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63 Cards in this Set
- Front
- Back
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What is Psychology?
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The scientific study of human behavior and mental processes
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What is Empiricism?
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The view that knowledge comes from experience via the senses and that science flourishes through observation and experiment
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What is Structuralism?
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An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind
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What is Functionalism?
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A school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function – how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish
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What is Humanistic Psychology?
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It is historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people; used personalized methods to study personality in hopes of fostering personal growth
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Explain the Nature vs. Nurture Issue
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It's the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors
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What is Natural Selection?
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The principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations
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What are Levels of Analysis?
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The differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any give phenomenon
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What is the Biopsychosocial Approach?
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An integrated perspective that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis
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What is Basic research?
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It is pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
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What is applied research?
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It is scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
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What is Counseling Psychology?
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It is a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living and in achieving greater well-being
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What is Clinical Psychology?
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A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders
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What is Psychiatry?
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A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy
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What early contribution did Rene Descartes make to Psychology?
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- Dissected animals and discovered nerves
- Correctly deduced they enabled reflexes - Incorrectly deduced they were tubes that carried animal spirits |
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What was Francis Bacon known for?
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- Considered to be a founder of modern science
- Felt people imagined a greater equality and order than actually exists |
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What was John Locke know for?
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- Wrote "An Essay Concerning Human Understanding"
- Founding father if imperialism |
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What did Wilhelm Wundt do?
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- He constructed the first psychological experiment
- Trained Bradford Titchener |
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What did Bradford Tichener do?
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- Founded Structuralism
- Believed nobody could know the mind better than its owner |
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What did William James do?
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- Founded Functionalism
- First/Early user of student evaluations - Admitted Mary Calkins as a grad student |
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What did Mary Calkins do?
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- First female to complete a PhD
- Wasn't awarded the title - Studied memory - First female president of the American Psychological Association |
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What did John B Watson and B.F. Skinner do?
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- Rejected the introspection as useful for studying the mind
- Redefined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior |
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What did Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow do?
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- Helped develop Humanistic Psychology
- Rediscovered interest in mental processes |
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What are the three main levels of the Biopsychosocial approach?
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- Biological Analysis
- Psychosocial Analysis - Social-Cultural Analysis |
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What are some of pychology's subfields?
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- Basic Research
- Applied Research - Clinical Research - Clinical Application |
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What is Critical Thinking?
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Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions
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What is a Theory?
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An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations
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What is a Hypothesis?
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A testable prediction, often implied by a theory
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What is an Operational Definition?
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A statement of the procedures used to define research variables. For example, human intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures
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What is Replication?
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Repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations, to see whether the basic finding extends to to other participants and circumstances
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What is Hindsight Bias?
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The tendency to believe after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it
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What is Critical Thinking?
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Thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions
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What is a Case Study?
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An observational technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles
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What is a Survey?
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A technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people, usually by questioning a representative, random sample of them
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What is the False Consensus Effect?
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The tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors
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What is a Population?
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All the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study
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What is a Random Sample?
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A sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion
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What is a Naturalistic Observation?
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Observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation
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What is sensation?
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The process by which our sensory receptors and nervous system receive and represent stimulus energies from our environment.
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What is perception?
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The process of organizing and interpreting sensory information, enabling us to recognize meaningful objects and events
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What is bottom-up processing?
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Analysis that begins with the sensory receptors and works up to the brain's integration of sensory information.
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What is top-down processing?
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Information processing guided by higher-level mental processes, as when we construct perceptions drawing on our experience and expectations.
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What is psychophysics?
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The sudy of relationships between the physical characteristics of stimuli, such as their intensity, and our psychological experience of them.
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What is absolute threshold?
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The minimum stimulation needed to detect a particular stimulus 50% of the time.
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What is signal detection theory?
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a theory predicting how and when we detect the presence of a faint stimulus amid background stimulation. It assumes there is no single absolute threshold and that detection depends partly on a person's experience, expectations, motivation, and level of fatigque.
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What does subliminal mean?
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Below one's absolute thresholk for consciousness or awareness
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What is Priming?
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The activation, often unconscious, of certain associateions. It predisposes one's perception, memory or response.
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What is difference threshold?
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The minimum difference between two stimuli required for detection 50% of the time.
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What is Weber's law?
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The principle that, to be perceived as different, two stimuli must differ by a minimum and constant ratio vice a constant amount.
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What is sensory adaptation?
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Diminished sensitivity as a consequence of constant stimulation.
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What is transduction?
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Conversion of one form of energy into another. In sensation, stimulus energies are transformed into neural impulses.
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What is wavelength?
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The peak to peak distance of a wave.
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What is the range of the visible spectrum.
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400 to 700 nanometers
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What is a hue?
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the dimension of color that is determined by the wavelength of light. Also known as color.
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What is light intensity?
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The amplitude of the wave.
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What is the pupil?
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The adjustable opening in the center of the eye through which light enters.
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What is the iris?
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A ring of muscle tissue that controls the pupil's dilation and gives the eye its color.
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What is accommodation?
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The process by which the eye's lens changes shape to focus objects on the retina.
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What is the retina?
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The light-sensitive inner surface of the eye containing the receptor rods, cones, and layers of neurons that begin the processin of visual information.
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What is visual acuity?
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The sharpness or resolution of vision.
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What is nearsightedness?
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A condition in which nearby objects are seen more clearly than distant objects.
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What is farsightedness?
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A condition in which far away objects are seen more clearly than nearby objects.
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