Psych 101

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psychology

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the discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organisms physical and mental state and external environment

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critical thinking

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

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critical thinking guidelines

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1.Ask questions, be willing to wonder

2. define your terms

3. analyze assumptions and biases

4.avoid emotional reasoning

5. don't oversimplify

6. consider other interpretations

7. tolerate uncertainty

8. examine the evidence

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phrenology

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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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early schools of thought

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1. functionalism

2.structuralism

3. psychoanalysis

4. gestalt

5. behaviorism

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biological psychology

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focuses on how bodily events affect behavior, feelings and thoughts

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evolutionary psychology

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focuses on how genetically influenced behavior that was functional/adaptive during our evolutionary past may be reflected in our present behaviors, mental processes and traits

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cognitive psychology

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emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving and other areas of behavior

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sociocultural psychology

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focuses on social and cultural forces outside the individual

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psychodynamic psychology

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looking at internal conflicts and what may have happened to cause that

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feminist psychology

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analyzes the influence of social inequities on gender relations and on the behavior of the two sexes

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humanistic psychology

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emphasizes personal growth, resilience, and the achievement of human potential

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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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clinical psychology

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diagnoses, treats and/or studies mental and emotional problems, both mild and severe

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psychiatrist

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does similar work as a clinical psychologist, but is more likely to take a biological approach, has a medical degree

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psychoanalyst

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someone who does psychotherapy, no degree needed

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operational definition

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a precise definition of a term in a hypothesis, which specifies the operations for observing and measuring the process or phenomenon being defined

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confirmation bias

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the tendency to look for or pay attention only to information that confirms one's own belief

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principle of falsifiability

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principle that a scientific theory must make predictions that are specific enough to expose the theory to the possibility of disconfirmation; the theory must predict not only what will happen but also what will not happen

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peer review

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scientists submit their results to professional journals, which send the findings to experts in the field for evaluation before deciding whether to publish them

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volunteer bias

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a shortcoming of findings derived from a sample of volunteers instead of a representative sample; volunteers may differ from those who did not volunteer

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representative sample

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a group of individuals selected from a population for study, which matches the population on important characteristics such as age and sex

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descriptive methods

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methods that yield descriptions of behavior but not necessarily casual explanations

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case study

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a detailed description of a particular individual being studied or treated

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survey

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questionnaires and interviews that ask people directly about their experiences, attitudes or opinions

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standardize

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to develop uniform procedures for giving and scoring tests

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reliability

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the consistency of scores derived from a test, from one time and place to another

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validity

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the ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure

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correlation

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a measure of how strongly two variables are related to one another

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coefficient of correlation

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a measure of correlation that ranges in value from -1 to +1

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independent variable

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a variable that an experimenter manipulates

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dependent variable

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a variable that an experimenter predicts will be affected by manipulations of the independent variable

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control condition

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in an experiment, a comparison condition in which participants are not exposed to the same treatment as in the experimental condition

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single blind study

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an experiment in which participants do not know whether they are in an experimental or a control group

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double blind study

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an experiment in which neither the people being studied nor the individuals running the study know who is in the control group and who is in the experimental group until after the results are tallied

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cross sectional study

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a study in which people or animals of different ages are compares at a given time

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longitudinal study

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a study in which people pr animals are followed and periodically reassessed over a period of time

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meta-analysis

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a set of techniques for combining data from a number of related studies to determine the explanatory strength of a particular independent variable

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epigenetics

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the study of stable changes in the expression of a particular gene that occur without changes in DNA base sequences

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evolution

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a change in gene frequencies within a population over many generation; a mechanism by which genetically influenced characteristics of a population may change

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heritability

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a statistical estimate of proportion of the total variance in some trait that is attributable to genetic differences among individuals within a group

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natural selection

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the evolutionary process in which individuals with genetically influenced trait that are adaptive in a particular environment tend to survive and to reproduce in greater numbers than do other individuals; as a result, their traits become more common in the population