Chapter 1: Defining Psychology

Vocabulary flashcards reviewing core definitions, subfields, historical contributors, and major early perspectives in psychology.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Theories

Formulations of apparent relationships among observed events that allow for prediction.

Pure research

Research conducted for its own sake with no immediate application.

Applied research

Research designed to find solutions to specific personal or social problems.

Practice psychology

Applying psychological knowledge to help individuals change their behavior.

Teaching

The act of sharing psychological knowledge.

Clinical psychologists

The largest subgroup of psychologists, who help people with psychological disorders adjust to the demands of life.

Counseling psychologists

Psychologists whose clients typically have adjustment problems rather than serious psychological disorders.

School psychologists

Psychologists employed by school systems to assist students with problems that interfere with learning, including the placement of students in special classes.

Social psychologists

Psychologists primarily concerned with an individual's thoughts, feelings, and behavior in social situations.

Consumer psychologists

Psychologists who study the behavior of shoppers in an effort to predict and influence their behavior.

Health psychologists

Psychologists who examine the ways in which behavior and mental processes are related to health.

Sport psychologists

Psychologists who help people improve their performance in various sports.

Aristotle (384-322 BCE)

A proponent of empiricism who wrote "About the Psyche" and outlined the laws of associationism.

Democritus (around 400 BCE)

Philosopher who suggested thinking of behavior in terms of a body and mind (the interaction of biological and mental processes).

Plato (ca. 427-347 BCE)

Philosopher who recorded Socrates' advice to "Know Thyself" and advanced the suggestion of relying on rational thought and introspection.

Gustav Theodore Fechner (1801-1887)

Researcher who showed how physical events (light and sounds) are related to psychological sensations and perceptions, considered by some to be the beginning of psychology.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

Structuralist credited as the founder of psychology, who established the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879.

Structuralism

School of psychology that attempts to break conscious experience down into objective sensations and subjective feelings, believing the mind functions by combining these elements.

Functionalism

School of psychology focused on behavior as well as the mind and consciousness, looking at how experience helps individuals function more adaptively in their environments.

William James (1842-1919)

Functionalist often considered the first true American Psychologist.

John Broadus Watson (1878-1958)

Considered the founder of American Behaviorism, who believed psychology should limit itself to observable, measurable events and behavior.

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Behaviorist who believed organisms learn to behave in certain ways because of reinforcement.

Psychoanalysis

Psychological perspective (often called psychodynamic) founded by Sigmund Freud that focuses on the unconscious as a seething cauldron of conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes.

Sigmund Freud

Founder of psychoanalysis who focused on the unconscious mind and its conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes.