Psychology - Chapter 1
The Science of Psychology
Terms
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- Biopsychological perspective
- behavior is a result of biological events occuring in the body, such as genetic influences, hormones, and the activity of the nervous system
- psychology
- the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
- self actualization
- achieving one's full potential or actual self
- theory
- a general explanation of a set of observations or facts
- single-blind study
- subjects do not know if they are in the experimental or control group
- case study
- study of one individual in great detail
- behaviorism
- John B. Watson; the science of behavior that focuses on observable behavior only
- double-blind study
- neither the experimenter nor the subjects knows if the subjects are in the experimental or control group
- explanation
- why is it happening?
- description
- what is happening?
- experiment
- a deliberate manipulation of a variable to see if corresponding changes in behavior result, allowing the determination of cause/effect relationships
- experimental group
- subjects in an experiment who are subjected to the independent variable
- Behavioral perspective
- behavior is a result of the environment; BF Skinner - operant conditioning, behavior is a result of reinforcement; Watson; Pavlov
- surveys
- researchers will ask a series of questions about the topic under study
- psychoanalyst
- psychiatrist or pyschologist who had special training in psychoanalysis
- Evolutionary perspective
- focuses on the biological bases of universal mental characteristics that all humans share; looks at the way the mind works and why it does; behavior is seen as having an adaptive or survival value
- functionalism
- William James; how our behavior allows us to function/adapt; no longer around; impossible to break down the mind
- random assignment
- assigning subjects to the experimental or control groups randomly
- experimenter effect
- tendency of the experimenter's expectations for a study to unintentionally influence the results of the study
- psychiatrist
- M.D. who has specialized training in psychology
- control
- how can it be changed?
- prediction
- will it happen again?
- correlation
- a measure of the relationship between two variables
- participant observation
- a naturalistic observation in which the observer becomes a participant in the group being observed
- placebo effect
- the phenomenon in which the expectations of the participants in a study can influence their behavior
- observer bias
- tendency of observers to see what they expect to see
- Cognitive perspective
- focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, problem solving, and learning
- observer effect
- animals or people who know they are being watched will not behave normally
- Humanistic perspective
- people have freewill, the freedom to choose their own destiny; Abraham Maslow; Carl Rogers
- psychologist
- professional with an academic degree with no medical training
- population
- the entire group of people or animals in which the researcher is interested
- Gestalt psychology
- focuses on perception and sensation, and perceptions of patterns and whole figures
- independent variable
- manipulated by the experimenter
- representative sample
- randomly selected sample of subjects from a larger population of subjects
- control group
- subjects in an experiment who are not subjected to the independent variable and who may recieve a placebo treatment
- mental processes
- internal, covert activity of the mind, such as thinking, feeling and remembering
- objective introspection
- the process of objectively examining and measuring one's own thoughts and mental activities
- Sociocultural perspective
- focuses on social interactions and cultural determinants
- scientific method
- system of gathering data so that bias and error in measurement are reduced
- correlation research
- answers the question: are x and y related?
- dependent variable
- the response of the participants that is measured
- correlation coefficient
- direction and strength of the relationship
- psychiatric social worker
- a social worker with some training in therapy methods who focuses on the environmental conditions
- laboratory observation
- watching animals or humans behave in a laboratory setting
- naturalistic observation
- watching animals or humans behave in their normal environment
- behavior
- outward or overt actions and reactions, such as talking, facial expressions, and movement
- critical thinking
- making reasoned judgements about claims
- Psychodynamic perspective
- modern version of psychoanalysis; behavior is a result of unconscious determinants and early experience
- pseudopsychologies
- systems of explaining human behavior that are not based on or consistent with scientific evidence
- psychoanalysis
- therapy based on the theory of Freud, emphasizing the revealing of unconscious conflicts; theory of personality
- structuralism
- Wilhelm Wundt; Edward Titchener; studying the structure and elements of the mind [emotions and sensations]
- operational definition
- definition of a variable of interest that allows it to be directly measured