Psych: Prologue
Terms
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- empiricism
- the view that a) knowledge comes from experience via the senses, and b) science flourishes through observation and experiment.
- structuralism
- an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind.
- functionalism
- a school of pyschology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function- how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish.
- psychology
- the science of behavior and mental processes.
- nature-nurture issue
- the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.
- natural selection
- 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.
- basic research
- pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base.
- applied research
- scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.
- clinical psychology
- a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.
- psychiatry
- a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as psychological therapy.