Unit 0: Psychological Perspectives, Research Methods, and Statistics

Comprehensive vocabulary flashcards covering foundational psychological perspectives, subfields, scientific method concepts, experimental design, ethical principles, and basic statistical measures.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes of humans and other animals.

Behavioral Perspective

A psychological perspective focused on studying how learned and observable behaviors impact behavior and mental processes, holding that psychology should be an objective science.

Psychodynamic Perspective

A perspective originally called psychoanalytic and founded by Sigmund Freud, emphasizing that unconscious forces and early childhood experiences affect behavior and mental processes.

Humanistic Perspective

A perspective focused on how the drive for personal growth and self-actualization impacts behavior, asserting an innate human drive to reach full potential and stressing Unconditional Positive Regard.

Cognitive Perspective

A perspective examining how interpretations of situations and mental processes—such as thinking, perceiving, learning, remembering, communication, and problem-solving—impact behavior.

Biological Perspective

A perspective explaining how biological and physiological processes, including genetics, neural, and hormonal factors, impact behavior and mental processes.

Social-Cultural Perspective

A perspective studying how behavior and thinking vary across different situations and cultures.

Positive Psychology

The scientific study of human flourishing, aimed at discovering and promoting human strengths and virtues to strengthen individuals and communities.

Biopsychosocial Approach

An integrated approach that considers biological, psychological, and social-cultural viewpoints to understand behavior and mental processes.

Developmental Psychology

The study of how human behavior and mental processes change across the lifespan, including childhood and adolescence.

Personality Psychology

The study of an individual's enduring, distinctive, and unique characteristics and traits.

Industrial-Organizational Psychology (I/O)

The branch of psychology that investigates the relationship between people and work environments, focusing on worker productivity, personnel selection, organizational structuring, and consumer behavior.

Clinical Psychology

A field of psychology in which professionals holding a Master's degree or PhD assess, diagnose, and treat psychological disorders.

Psychiatry

A branch of medicine practiced by physicians (MDs) who can diagnose and treat psychological disorders, specifically possessing the medical authority to prescribe medication.

Counseling Psychology

A field where practitioners with a Master's degree or PhD provide therapy to help individuals cope with adjustments, crises, work, family, and relationship challenges.

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it (often called the 'I knew that would happen' phenomenon).

Overconfidence

The tendency to think that we know more than we actually do.

Theory

An explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events.

Hypothesis

A testable prediction about behavior or mental processes.

Operational Definition

A carefully worded statement of the exact procedures used in a research study, allowing other researchers to replicate the study.

Falsifiable

The logical possibility that a hypothesis or theory can be shown to be false by an observation or an experiment.

Case Study

A descriptive research method in which one individual or a small group is studied in depth.

Naturalistic Observation

A research method involving observing subjects in their natural environment without intervention or manipulation by the researcher.

Meta-Analysis

A research method that synthesizes the results of multiple studies on a similar topic to determine a combined overall effect size.

Correlation Coefficient

A statistical measure ranging from $-1.0$ to $+1.0$ that expresses the direction and strength of the relationship between two variables.

Illusory Correlation

Perceiving a relationship between variables where none exists, or perceiving a stronger relationship than actually exists.

Regression Toward the Mean

The tendency for extreme or unusual scores or events to fall back toward their average.

Cross-Sectional Study

A study in which data is collected from a snapshot of groups of people at one specific period of time.

Longitudinal Study

A research design in which the same group of individuals is followed and retested over an extended period of time.

Independent Variable (IV)

The factor in an experiment that is manipulated by the researcher to observe its effect on a behavior or mental process.

Dependent Variable (DV)

The outcome factor that is measured in an experiment to evaluate the effect of the manipulated independent variable.

Confounding Variable

A factor other than the factor being studied that might influence a study's results if not properly controlled.

Single-Blind Procedure

An experimental procedure in which participants do not know whether they are in the experimental or control group, helping reduce social desirability bias.

Double-Blind Procedure

An experimental procedure in which neither the participants nor the research staff know who has received the treatment or placebo, minimizing experimenter bias.

Standard Deviation

A computed measure of how much scores in a distribution vary around the mean score.

Normal Curve

A symmetrical, bell-shaped distribution curve where approximately $68\%$ of scores fall within $1$ standard deviation of the mean, $95\%$ within $2$ standard deviations, and $99\%$ within $3$ standard deviations.

Statistical Significance

A statistical statement (typically indicated by a $p$ value of $0.05$ or less) expressing the likelihood that an obtained result did not occur by chance.

Effect Size

A quantitative measure of the strength and practical significance of a research finding, indicating how meaningful a relationship or group difference is in the real world.