Psychology: from Inquiry to Understanding: Chapter 1

Psychology

The scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior.

Levels of Analysis

Rungs on a ladder of analysis, with lower levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences.

Multiply Determined

Caused by many factors.

Individual Differences

Variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior.

Naive Realism

belief that we see the world precisely as it is.

Scientific Theory

Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world.

Hypothesis

Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory.

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them.

Belief Perseverance

Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them.

Metaphysical Claim

Assertion about the world that is not testable.

Pseudoscience

Set of claims that seems scientific but isn't.

Ad Hoc Immunizing Hypothesis

Escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification.

Patternicity

The tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli.

Terror Management Theory

Theory proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror with which we cope by adopting reassuring cultural world views.

Correlation-Causation Fallacy

Error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other.

Variable

Anything that can vary.

Falsifiable

Capable of being disproved.

Replicability

When a study's findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigators.

Decline Effect

Fact that the size of certain psychological findings appears to be shrinking over time.

Introspection

Method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences.

Structuralism

School of psychology that aimed to identify the basic elements of psychological experience.

Functionalism

School of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purpose of psychological characteristics.

Natural Selection

Principle that organisms that possess adaptations survive and reproduce at a higher rate than do other organisms.

Behaviorism

School of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking at observable behavior.

Cognitive Psychology

School of psychology that proposes that thinking is central to understanding behavior.

Cognitive Neuroscience

Relatively new field of psychology that examines the relation between brain functioning and thinking.

Psychoanalysis

School of psychology, founded by Sigmund Freud, that focuses on internal psychological processes of which we're unaware.

Evolutionary Psychology

Discipline that applies Darwin's theory of natural selection to human and animal behavior.

Basic Research

Research examining how the mind works.

Applied Research

Research examining how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems.