21

Mary Whiton Calkins

Back 21

American psychologist who conducted research on memory, personality, and dreams; first woman president of the American Psychological Association.

Front 22

G. Stanley Hall

Back 22

American psycholgist who established the first psychology research laboratory in the united states and founded the american psychological association.

Front 23

William James

Back 23

Was the founder of functionalism and studied how humans use perception to function in our environment.

Front 24

Martin Seligman

Back 24

launched positive psychology movement.

Front 25

Margret Floyd Washburn

Back 25

American psychologist who studied animal behavior and first woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology.

Front 26

Wilhelm Wundt

Back 26

German physiologist who founded psychology as a formal science; opened first psychology research laboratory in 1879; created structuralism.

Front 27

Sigmund Freud

Back 27

Austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation; founded psychoanalysis.

Front 28

Leta Stretter Hollingworth

Back 28

pioneer research on adolescent development, mental retardation , and gifted children. debunked theories that helped explain why woman were inferior to men.

Front 29

Carl Rogers

Back 29

Studied humanism and emphasized unique qualities of human behavior and how they are different from animals.

Front 30

B.F. Skinner

Back 30

Pioneer of operant conditioning who believed that everything we do is determined by our past history of rewards and punishments. He is famous for use of his operant conditioning aparatus which he used to study schedules of reinforcement on pidgeons and rats

Front 31

John B. Watson

Back 31

Studied behaviorism and put emphasis on external behaviors of people and their reactions on a given situation (famous for Little Albert study in which baby was taught to fear a white rat).