Essentials Of Psychology - Chapter 1

Front 1

Psychology

Back 1

The science that seeks to understand behaviour and mental processes and to apply that understanding in the service of human welfare.

Front 2

Positive psychology

Back 2

A field of research that focuses on people's positive experiences and characteristics.

Front 3

Cognitive psychologists

Back 3

Psychologists whose research focuses on analysis of the mental processes behind judgment, decision making, problem solving, imagining, and other aspects of human thought (cognition).

Front 4

Biological psychologists

Back 4

Psychologists who analyze the biological factors influencing behaviour and mental processes.

Front 5

Personality psychologists

Back 5

Psychologists who focus on people's unique characteristics.

Front 6

Developmental psychologists

Back 6

Psychologists who seek to understand, describe, and explore how behaviour and mental processes change over the course of a lifetime.

Front 7

Quantitative psychologists

Back 7

Psychologists who develop statistical methods for evaluating and analyzing data from psychological research.

Front 8

Clinical, counselling, and community psychologists

Back 8

Psychologists who seek to assess, understand, modify, and prevent behaviour disorders.

Front 9

Educational psychologists

Back 9

Psychologists who study methods by which instructors teach and students learn and who apply their results to improve such methods.

Front 10

Consciousness

Back 10

The awareness of external stimuli and our own mental activity.

Front 11

Biological approach

Back 11

The view that behaviour is the result of physical processes, especially those relating to the brain, and neurochemicals.

Front 12

Evolutionary approach

Back 12

A view that emphasizes the inherited, adaptive aspects of behaviour and mental processes.

Front 13

Psychodynamic approach

Back 13

A view developed by Freud that emphasizes unconscious mental processes in explaining human thought, feelings, and behaviour.

Front 14

Behavioural approach

Back 14

A view based on the assumption that human behaviour is determined mainly by what a person has learned in life, especially through rewards and punishments.

Front 15

Cognitive approach

Back 15

A view that emphasizes research on how the brain takes in information, creates perceptions, forms and retrieves memories, processes information, and generates integrated patterns of action.

Front 16

Humanistic approach

Back 16

A view of behaviour as controlled by the decisions that people make about their lives based on their perceptions of the world.

Front 17

Sociocultural factors

Back 17

Social identity and other background factors, such as gender, ethnicity, social class, and culture.

Front 18

Culture

Back 18

The accumulation of values, rules of behaviour, forms of expression, religious beliefs, and occupational choices for a group of people who share a common language and environment.

Front 19

Critical thinking

Back 19

The process of assessing claims and making judgments based on well-supported evidence.

Front 20

School psychologists

Back 20

Psychologists who test cognitive abilities, diagnose students' academic problems, and set up programs to improve students' achievement.

Front 21

Hypothesis

Back 21

In scientific research, a specific, testable proposition about a phenomenon.

Front 22

Operational definitions

Back 22

Statements that define phenomena or variables by describing the exact research operations or methods used in measuring or manipulating them.

Front 23

Variables

Back 23

Specific factors or characteristics that can take on different numerical values in research.

Front 24

Statistical reliability

Back 24

The degree to which test results or other research evidence occurs repeatedly.

Front 25

Statistical validity

Back 25

The degree to which evidence from a test or other research method measures what it is supposed to measure.

Front 26

Theory

Back 26

An integrated set of propositions used to explain certain phenomena, including behaviour and mental processes.

Front 27

Observational methods

Back 27

Procedures for systematically watching behaviour in order to summarize it for scientific analysis.

Front 28

Naturalistic observation

Back 28

The process of watching without interfering as a phenomenon occurs in the natural environment.

Front 29

Case studies

Back 29

Research involving the intensive examination of some phenomenon in a particular individual, group, or situation.

Front 30

Surveys

Back 30

Research that involves giving people questionnaires or interviews designed to describe their attitudes, beliefs, opinions, and intentions.

Front 31

Social psychologists

Back 31

Psychologists who study how people influence one another's behaviour and attitudes, especially in groups.

Front 32

Correlational studies

Back 32

Research methods that examine relationships between variables in order to analyze trends, test predictions, evaluate theories, and suggest new hypotheses.

Front 33

Correlation

Back 33

The degree to which one variable is related to another.

Front 34

Experiment

Back 34

A situation in which the researcher manipulates one variable and observes the effect of that manipulation on another variable, while holding all other variables constant.

Front 35

Independent variable

Back 35

In an experiment, the variable manipulated by the researcher.

Front 36

Dependent variable

Back 36

In an experiment, the factor affected by the independent variable.

Front 37

Experimental group

Back 37

The group that receives the experimental treatment.

Front 38

Control group

Back 38

The group that receives no treatment or provides some other baseline against which to compare the performance or response of the experimental group.

Front 39

Confound

Back 39

Any factor that affects the dependent variable along with, or instead of, the independent variable.

Front 40

Random variables

Back 40

Uncontrolled or uncontrollable factors that affect the dependent variable along with, or instead of, the independent variable.

Front 41

Randomizing

Back 41

A procedure through which random variables are evenly distributed in an experiment by placing participants in experimental and control groups on the basis of a coin flip or some other random process.

Front 42

Industrial and organizational psychologists

Back 42

Psychologists who examine factors that influence people's performance in the workplace.

Front 43

Placebo

Back 43

A treatment that contains no active ingredient but produces an effect because the person believes it will.

Front 44

Experimenter bias

Back 44

A confound that occurs when an experimenter unintentionally encourages participants to respond in a way that supports the hypothesis.

Front 45

Double-blind design

Back 45

A research design in which neither the experimenter nor the participants know who is in the experimental group and who is in the control group.

Front 46

Sampling

Back 46

The process of selecting participants who are members of the population that the researcher wishes to study.

Front 47

Representative sampling

Back 47

A sample of research participants chosen from a larger population such that their age, gender, ethnicity, and other characteristics are typical of that larger population.

Front 48

Random sampling

Back 48

A group of research participants selected from a population, each of whose members had an equal chance of being chosen.

Front 49

Biased sampling

Back 49

A group of research participants selected from a population, each of whose members did not have an equal chance of being chosen.

Front 50

Behavioural genetics

Back 50

The study of how genes and environments interact to affect behaviour and mental processes.

Front 51

Epigenetics

Back 51

The study of potentially inheritable changes in gene expression that are caused by environmental factors that do not alter a cell's DNA.

Front 52

Data

Back 52

Numbers that represent research findings and provide the basis for conclusions.

Front 53

Health psychologists

Back 53

Psychologists who study the effects of behaviour on health, and the impact of illness on behaviour and emotion.

Front 54

Statistical significance

Back 54

Referring to a correlation or a difference between two groups that is larger than would be expected by chance.

Front 55

Sport psychologists

Back 55

Psychologists whose research is aimed at maximizing athletic performance.

Front 56

Forensic psychologists

Back 56

Psychologists who are involved in many aspects of psychology and law.

Front 57

Engineering psychologists

Back 57

Psychologists who study and try to improve the relationships between human beings and the computers and other machines they use.

Front 58

Environmental psychologists

Back 58

Psychologists who study the relationship between people's physical environment and their behaviour.

Front 59

Empiricism

Back 59

The view that knowledge comes from experience and observation.