Chapter 1 - What Is Psychology?

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Psychology

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The discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism's physical state, mental state, and external environment.

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Empirical

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Relying on or derived from observation, experimentation, or measurement.

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Critical Thinking

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The ability and willingness to assess claims and make judgments on the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence rather than emotion or anecdote.

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Phrenology

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The now-discredited theory that different brain areas account for specific character and personality traits, which can be "read" from bumps on the skull.

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Structuralism

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An early psychological approach that emphasized the analysis of immediate experience into basic elements.

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Functionalism

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An early psychological approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behavior and consciousness.

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Psychoanalysis

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A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy, originally formulated by Sigmund Freud, that emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts.

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Biological Perspective

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A psychological approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings, and thoughts.

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Evolutionary Pscychology

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A field of psychology emphasizing evolutionary mechanisms that may help explain human commonalities in cognition, development, emotion, social practices, and other areas of behavior.

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Learning Perspective

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A psychological approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person's or animal's actions; it includes behaviorism and social-cognitive learning theories.

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Behaviorists

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Focus on the environmental rewards and punishers that maintain or discourage specific behaviors.

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Social-Cognitive Learning Theorists

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Combine elements of behaviorism with research on thoughts, values, expectations, and intentions.

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Cognitive Perspective

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A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving, and other areas of behavior.

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Sociocultural Perspective

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A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behavior.

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Social Psychologists

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Focus on social rules and roles, how groups affect attitudes and behavior, why people obey authority, and how each of us is affected by other people - spouses, lovers, friends, bosses, parents, and strangers

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Cultural Psychologists

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Examine how cultural rules and values, both explicit and unspoken, affect people's development, behavior, and feelings.

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Feminist Psychology

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A psychological approach that analyzes the influence of social inequities on gender relations and on the behavior of the two sexes.

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Basic Psychology

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The study of psychological issues for the sake of knowledge rather than for its practical application.

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Applied Psychology

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The study of psychological issues that have direct practical significance; also, the application of psychological findings.

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Experimental Psychologists

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Conduct laboratory studies of learning, motivation, emotion, sensation and perception, physiology, and cognition. Do not be misled by the term experimental, though; other psychologists also do experiments.

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Educational Psychologists

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Study psychological principles that explain learning and search for ways to improve educational systems. Their interests range from application of findings on memory and thinking to the use of rewards to encourage achievement.

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Developmental Psychologitsts

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Study how people change and grow over time physically, mentally, and socially. Some specialize in childhood issues; others study adolescence, young adulthood, the middle years, or old age.

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Industrial/Organizational Psychologists

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Study behavior in the workplace. They are concerned with group decision making, employee morale, work motivation, productivity, job stress, personnel selection, marketing strategies equipment design, and many other issues.

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Psychometric Psychologists

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Design and evaluate tests of mental abilities, aptitudes, interests, and personality.

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Psychotherapist

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Simply anyone who does any kind of psychotherapy. The term is not legally regulated; in fact, in most states, anyone can say that he or she is a "therapist" of one sort or another without having any training at all.

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Psychoanalyst

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A person who practices on particular form of therapy: psychoanalysis. Must have specialized training from a psychoanalytic institute and undergo extensive psychoanalysis yourself.

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Psychiatrist

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Medical Doctor who has done a three-year residency in psychiatry to learn how to diagnose and treat mental disorders. Do research on mental problems and work with patients. Can write prescriptions.

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Wilhelm Wundt

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(1832-1920) Opened first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany (1879). First to announce he planned to make psychology a science - his laboratory was first to have results published in scholarly journal. Trained introspection.

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Trained Introspection

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Training volunteers to carefully observe, analyze, and describe their own sensations, mental images, and emotional reaction.

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E.B. Titchener

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(1867-1927) Was Wundt student. Took Wundt's teachings to United states and named it Structuralism.

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William James

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(1842-1910) An American philosopher, physician, and psychologists. A leader of Functionalism - inspired by Darwin.

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Sigmund Freud

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(1856-1939) Freud argued that conscious awareness is merely the tip of the mental iceberg. Beneath the visible tip, he said, lies the unconscious part of the mind, containing unrevealed wishes, passions, guilty secrets, unspeakable yearnings, and conflicts between desire and duty.