History and Research Methods in Psychology

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering historical figures, schools of thought, cognitive biases, and empirical research methods in psychology.

Plato's View of Mind and Body

The philosophical concept of embodied cognition where the state of the mind manifests from the body, and physical states directly impact thought processes.

Aristotle's View of Mind and Body

The philosophical proposal that the process of thought can impact physicality, serving as an opposing view to Plato and influencing early concepts of consciousness.

Hippocrates

An ancient physiologist who proposed that mental abnormalities are caused directly by physical and biological abnormalities.

Johannes Müller

A physiologist (1801–1858) who identified the nervous system as the intermediary that impacts human thoughts and perception.

Hermann von Helmholtz

A physiologist who demonstrated that physical stimuli exist below conscious perception, such as sound frequencies below $20\,\text{Hz}$.

Structuralism

A theoretical approach pioneered by Wilhelm Wundt that breaks down behaviors and emotions into their fundamental building blocks using self-evaluation.

Introspection

A research technique used in structuralism involving the self-evaluation of one's own emotional and sensory responses to a stimulus to identify core building blocks.

Validity

The degree to which a scientific study accurately measures the specific variable it intends to measure.

Reliability

The consistency of a study or measurement across repeated instances.

Adaptation (Darwinian)

The process described by Charles Darwin where advantageous genetic mutations are passed down through reproduction over time to aid survival.

Functionalism

A school of psychology founded by William James that focuses on the evolutionary purpose and function of mental processes and behaviors.

Gestalt Psychology

A psychological theory founded by Max Wertheimer emphasizing that perception depends on patterns of stimulus information and context rather than individual isolated components.

Phenylketonuria (PKU)

A genetic metabolic condition in infants involving an enzyme deficiency that causes developmental disabilities, demonstrating an interplay between $100\%$ nature and $100\%$ nurture.

Confirmation Bias

The cognitive bias where individuals seek out, interpret, and favor information that confirms pre-existing beliefs while ignoring or dismissing contradictory evidence.

Hindsight Bias

The 'I knew it all along' effect, where past events are viewed as having been far more predictable than they actually were before they occurred.

Self-Serving Bias

The tendency to attribute personal successes to internal factors like ability or effort, and personal failures to external factors like luck or circumstances.

Illusory Superiority

The tendency for individuals to overestimate their own abilities and positive qualities relative to others.

Cross-Fostering

A research design involving placing genetically distinct embryos or offspring with different mothers to evaluate the separate impacts of nature and nurture.

Free Will

The psychological stance that individuals possess complete conscious control over all of their own thoughts and actions.

Determinism

The stance that human thoughts and actions are governed and activated by external influences outside of personal control.

Priming

An effect where exposure to an unconscious event or stimulus sets off subsequent behaviors without conscious intention or input.

Clever Hans Effect

A phenomenon named after a math-solving horse demonstrating that subjects can respond to subtle, unintentional physical cues from experimenters rather than actual cognitive processing.

Falsifiability

A requirement of scientific hypotheses stating that a hypothesis must be capable of being proven false using empirical data.

Parsimony

The scientific principle that explanations and hypotheses should be kept as simple as possible with the fewest required steps.

Case Study

An observational research method focused on detailed observations of the behavior of a single individual or a small, unique group.

Patient H.M.

A notable neuroscience case study subject whose hippocampus was surgically removed to treat seizures, resulting in the complete loss of his ability to form new memories.

Naturalistic Observation

A research design that involves unobtrusively observing subjects in their natural habitat without interference.

Correlation Coefficient ($r$)

A metric ranging from $0$ to $1$ that measures the strength, direction, and predictability between two co-varying variables.

Illusory (Spurious) Correlation

A statistical phenomenon where two numerical variables covary on a graph despite having no logical or direct relationship.

Third Variable Problem

A limitation in correlational studies where an unmeasured extraneous variable influences both measured variables, preventing causal conclusions.

External Validity

The extent to which experimental or observational study results can be generalized to real-world populations outside the study setting.

Internal Validity

The degree to which a study isolates the independent variable and eliminates confounding variables to ensure true cause-and-effect conclusions.

Experimenter Expectancy Effect

A research bias demonstrated by Rosenthal and Fode (1963) where researchers' subtle expectations inadvertently alter participant behavior or outcomes.