Psych Quiz 8/18

Psychological perspective

A way of thinking about and explaining human behavior and mental processes. Each perspective emphasizes different influences; no single perspective explains everything.

Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic perspective

Explains behavior through unconscious conflicts, motives, and experiences, especially those originating in childhood.

Unconscious mind

Thoughts, memories, desires, and motives outside conscious awareness that can influence behavior.

Repression

Unconsciously blocking threatening or uncomfortable thoughts and memories from awareness.

Id

The impulsive part of personality that seeks immediate satisfaction of basic desires.

Ego

The rational part of personality that balances the id’s desires with reality.

Superego

The moral part of personality that represents internalized rules and ideals.

Behavioral perspective

Explains behavior by examining observable actions and how behaviors are learned through conditioning, reinforcement, punishment, and observation.

Conditioning

Learning through associations between events or through the consequences of behavior.

Reinforcement

A consequence that increases the likelihood that a behavior will happen again.

Punishment

A consequence that decreases the likelihood that a behavior will happen again.

Observational learning

Learning a behavior by watching and imitating others.

Humanistic perspective

Emphasizes personal growth, free will, human potential, and the importance of meeting one’s needs.

Self-actualization

Reaching one’s fullest potential and becoming the best version of oneself.

Ideal self

The person and individual would most like to become

Hierarchy of needs

Abraham Maslow’s arrangement of human needs, beginning with basic physical and safety needs and progressing toward belonging, esteem, and self-actualization.

Cognitive Perspective

Examines how internal mental processes—such as thinking, memory, judgment, language, and problem-solving—influence behavior.

Cognition

Mental activities involving thinking, knowing, remembering, reasoning, and making decisions.

Biological perspective.

Explains thoughts and behaviors by examining physiological processes in the brain and body.

Brain structures.

Specialized parts of the brain that perform different functions and affect thought and behavior.

Neurotransmitters

Chemical messengers that carry signals between nerve cells

Hormones.

Chemical messengers released into the bloodstream that affect bodily processes and behavior.

Nervous system.

The body’s communication network, consisting of the brain, spinal cord, and nerves.

Neuron

A nerve cell that receives, processes, and transmits information

Evolutionary Perspective

Explains behavior by considering how natural selection favored traits that promoted survival and reproduction.

Natural Selection

Process through which inherited traits that improve survival or reproduction become more common across generations

Adaptation

Inherited characteristic or behavior that improves an organism's ability to survive or reproduce

Socio-Cultural Perspective

Examines how social situations, other people, groups, and culture influence thoughts and behavior.

Situational Attribution

Explaining behavior as the result of environmental or social circumstances.

Dispositional Attribution

Explaining behavior as the result of a person’s internal traits or personality.

Sigmund Freud

Founder of psychoanalysis; emphasized the unconscious mind, childhood experiences, and the id, ego, and superego.

Carl Jung

Psychodynamic theorist who expanded the study of unconscious mental processes.

B. F. Skinner

Behaviorist known for studying how reinforcement and punishment shape behavior.

Stanley Milgram

Social psychologist known for studying obedience to authority.

Abraham Maslow

Humanistic psychologist who developed the hierarchy of needs and emphasized self-actualization.

Jean Piaget

Cognitive psychologist known for studying how children’s thinking develops.

Empirical evidence

Information obtained through direct observation, measurement, or experimentation.

Reliability

The extent to which a study or measurement produces consistent results.

Validity

The extent to which a study or measurement accurately measures what it claims to measure.

Cognitive bias

A systematic error in thinking caused by mental shortcuts, often leading to inaccurate conclusions or irrational decisions.

Hindsight bias.

After an outcome is known, believing that one predicted it beforehand, the "I knew it all along" phenomenon

Confirmation bias.

The tendency to search for, interpret, favor, and remember information that supports existing beliefs while ignoring contradictory evidence

Overconfidence bias.

Tendency to overestimate the accuracy of one's knowledge, abilities, or judgments.

Perceiving order in random events.

Seeing patterns, connections, or meaningful streaks in events that are actually unrelated or caused by chance

Mental Shortcut

A quick method the brain uses to process information and make decisions. It saves effort but can result in errors.

Common Sense

Everyday judgment based on personal experience or intuition, which may be distorted by cognitive biases