Vocabulary Flashcards - Psychology History & Concepts (Page 1-5 Notes)

These vocabulary flashcards cover key terms and concepts from the lecture notes across pages 1–5, including foundational figures, theories, methods, and statistical terms.

Wundt

German psychologist who founded experimental psychology and established the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig (1879); prolific writer.

Stimulus error

The tendency to name a stimulus you see rather than describing its properties.

Creative Synthesis

A holistic view that emphasizes synthesis of mental processes, opposing mental chemistry.

DSM

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Galileo

Italian astronomer who observed lunar craters and challenged Aristotle; pressured to recant by the Church.

Hedonistic

Relating to the pursuit of pleasure and avoidance of pain.

Hedonism

Doctrine that pleasure is the highest good; often linked to excess in modern usage.

Sigmund Freud

Founder of psychoanalysis and a central figure in psychology.

B. F. Skinner

Prominent behaviorist; described here as the second most important figure.

Socrates

Ancient philosopher famous for Know thyself and the belief that the unexamined life is not worth living.

Golden mean

Aristotle’s idea that virtue lies in moderation and nothing in excess.

Thales

Early philosopher often called the first philosopher.

Conflict theory

Perspective viewing society as organized around conflict over resources and power.

Philosophy

Discipline of asking fundamental questions and forming ideas, sometimes with limited empirical evidence.

Voluntarism/Volunteerism

Wundt’s view that the mind actively organizes experiences; emphasizes will.

Titchener

Wilhelm Wundt’s student; founder of structuralism.

Structuralism

School focusing on the structure of conscious experience through introspection.

Volkerpsychologie

Wundt’s ten-volume work, often translated as Culture/Folk Psychology.

Prolific

Producing a large amount of writing or work.

Tabula rasa

Blank slate; the mind is born in a blank state (Locke).

Nature vs. Nurture

Debate over whether genes (nature) or environment (nurture) shape behavior and mental traits.

Locke

English philosopher arguing knowledge comes from experience and observation.

Empiricist

Belief that knowledge comes from sensory experience and observation.

Syllogism

Deductive reasoning form with two premises leading to a conclusion (Aristotle).

Lyceum

Aristotle’s school in ancient Athens.

Dogma

Belief established by authority as incontrovertibly true; not open to argument.

Recant

To withdraw or renounce a statement or belief; Galileo did so under Church pressure.

Kraepelin

Famous psychiatrist known for nosology/classification of mental disorders.

Nosology

Classification of diseases or disorders (naming and grouping).

Longitudinal

Study design following the same individuals over time.

Cross-sectional

Study design assessing data at one point in time across groups.

Exogenous disorders

Disorders originating outside the body or from external factors.

Endogenous disorders

Disorders arising from internal factors within the body or mind.

Manic Depression / Bipolar Disorder

Mood disorder involving episodes of mania and depression.

Dementia Praecox / Schizophrenia

Historically dementia praecox; now known as.

Lewin

Psychologist who viewed nature and nurture as an intersection (field theory).

Hegel

Philosopher known for the dialectic process: thesis, antithesis, synthesis.

Dialectic process

Process of thesis and counter-thesis leading to synthesis.

Twin studies (nature vs nurture)

Research comparing identical/dfraternal twins to assess genetic vs environmental influence.

John Locke

Empiricist who claimed the mind is a blank slate at birth (tabula rasa).

Leibniz

Philosopher who argued for innate aspects of the mind; built on Locke’s ideas.

Watson

founder of behaviorism.

Darwin

Naturalist known for natural selection; explored on HMS Beagle.”

Zeitgeist

Spirit of the times; the cultural climate influencing ideas

Great person theory

Idea that history is shaped by extraordinary individuals.

Eugenics

Belief in improving the human population through selective breeding.

Idiocracy

Harmful satirical concept/movie illustrating consequences of reduced societal intelligence.

Mendel

introduced genetic ideas, including dominant/recessive inheritance and Punnett squares.

Punnett square

Tool to predict genetic crosses and offspring genotypes.

Evolutionary psychology / Sociobiology

Approach using evolution to explain behavior; critiques include post hoc rationalizations.

Post hoc rationalizations

Justifications after the fact for observed behavior.

Lamarck

Proposed inheritance of acquired characteristics.

Epigenetics

Heritable changes in gene expression not due to DNA sequence changes.

Trait psychology

Gordon Allport’s approach focusing on enduring personality traits.

State vs. trait

Distinction between temporary states and stable traits in behavior.

Gordon Allport

Psychologist known for trait theory and personality structure.

Cardinal trait

Dominant trait that shapes most of a person’s behavior.

Machiavelli

Political thinker known for ruthless realism; ends justify the means.

Narcissus

Person who had excessive self-love and fixation on self.

Ontogeny/Phylogeny

____ is the development of an individual; ____ is the evolutionary history of a species.

Ernst Haeckel

Proposed the recapitulation (ontogeny repeats phylogeny) concept.

Central tendency

Measures (mean, median, mode) that describe a typical value in a distribution.

Mean

The arithmetic average of a set of values.

Median

The middle value when a data set is ordered.

Mode

The most frequently occurring value in a data set.

Normal curve

Bell-shaped distribution where mean = median = mode.

Standard deviation

Average amount scores vary from the mean; 1 SD marks a specific spread in the distribution.

Statistically significant

Result unlikely to occur by chance, indicating a real effect.

H0 (null hypothesis)

Statement of no effect or no difference to be tested against.

H1 (alternative hypothesis)

Statement that there is an effect or difference to be supported by data.

Independent variable

Variable that is deliberately varied and does not depend on others.

Dependent variable

Variable that is measured and depends on the independent variable.

Operational definition

Defines a hypothetical construct in measurable terms.

Hypothetical construct

Abstract concept that cannot be directly measured (e.g., strength).

Confounding variable

Extraneous variable that can distort the true relationship between studied variables.

Deviation

To differ from the mean.