Psychology Lecture Review

Flashcards covering key vocabulary, figures, concepts, and research methodologies from the psychology lecture notes.

Wundt

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

Stimulus error

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

Creative Synthesis

A viewpoint that disagreed with mental chemistry, emphasizing the holistic synthesis of mental processes.

DSM

Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders.

Hedonism

The doctrine that pleasure is the highest good; modern usage often linked to excess.

Sigmund Freud

Founder of psychoanalysis and a central figure in psychology.

B. F. Skinner

Prominent behaviorist, described as the second most important figure in psychology according to the notes.

Socrates

Ancient philosopher known for the idea 'Know thyself' and the claim that the unexamined life is not worth living.

Golden mean

Aristotle's principle that virtue lies in moderation, nothing in excess.

Thales

One of the earliest philosophers; often referred to as the first philosopher.

Conflict theory

A perspective that sees society as organized around conflict over resources and power.

Philosophy

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

Voluntarism/Volunteerism

Wundt's school of thought that the mind actively organizes experiences, emphasizing the will.

Titchener

Wilhelm Wundt's student and founder of structuralism.

Structuralism

School of thought focusing on the structure of conscious experience through introspection.

Volkerpsychologie

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

Tabula rasa

Blank slate; the mind is thought to be a blank state at birth (associated with Locke).

Nature vs. Nurture

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

Locke

English philosopher and empiricist who argued that knowledge comes from experience and observation.

Empiricist

A person who believes knowledge comes from sensory experience and observation.

Syllogism

A form of deductive reasoning with two premises leading to a conclusion; associated with Aristotle.

Dogma

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

Recant

To withdraw or renounce a statement or belief.

Kraepelin

A famous psychiatrist who studied the effects of drugs on the human brain.

Nosology

The classification of disease.

Longitudinal study

A research design that observes the same subjects over an extended period (e.g., 5, 10, 15 years within the same group).

Cross-sectional study

A research design that compares different groups at a single point in time (e.g., 5, 10, 15 year olds studied today).

Manic depression

Now known as bipolar disorder.

Dementia Praecox

Now known as schizophrenia.

Lewin

Proposed that behavior is an intersection of nature and nurture, not one or the other.

Hegel

Philosopher whose main idea was the dialectic process.

Dialectic process

Describes having an idea, then a counter-idea, which are put together to form a synthesis.

Leibniz

Correction to Locke's 'nothing in the mind that wasn't first in the senses,' adding 'except the mind itself'.

Watson

Famous behaviorist, whose views suggested that outcomes depend on what happens to an individual (nurture).

Darwin

Developed the idea of Natural Selection while aboard the HMS Beagle.

Natural Selection

The process by which organisms better adapted to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring.

Zeitgeist

Spirit of the times, showing what was going on culturally and intellectually (Darwin is an example).

Great person theory

A theory suggesting that historical shifts come from singular influential individuals (Freud is an example).

Eugenics

The selective breeding of humans.

Gregor Mendel

Introduced genetic ideas, teaching about dominant and recessive genes and the Punnett Square.

Evolutionary psychology

A field that applies evolutionary principles to understand human behavior and cognition, formerly known as sociobiology.

Lamarck

Proposed that acquired characteristics could be inherited, a concept now reconsidered with epigenetics.

Epigenetics

The study of heritable phenotype changes that do not involve alterations in the DNA sequence.

Gordon Allport

Psychologist associated with trait psychology and the classification of traits (cardinal, central, secondary).

Cardinal trait

A trait that dominates and shapes a person's behavior.

Machiavelli

Associated with the desire for control by any means necessary; ruthless, where the ends justify the means.

Narcissus

A mythological figure who loved his own reflection, symbolizing self-absorption.

State (psychology)

A temporary and current psychological condition.

Trait (psychology)

A more long-lasting characteristic.

Central trait

General characteristics found in some degree in every person, basic building blocks of behavior.

Secondary trait

A trait seen only in certain circumstances.

Ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny

Ernst Haeckel's controversial theory that an organism's developmental history (ontogeny) repeats its evolutionary history (phylogeny).

Statistically significant

Refers to a result that is unlikely to occur by chance.

H1

Hypothesis 1, which proposes an increase, decrease, or change.

H0

Null Hypothesis, representing everything else opposite to H1.

Independent variable

A variable whose variation does not depend on that of another; the variable manipulated by the experimenter.

Dependent variable

A variable whose value depends on that of another; the variable measured by the experimenter.

Operational definition

Takes a hypothetical construct and makes it measurable.

Hypothetical construct

An idea or a concept that is not directly observable but is inferred from behavior (e.g., strength).

Extraneous/confounding variable

An extra variable that interferes with the experiment, potentially messing up the results.

Standard deviation

How much, on average, scores vary from the mean.

Mean

The average of a set of numbers.

Median

The middle number in a dataset after the numbers have been put in order; invented by Galton.

Mode

The most frequently recurring score in a dataset; associated with Pearson.

Measures of central tendency

Statistical values that describe the center of a dataset (mean, median, mode).

Double-blind study

An experimental design where neither the subject nor the experimenter knows who is in the control or experimental group, correcting experimental bias.

Social contract

An agreement where individuals give up some freedom to the government for protection and order.

Correlation

The statistical relationship between two things.

Inverse correlation

When one variable increases as the other decreases, or vice versa.

Pearson product moment correlation coefficient

A statistical value (ranging from -1 to 1) that quantifies the strength and direction of a linear correlation.

Truncated range

A problem in correlation analysis where cutting off the ends of the data range can mislead about the relationship.

Single blind

An experimental design where the subject does not know if they're in the control group or the experimental group.

Hawthorn effect

The phenomenon where subjects modify their behavior in response to being observed.

Heisenberg uncertainty principle

The principle that the act of observing a phenomenon changes it.

Validity

The truthfulness of a measurement; whether it measures what it claims to measure.

Face validity

A superficial assessment of whether a measure appears to be valid or looks like it measures the intended construct.

MMPI (Minnesota Multiphasic Personality Inventory)

A standardized psychological test assessing personality traits and psychopathology through true/false questions.

Atheoretical (MMPI)

A characteristic of MMPI, meaning it was developed without a specific theory, letting the numbers speak for themselves.

External validity

The extent to which the results of a study can be generalized to the outside world or other populations.

Mundane realism

The extent to which an experimental situation is similar to situations encountered in everyday life.

Experimental realism

The extent to which an experiment has an impact on participants, engaging them seriously in the procedures.

Reliability

The consistency of a measure; if not reliable, it cannot be valid.

Inner rater reliability

The degree of agreement or consistency between two or more independent observers or judges.

Test-retest reliability

Assesses the consistency of a measure over time by administering the same test on different occasions.

IRB (Institutional Review Board)

A crucial committee responsible for reviewing and approving research involving human subjects to ensure ethical standards.

Diana Baumrind

A prominent developmental psychologist known for her extensive research on parenting styles.

Ethics (research)

A set of moral principles and guidelines researchers must follow to protect participants' well-being, dignity, and rights.

Informed consent

A fundamental ethical principle requiring participants to be fully aware of a study's nature, risks, and benefits before agreeing to take part.

Confidentiality (research)

The agreement that personal identifiable information disclosed during a study will not be shared with others.

Voluntary participation

Means that individuals must freely choose to participate in a study without any coercion or undue influence.