Introductory Psychology and Research Methods

Vocabulary flashcards covering foundational theories, historical figures, psychological approaches, and empirical methodology from the introductory psychology lecture notes.

Nativism

The philosophical view championed by Plato that certain items of knowledge are innate rather than acquired through experience.

Philosophical Empiricism

The philosophical view championed by Aristotle that a child's mind is a blank slate (tabula rasa) and all knowledge is acquired through experience.

Philosophical Dualism

The view embraced by René Descartes that the mind and body are fundamentally different things, composed of immaterial and material substances respectively.

Philosophical Materialism

The view advocated by Thomas Hobbes that all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena in the brain.

Philosophical Realism

John Locke's view that perceptions of the physical world are faithful copies of information entering the brain through sensory organs.

Philosophical Idealism

Immanuel Kant's view that perceptions of the physical world are the brain's best interpretation of sensory information.

Phrenology

A theory developed by Franz Joseph Gall proposing that specific mental abilities are localized in brain regions, evidenced by skull lumps and indentations.

Structuralism

An early approach to psychology that attempted to isolate and analyze the mind's basic elements.

Introspection

The analysis of subjective experience by trained observers, used in structuralism by Edward Titchener.

Functionalism

The study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment, advocated by William James.

Natural Selection

Charles Darwin's process by which specific attributes that promote an organism's survival and reproduction become more prevalent in the population over time.

Hysteria

A temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually resulting from emotionally upsetting experiences.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Sigmund Freud's approach emphasizing the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

Humanistic Psychology

An approach pioneered by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers emphasizing the positive potential of human beings and focusing on self-actualization.

Behaviorism

An approach founded by John Watson stating that the goal of scientific psychology should be to predict and control observable behavior.

Gestalt Psychology

An approach pioneered by Max Wertheimer that emphasized the way in which the mind creates perceptual experience, seeing the whole rather than the sum of its parts.

Developmental Psychology

The study of the ways in which psychological phenomena change over the life span.

Social Psychology

The study of the causes and consequences of sociality, examining how thoughts and behaviors are influenced by the presence or absence of others.

Outgroup Homogeneity Bias

The perception that members of an outside group are more homogeneous than members of one's own group.

Cognitive Psychology

The scientific study of human information-processing, mental states, and memory mechanisms that deposed behaviorism.

Evolutionary Psychology

The study of the ways in which the human mind has been shaped by natural selection.

Broca's Aphasia

The inability to speak and produce language, caused by damage to the left side of the brain in Broca's area.

Behavioral Neuroscience

An approach that links psychological processes to activities in the nervous system and other bodily processes.

Cognitive Neuroscience

A field that records brain activation during cognitive processing, relying on neuroimaging and electrophysiological measures.

Cultural Psychology

The study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members.

Absolutism

The view in cultural psychology that culture makes little difference on underlying psychological phenomena.

Relativism

The view in cultural psychology that psychological phenomena are likely to vary considerably across different cultures.

Empiricism

The belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through direct observation.

Rule of Parsimony

The principle, also known as Ockham's razor, that the simplest theory that explains all evidence is the best.

Operational Definition

A description of a property in concrete, measurable terms.

Validity

The extent to which a measurement and a property are conceptually related.

Reliability

The tendency for a measure to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing.

Power

The ability of a measure to detect the concrete conditions specified in the operational definition.

Demand Characteristics

Aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think they should.

Double-Blind Observation

An observation method whose true purpose is hidden from both the observer and the person being observed.

Standard Deviation

A statistic that describes the average difference between the measurements in a frequency distribution and the mean of that distribution.

Correlation Coefficient

A measure of the direction and strength of a correlation, denoted as $r$, ranging from $-1$ to $+1$.

Third-Variable Correlation

The condition where two variables are correlated only because each is casually related to an unmeasured third variable.

Independent Variable

The variable that is manipulated in an experiment to establish causal relationships.

Dependent Variable

The variable that is measured in an experiment to assess the impact of the manipulated variable.

Statistical Significance

A determination achieved when there is less than a $5\%$ chance ($p < 0.05$) that random assignment in an experiment failed.

Type 1 Error

An error that occurs when researchers conclude there is a causal relationship between two variables when there is in fact none.

Type 2 Error

An error that occurs when researchers conclude there is not a causal relationship between two variables when there is in fact one.

Three Rs Tenet

The ethical guidelines for animal research consisting of Replacement, Reduction, and Refinement.