Introduction to Interactive Psychology Flashcards

Vocabulary flashcards covering foundational concepts, perspectives, and key terminology from Chapter 1 Introduction to Interactive Psychology.

Psychology

The scientific study of the mind and behaviour.

WEIRD Samples

Research participants drawn from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic backgrounds.

Summative

A characteristic of psychological science indicating that it rests on a body of knowledge that is continuously growing over time.

Empirical

Approach based on astute observations and accurate measurements rather than intuition or pseudoscience.

Popular (Pop) Psychology

A body of concepts and theories about human mental life and behaviour that are purportedly, but not necessarily, based on psychological science.

Critical Thinking

The purposeful, reasoned, and goal-directed process of exploring a situation or problem.

Evolutionary Perspective

A psychological perspective that seeks to identify how our evolutionary past shapes certain cultural universals shared by all human beings.

Cultural Perspective

A psychological perspective that seeks to understand how culture affects people's thoughts and preferences.

Nature

The biological instructions built into your genes.

Nurture

Your lived experiences as shaped by your culture, education, and surroundings.

Cognitive Perspective

A perspective focused on studying the mental processes that underlie perception, thought, learning, memory, language, and creativity.

Emotional Perspective

A perspective used to understand how our capacity to feel, express, and perceive emotions plays an important role in decision making, behaviour, and social relationships.

Biological-Neuroscience Perspective

A perspective seeking to understand the biological underpinnings of how we think, act, and behave.

Neuroscience

The scientific study of how nerves and cells send and receive information from the brain, body, and spinal cord.

Developmental Perspective

A perspective focused on studying how people change physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally as they age.

Personality Perspective

A perspective seeking to understand aspects of behaviour that are relatively stable over time and across situations.

Social Psychological Perspective

A perspective considering the ways in which immediate social contexts influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, independent of personality.

Clinical Perspective

A perspective focused on the causes and treatment of psychological disorders, with the goal of improving human well-being, daily functioning, and social relationships.

Growth Mindset

A mindset that can make people better at changing their own behaviour by setting goals and sticking to them even in the face of setbacks.

Positive Psychology

The scientific study of important human experiences, such as hope, faith, courage, and creativity, emphasizing factors that make people happy, keep them healthy, and help them manage stress.

Distributed Practice

A learning technique of spreading out learning into shorter sessions over a longer period of time to increase comprehension and retention.