Psychology Ch1

Front 1

adaptive traits

Back 1

A term applied to traits that help organisms adjust to their environment (p. 20)

Front 2

behavioural genetics

Back 2

A field that examines the genetic and environmental bases of differences among individuals on psychological traits (p. 21)

Front 3

behavioural neuroscience

Back 3

A field of investigation that examines the physical basis of psychological phenomena such as motivation, emotion and stress; also called biopsychology (p. 5)

Front 4

behaviourist perspective

Back 4

The perspective pioneered by John Watson and B. F. Skinner, which focuses on the relationship between observable behaviours and environmental events or stimuli; also called behaviourism. (p. 13)

Front 5

biopsychology

Back 5

The field that examines the physical basis of psychological phenomena such as motivation, emotion and stress; also called behavioural neuroscience (p. 5)

Front 6

Cartesian dualism

Back 6

The doctrine of dual spheres of mind and body (pp. 14, 542)

Front 7

cognition

Back 7

Thought and memory (p. 16)

Front 8

cognitive perspective

Back 8

A psychological perspective that focuses on the way people perceive, process and retrieve information (p. 17)

Front 9

cross-cultural comparison studies

Back 9

Research that involves comparing two or more different cultures in relation to a particular psychological variable (p. 769)

Front 10

empathy

Back 10

The capacity to understand another person's experience, both cognitively and emotionally (pp. 16, 442, 523)

Front 11

empiricism

Back 11

The belief that the path to scientific knowledge is systematic observation and, ideally, experimental observation (p. 25)

Front 12

ethology

Back 12

The field that studies animal behaviour from a biological and evolutionary perspective (p. 20)

Front 13

evolutionary perspective

Back 13

The viewpoint built on Darwin's principle of natural selection that argues that human behavioural proclivities must be understood in the context of their evolutionary and adaptive significance (p. 19)

Front 14

evolutionary psychologists

Back 14

Apply evolutionary thinking to a wide range of psychological phenomena (p. 21)

Front 15

free will versus determinism

Back 15

The philosophical question of whether people act on the basis of their freely chosen intentions, or whether their actions are caused or determined by physical processes in their bodies or in the environment in which they live (p. 8)

Front 16

functionalism

Back 16

An early school of thought in psychology influenced by Darwinian theory that looked for explanations of psychological processes in terms of their role, or function, in helping the individual adapt to the environment (p. 10)

Front 17

Gestalt psychology

Back 17

A school of psychology that holds that perception is an active experience of imposing order on an overwhelming panorama of details by seeing them as parts of larger whole (or Gestalts) (p. 31)

Front 18

humanistic

Back 18

Approaches to personality that focus on aspects of personality that are distinctly human, not shared by other animals (p. 16)

Front 19

ideal self

Back 19

A person's view of what she or he would like to be (pp. 25, 442, 714)

Front 20

inclusive fitness

Back 20

The notion that natural selection favours organisms that survive, reproduce and foster the survival and reproduction of their kin (p. 21)

Front 21

information processing

Back 21

The transformation, storage and retrieval of environmental inputs through thought and memory (p. 17)

Front 22

information processing

Back 22

The transformation, storage and retrieval of environmental inputs through thought and memory (p. 17)

Front 23

introspection

Back 23

The method used by Wundt and other structuralists in which trained participants verbally reported everything that went through their minds when presented with a stimulus or task; more generally, refers to the process of looking inward at one's own mental contents or process (p. 10)

Front 24

localisation of function

Back 24

The extent to which different parts of the brain control different aspects of functioning (p. 6)

Front 25

mind–body problem

Back 25

The question of how mental and physical events interact (p. 8)

Front 26

natural selection

Back 26

A theory proposed by Darwin which states that natural forces select traits in organisms that help them adapt to their environment (p. 20)

Front 27

nature–nurture controversy

Back 27

The question of the degree to which inborn biological processes or environmental events determine human behaviour (p. 19)

Front 28

paradigm

Back 28

A broad system of theoretical assumptions employed by a scientific community to make sense out of a domain of experience (p. 11)

Front 29

person-centred approach

Back 29

Carl Rogers’ therapeutic approach that focuses on the individual’s phenomenal world (pp. 16, 442)

Front 30

perspectives

Back 30

Broad ways of understanding psychological phenomena, including theoretical propositions, shared metaphors and accepted methods of observation (p. 11)

Front 31

psychiatrists

Back 31

Specialists who have medical degrees and prescribe medication to treat mental illness (p. 26)

Front 32

psychodynamic perspective

Back 32

The perspective initiated by Sigmund Freud that focuses on the dynamic interplay of mental forces (p. 12)

Front 33

psychodynamics

Back 33

A view analogous to dynamics among physical forces in which psychological forces such as wishes, fears and intentions have a direction and an intensity (pp. 12, 417)

Front 34

psychology

Back 34

The scientific investigation of mental processes and behaviour

Front 35

rationalist philosophers

Back 35

Emphasise the role of reason in creating knowledge (p. 18)

Front 36

reproductive success

Back 36

The capacity to survive and produce offspring (p. 21)

Front 37

self-actualisation

Back 37

People are motivated to fulfil the whole range of needs that humans experience (p. 16)

Front 38

self-concept

Back 38

An organised pattern of thought and perception about oneself (pp. 25, 442, 512, 708)

Front 39

sociobiology

Back 39

A field that explores possible evolutionary and biological bases of human social behaviour (p. 21)

Front 40

stimulus

Back 40

An object or event in the environment that elicits a response in an organism (p. 212)

Front 41

structuralism

Back 41

An early school of thought in psychology developed by Edward Titchener, which attempted to use introspection as a method for uncovering the basic elements of consciousness and the way they combine with each other into ideas (p. 10)