Phyc Full Scale Review

Psychology

Scientific study of mind and behavior.

Structuralism

Approach using introspection to reveal the structure of the mind.

Introspection

Examining and reporting one's own conscious experiences.

Functionalism

Study of how mental and behavioral processes function to enable adaptation, survival, and flourishing.

Behaviorism

Approach that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

Kurt Lewin

Psychologist who emphasized the interaction between the person and the situation.

Cognitive neuroscience

Study of the biological bases of cognition and mental processes.

Margaret Washburn

Early woman in psychology who studied animal behavior and cognition.

Mamie Phipps Clark

Psychologist known for research on race, identity, and children's development.

Basic science approach

Scientific research focused on understanding perception, thought, and behavior.

Clinical approach

Therapeutic interventions used to address psychological disorders.

Evolutionary perspective

Examines how humans' evolutionary past shapes universal and biologically driven behaviors.

Cultural perspective

Examines how cultural context affects people's thoughts, preferences, and behavior.

Cognitive perspective

Focuses on thoughts and other mental processes.

Emotional perspective

Focuses on emotions and their role in behavior.

Biological-neuroscience perspective

Examines how the body and brain influence psychological processes.

Developmental perspective

Examines how psychological processes change across development.

Personality perspective

Examines stable patterns of behavior and individual differences.

Social perspective

Examines how other people and social situations affect behavior.

Clinical perspective

Focuses on psychological disorders and their treatment.

WEIRD samples

Research samples mainly from Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, Democratic populations.

Why are WEIRD samples a concern?

Findings from WEIRD samples may not generalize to other populations.

Evolutionary psychology

Studies how humans' evolutionary past shapes universal human behaviors.

Culture

Examines how cultural context affects thoughts, preferences, and behavior.

Conscious processes

Mental processes we have access to and can observe with valid measurements.

Unconscious processes

Mental processes we do not have access to or cannot influence.

Neuroscience

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

Endocrine system

Biological system that influences psychological processes through hormones.

Synesthesia

Condition where stimulation of one sense produces an experience in another sense.

London cab drivers study

Example showing that psychological experience can influence the brain.

Nature

Biological influences on behavior and psychological processes.

Nurture

Environmental influences on behavior and psychological processes.

Nature-nurture interaction

Behavior is influenced by interactions between biology and environment.

Universal aspects of behavior

Behaviors or psychological processes broadly shared across humans.

Psychological variation

Differences in psychological processes across people, cultures, or situations.

Stability

Consistency of psychological processes across time or situations.

Change

Differences in psychological processes across time or situations.

Person-situation interaction

Behavior results from interactions between personal characteristics and the situation.

Psychology's history

Psychology has existed as a formal science for about 140 years.

Psychology's two historical paths

Basic scientific research and clinical therapeutic practice.

Basic science

Research focused on understanding psychological processes.

Clinical science

Research and practice focused on psychological disorders and treatment.

1990s Decade of the Brain

NIH designation that helped accelerate brain and cognitive neuroscience research.

Psychology today

Basic and clinical approaches are more closely integrated than in early psychology.

Evolution and culture

Evolution helps explain universals; culture helps explain variation.

Biological underpinnings

Genes, nervous system, and endocrine system underlying psychological processes.

Conscious vs. unconscious processes

Some psychological processes are accessible to awareness while others are not.

Time and context

Psychological processes can remain stable or change across time and situations.

Nature-nurture theme

Biology and environment interact to influence behavior.

Universal-variation theme

Psychology seeks universal patterns as well as differences across people and contexts.

Conscious-unconscious theme

Behavior is shaped by processes we are aware of and processes we are unaware of.

Typical-disrupted functioning theme

Studying typical and disrupted functioning provides insight into psychological processes.

Application theme

Applying psychology can change lives in positive ways.

Diversity in psychological research

Psychologists need diverse populations because findings may differ across cultures and groups.

Wilhelm Wundt

Founded the first psychology laboratory and tested the structuralist approach.

William James

Published Principles of Psychology and advanced the functionalist approach.

Ivan Pavlov

Discovered that dogs could learn to salivate to a bell associated with food.

B.F. Skinner

Developed the Skinner box and studied how behavior is reinforced.

Jean Piaget

Advanced the study of cognitive development through The Child's Conception of the World.

John B. Watson & Rosalie Rayner

Studied Little Albert and advanced the behaviorist school.

Kurt Lewin

Emphasized the interaction between the person and the situation.

Critical thinking

Combining curiosity and wonder with healthy skepticism.

Healthy skepticism

Questioning claims and evidence rather than accepting them automatically.

Summative thinking

Considering multiple sources of evidence without treating conclusions as absolute.

Why are psychological conclusions not absolute?

Conclusions can change as new information and evidence become available.

Misinformation

False or inaccurate information that can spread when claims are not critically evaluated.

Fake news

False or misleading information presented as legitimate news.

Bias

A systematic tendency that can influence how people perceive or interpret information.

Common sense

Everyday beliefs about how people and the world work.

Limits of common sense

Common-sense beliefs can contradict each other and do not reliably establish what is true.

“Absence makes the heart grow fonder”

Example of a common-sense belief suggesting distance increases affection.

“Out of sight, out of mind”

Example of a common-sense belief suggesting distance decreases thoughts or affection.

“Birds of a feather flock together”

Example suggesting people are attracted to others who are similar to them.

“Opposites attract”

Example suggesting people are attracted to people who are different from them.

Contradictory common-sense beliefs

Opposing sayings can both sound reasonable, showing why intuition alone is unreliable.

Intuition

A feeling or judgment that occurs without deliberate reasoning or analysis.

Why can intuition be misleading?

People can rely on biases and incomplete experiences when making intuitive judgments.

Why study psychological biases?

Understanding biases helps us recognize and overcome them in ourselves and others.

Evidence-based thinking

Using evidence to evaluate claims rather than relying only on intuition or common sense.

Multiple sources of evidence

Using evidence from different sources to develop stronger conclusions.

Changing scientific knowledge

Scientific understanding grows as new information and evidence become available.

Critical thinking and misinformation

Critical thinking helps people evaluate sources and recognize misinformation.

Researcher mindset

Curiosity and wonder combined with healthy skepticism when evaluating psychological claims.

Overconfidence effect

The tendency to be overly sure of what we know.

Confirmation bias

The tendency to seek out, pay attention to, and believe only evidence that supports what we are already confident we know.

Snyder & Swann (1978)

Researchers who demonstrated confirmation bias by finding that people tend to ask questions that confirm an initial hypothesis rather than questions that could disconfirm it.

Popular psychology

Claims about psychological phenomena promoted through social media, magazines, TV shows, and entertainment media that are often accepted as truth but may lack validity.

Psychology is more than common sense

Psychological science can provide evidence that contradicts our intuitions.

Pseudoscience

Claims or practices that may appear scientific but lack reliable scientific evidence.

Critical thinking

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

Critical-thinking questions

Ask what scientific evidence supports a claim, whether the topic has been studied empirically, and whether the information is based on facts or someone’s opinion.

Cognitive perspective

The psychological perspective that studies mental processes underlying perception, thought, learning, memory, language, and creativity.

Emotional perspective

The psychological perspective that studies how emotions influence decision making, behavior, and social relationships.

Biological-neuroscience perspective

The psychological perspective that seeks to understand the biological underpinnings of how humans think, act, and behave.

Neuroscience

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

Biological-neuroscience research

Scientists can study how brain activity, genetics, and bodily reactions relate to psychological processes.

Brain dysfunction research

Historically, scientists used brain damage and dysfunction to infer how specific brain areas normally function.

Modern brain research

Scientists can measure brain activity in real time and analyze how brain regions relate to one another.

Developmental perspective

The psychological perspective that studies how people change physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally as they age.

Developmental perspective lifespan

Developmental psychology examines all phases of the human life cycle, from conception to old age.