Psychology 6 week assessment study guide

What are the 4 goals of psychology?

Describe, explain, predict, control

Define neuroscience

The study of the structure and the function of the brain.

Functionalism

The study of the function rather than the structure of consciousness.

Gestalt Psychology

Emphasized that perception is more than the sum of its parts and study how sensations are assembled into meaningful experiences.

Scientific method

Multistep technique of gathering information and answering questions so that errors and biases are minimized.

Dependent Variable

One or more of the participants behaviors that are used to measure the potential effects of the treatment or independent variable.

Ex: headache caused by independent variable (such as Tylenol)

Population

Every person that exists in the world that matches the criteria the researchers are interested in studying.

Double blind

Neither participants nor researchers know which group is receiving which treatment.

8 psychological approaches

Include the approach, definition, and psychologist.

Biological

Def: Focuses on how our genes, hormones, and nervous system interact with our environments to influence learning, personality, memory, motivation, emotions, and coping techniques.

Psychologist: Charles Darwin

Cognitive

Def: Examines how we process, store, and use information and how this information influences what we attend to, perceive, learn, remember, and feel.

Psychologist: Ulric Neisser

Behavioral

Def: Studies how organisms learn new behaviors or modify existing ones depending on whether events in their environments reward or punish these behaviors.

Psychologist: John B. Watson & B.F Skinner (Watson & Skinner for short)

Psychoanalytic

Def: stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires, and motivations on thoughts, behaviors, the development of personality traits, and psychological problems later in life.

Psychologist: Sigmund Freud

Humanistic

Def: Emphasizes that each individual has great freedom in directing his or her future, a large capacity for personal growth, a considerable amount of intristic worth, and enormous potential for self fulfillment.

Psychologist: Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers

Sociocultural

Def: studies the influence of social and cultural factors on psychological and behavioral functioning.

Psychologist: Lev Vygotsky

Evolutionary

Def: Studies how evolutionary ideas, such as adaptation and natural selection explain human behaviors and mental process.

Psychologist: Charles Darwin

Biopsychosocial

Def: studies how biological, psychological, and social influences explain human health and illness.

Psychologist: George Engel