Psychology Chapter 1

the discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism's physical state, mental state, and external environment.

Relying on evidence gathered by careful observation, experimentation, or measurement

The ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgements on the basis of well supported reasons rather than emotion and anecdote

Phrenology is greek for...

-A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy, originally formulated by Sigmund Freud
-Emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts

Theories that explain behavior and personality it terms of unconscious energy dynamics within an individual

A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behavior

Psychological approach that focuses on how bodily events affect behavior, feelings and thoughts

This perspective involves:
-Hormones
-Brain Chemistry
-Heredity
-Evolutionary Influences

Psychological approach that is concerned with how the environment and experience affect a person's or non human animal's actions

This perspective involves:
-Behaviorism
-Social Cognitive Learning Theories

Psychological approach that emphasizes what goes on in peoples heads and their thought processes

This perspective involves:
-Social psychology or the study of rules, roles, groups and relationships
-cultural psychology

Psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural forces outside the individual

Psychological approach that emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or the movement of instinctual energy

This perspective involves:
-Unconscious thoughts, desires conflicts

Psychological approach that emphasizes personal growth and the achievement of human potential, rather than the scientific understanding of human behavior

This perspective involves:
-Rejected behaviorism and psychoanalysis
-emphasized creativity and achieving potential

Psychological approach analyzing the influence of social inequities on gender relations and on the behavior of the two sexes

This perspective involves:
-recognized years of male bias in data collection and psychotherapy
-questions the use of research in justifying women's lower status or elevating women's status

Research in areas of basic or applied psychology
Examples:
-Educational psychologists
-Developmental psychologists
-Industrial/organizational psychologists

These psychologists help people deal with problems associated with everyday life

These psychologists work with parents, students, and teachers to enhance student performance

These psychologists diagnose and study mental or emotional problems

Clinical psychologists are not...

medical doctors who diagnose and treat mental disorders

A group of participants that accurately represents the larger population that the researcher is interested in

A sample of people who happen to be available

Methods that yield descriptions of behavior, but not necessarily casual explanations

Examples of this method include:
-Case studies
-Observational studies
-Psychological Tests
-Surveys

A detailed description of a particular person being studied or treated
(most commonly used by researchers)

Researchers carefully and systematically observe and record behavior without interfering

Purpose is to observe how people or animals behave in their natural environments

Purpose is to observe how people or animals behave in a more controlled setting

Procedures used to measure and evaluate personality traits, emotional states, aptitudes, interests, abilities, and values
(These can be objective or projective)

Characteristics of a good Psychological Test are:

Measures what intends

yields consistent results

In test construction, established standards of performance

The test broadly represents the trait in question

The test predicts other measures of the trait in question

Questionares and interviews that ask people about experiences, attitudes, or opinions

Surveys require a ____________ sample

volunteers who participate may differ from those who did not volunteer

A descriptive study that looks for a consistent relationship between the two phenomena

A statistical measure of the strength and direction of the relationship between two variables

An association between increases in on variable and increases in another, or decreases in one variable and decreases in the other

an association between increases in one variable and decreases in another

A controlled test of a hypothesis in which the researcher manipulates one variable to discover its effect on another

variable the experimenter manipulates

Variable that are affected by the independent variable; what is measured

a comparison condition in which subjects are not exposed to the same treatment as in the experimental condition

an inactive substance or fake treatment

statistical procedures that organize and summarize research data

They receive no treatment

subjects of different ages are compared at a single time

subjects are periodically assessed over a period of time

Only time you can say something caused you to do something

experimental group gets the _________ variable

events that effect a generation

believed that his patients symptoms had mental, not physical cases

Four perspectives of psychological science:

emphasized the function or purpose of behavior, as opposed to analysis and description

These people ask how and why and believed the brain and mind are constantly changing

hoped to analyze sensations, images, and feelings

discredited theory that different brain areas account for specific character and personality traits, which can be "read" from bumps on the skull

observed that people do not become angry, sad, or anxious because of actual events, but because of their explanations of those events

Founder of modern medicence

argued that the mind works by associating ideas arising from experience, and this notion continues to influence many psychologists today