Chapter 1 and 2 Psychology Vocabulary

A vocabulary review covering foundational figures, fields of study, and scientific research concepts in psychology.

Psychology

The scientific study of the mind, and behavior.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

Created the first official psychology research lab in 1879 at the university of leipzig.

Stanley G Hall

Established psychology's first American laboratory at Clark University (1889).

William James (1842-1910)

Scholar interested in the adaptive purpose of consciousness and associated with functionalism.

Functionalism

Focuses on not what the mind is, but what it does.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Used psychoanalysis, bringing light to unconscious conflicts to treat psychological problems.

Unconscious

Thoughts, memories, and desires below the surface of awareness that influence behavior.

John B Watson (1878-1958)

Introduced behaviorism and rejected introspection as unverifiable.

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Focused on how environmental factors influence a person's behavior.

George Engel's Biopsychosocial model (1977)

Argued that biological, psychological, and social factors are integrated to understand behavior and wellbeing.

WEIRD

Acronym for Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic.

Evidence Based-Mediecine Movement (Cochrane 1990s)

Made randomized control trial the gold standard for evaluating psychological interventions.

Developmental Psychology

Looks at human development across the lifespan.

Social Psychology

Focuses on interpersonal behavior and role of social factors in behavior.

Experimental Psychology

Studies how people learn and the best way to teach them.

Cognitive psychology

Focuses on high mental processes, memory, reasoning, decision making, and problem solving.

Personality

Focuses on understanding individuals' consistency in behavior.

Physiological psychology

Examines influence of genetic factors on behavior, and role of the brain, nervous system, and bodily chemicals in regulation of behavior.

Clinical psychology

Assessment and treatment of psychological disorders.

Counseling psychology

Focuses on everyday adjustment, relationships, and career guidance.

School Psychology

Focuses on student wellbeing, behavior issues, and learning problems.

Industrial and Organizational Psychology

Focuses on workplace behavior, HR practice, and productivity.

Theory

Broad framework or ideas that inform research.

Hypothesis

Testable statement that lets us test our theories.

Variable

Characteristic, number, or concept we seek to measure for a given study.

Operationalization

Creating an operational definition that should include both valid and reliable measures.

Valid

Approach to measurement that accurately represents the idea we hope to study.

Reliable

Approach to measurement that is consistent.

Dissemination

Act of spreading something like information widely.

Independent Variable (IV)

Condition in an experiment that is manipulated to see its impact on another variable.

Dependent Variable (DV)

Variable affected by the manipulation of the independent variable (IV).

Extraneous Variable

Variables other than the IV that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study.

Confounding of Variables

Occurs when two variables are linked in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their special effects.

Generalizable Sample

A sample that has similar characteristics as the overall population.

Experiment

An IV highly controlled condition where an experimental group is compared to other groups on the DV and participants are randomly assigned.

Interviews

Open-ended dialogue used to gather subjective details.

Naturalistic Observation

When researchers carefully observe behavior without intervening directly with the participants.

Null Hypothesis

Baseline assumption that there are no relationships among data, where research typically seeks to demonstrate a relationship between variables.

Reactivity

Occurs when participant's behavior is altered by the presence of an observer.