history of psych 3

Natural selection

Organisms with heritable traits that help survival tend to leave more offspring and make those traits common

Pragmatism

ideas should be evaluated by their practical consequences and usefulness

Subvocal speech

small movements of speech muscles associated with thinking in words, associated with Watson

Law of exercise

connections between a situation and a response become stronger with practice and weaker if not used, associated with Thorndike

Law of effect

responses followed by satisfying consequences are more likely to occur again, associated with Thorndike

Psychic secretion

Pavlov’s term for a learned or anticipatory response to signals associated with food, even before food is presented.

Unconditioned stimulus (UCS)

A stimulus that naturally and automatically produces a response without prior learning

Conditioned stimulus (CS)

A previously neutral stimulus that, after being paired with an unconditioned stimulus, produces a learned response

Unconditioned response (UCR)

An unlearned and automatic response to an unconditioned stimulus

Conditioned response (CR)

A learned response

Extinction

getting rid of a conditioned response when the reward or reinforcement is removed

Positivism

An approach that emphasizes observable, measurable facts and scientific methods rather than explanations that cannot be empirically tested

Logical positivism

A philosophy of science emphasizing that meaningful claims should be logically coherent and/or empirically testable

Operationalism

The practice of defining a concept by the specific operations used to observe it

Purposive behavior

behavior is goal-directed rather than a chain of response, associated with Tolman

Latent learning

Learning without obvious reinforcement and may not show until there is a reason or incentive to show it

Cognitive map

mental representation and layout of an environment, associated with Tolman

Physical monism

mental events (thoughts) are physical processes and not nonphysical, associated with Skinner

Intervening variables

variables between a stimulus and the response that helps explain the behavior, associated with Tolman

Operant behavior

behavior that acts on the environment and is shaped by its consequences, associated with Skinner

Clockwork Universe

Functionalism

An approach that asks what mental processes do and how they help an organism adapt, rather than breaking consciousness into basic elements.

Structuralism

An approach that aimed to analyze conscious experience into its basic elements or structures.

Stream of consciousness

James’s description of consciousness as a continuous, changing, personal, selective flow rather than a collection of separate static elements.

Empirical self (the “Me”)

The self as something a person can know or describe

Material self

The parts of the self connected to the body and possessions, such as one’s physical appearance and belongings.

Social self

The self shaped by relationships and how one is recognized or regarded by other people.

Spiritual self

The inner, subjective aspects of the self, such as one’s values, feelings, and sense of personal identity.

Self as knower (the “I”)

The active subject that experiences, thinks, and is aware; distinguished from the empirical self that can be described.

Misattribution of arousal

When a person experiences physiological arousal but incorrectly attributes it to a different cause or emotion.

Ideo-motor theory of behavior

The idea that thinking about or representing an action can help initiate that action; ideas and attention can influence voluntary behavior.

Eugenics

A movement that misapplied heredity and evolutionary ideas to argue that human populations should be selectively bred or controlled. It has been used to justify discriminatory and coercive policies.

Conditioned reflex

A learned reflexive response that develops when a previously neutral stimulus becomes associated with a stimulus that naturally elicits a response.

Radical empiricism (Watson)

Watson’s strict focus on observable behavior and environmental conditions, rejecting introspection and treating private mental events as unnecessary for scientific psychology.

Behaviorism

An approach that makes observable behavior and learning central to psychology and emphasizes how environmental conditions shape responses.

Neobehaviorism

A later form of behaviorism that retained scientific study of behavior but allowed theoretical or intervening variables to help explain learning.

Adaptation

A trait or process that helps an organism function or survive in its environment; Darwin’s ideas encouraged psychologists to ask how behavior and mental processes may serve adaptive functions.

Instinct

A behavior pattern understood as having an inborn or biologically influenced basis, rather than being entirely learned.