PSYC 1F90

Textbook Definitions

Uncritical acceptance

The tendency to believe claims because they seem true or because it would be nice if they were true.

Conformation Bias

The tendency to search for, interpret, and remember information in a way that confirms one's preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.

Superstition

unfounded belief held without evidence or in spite of falsifying evidence

Pseudoscience

Unfounded belief system that seems to be based on science

Science

An objective approach to answering questions that relies on careful observation, experimentation, and evidence.

Psychologist

A person highky trained in the methods, factual knowledge, and theories of psychology.

Animal model

In research, an animal whose behaviour is studied to derive principles that may apply to human behaviour.

Clinical psychologist

A psychologist who specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.

Counseling psychologist

A psychologist who provides therapy and guidance to individuals facing personal, social, or emotional challenges.

Psychiatrist

A medical doctor who specializes in the diagnosis, treatment, and prevention of mental illnesses, often using medication and therapy.

Psychoanalyst

A mental health professional trained in psychoanalysis, focusing on unconscious processes and the therapeutic relationship to treat emotional and psychological issues.

Counselor

A trained professional who helps individuals cope with personal issues and develop strategies for improvement, often in a therapeutic setting.

Scientific observation

An empirical investigation structured to answer questions about the world in a systematic and intersubjective fashion (observations can be reliably confirmed by multiple observers)

Stimulus

Any event or object that elicits a response from an organism, typically studied in relation to behavior and learning.

Introspection

Observation of your thoughts, feelings, and behaviours.

Structuralism

Study of sensations and personal ecperience analyzed as basic elements.

Imageless thought

an old term describing the inability of introspections to become subjectivley aware of some mental processes; an early term describing the cognitive unconscious.

Cognitive unconscious

The part of the mind that processes information and influences thoughts and behaviors without conscious awareness, including automatic and implicit mental processes.

Gestalt psychology

Study of thinking, learning and perception in whole units - not by analysis into parts.

Functionalism

A school of psychology that focuses on the purpose of mental processes and behavior in adapting to the environment.

Natural selection

Darwin’s theory that evolution favours those plants and animals best suited to their living conditions.

Behaviourism

School of thought in psychology that emphasized study of observable actions over study of the mind.

Response

Any muscular action, glandular activity, or other identifiable aspect of behaviour.

Radical behaviorism

A behaviorist approach that rejects noth introspection and any study of mental events, such as thinking of inappropriate topics.

Dynamic unconious

In freudian theory, the parts of the mind that are beyond awareness, especially conflicts, impulses and desires not directly known to a person.

Psychoanalysis

Freudian approach to psychotherapy emphasizing the exploration of the unconcious using free association, dream interrelation, resistances, and tranference to uncover unconcious conflicts.

Neo-Freudians

Psychologists who accept the broad features of Freud’s theory but have revised the theory to include the role of cultural and social factors while still accepting some of its basic concepts.

Psychodynamic theory

Any theory of behaviour that emphasizes internal conflicts, motives and unconcious forces.

Cognitive psychology

The study of information processing, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving.

Operational definition

Defining a scientific concept by stating the specfic actions or procedures used to measure it. For example, hunger might be defined as the number of hours of food deprivation.

Determinism

The idea that all behaviour is prior causes that would completly explain ones choices and actions if all such causes were known.

Free will

The ability to freely make choices that are not controlled by genetics, learning, or unconcious forces - the idea that human beings are capable of making choices or decisions themselves.

Humanistic psychology

Study of people as inherently good and motivated to learn and improve.

Self actualization

The process of fully developing personal potentials.

Psychology

The scientific study of behaviour and mental processes.

Biopsychosocial model

An approach acknowledging that biological, psychological, and social factors interact to influence human behaviour and mental processes.

Biological perspective

The attempt to explain behaviour in terms of underlying biological principles.

Evolutionary psychology

Approach that emphasizes inherited, adaptive aspects of behaviour and mental processes.

Neuroscience

The broader feild of biopsychologists and other who study the brain and nervous system, such as biologists and biochemists.

Psychological perspective

The traditional view that behaviour is shaped by psychological processes occuring at the level of the individual.

Social perspective

The focus on the importance of social contexts in influencing the behaviour of individuals.

Social norms

Rules that define acceptable and expected behaviour for members of a group.

Gender bias in research

A tendency for females and female related issues to be underrepresented in research, whether psychological or otherwise.

Cultural relativity

The idea that behaviour must be judged relative to the values of the culture in which it occurs.

Description in scientific research

The process of naming and classifying

Understanding in psychology

Being able to state the causes of behavior.

Preditction in psychology

An ability to accuratly forecast behavior.

Control

In psychology, altering conditions that influence behaviour.

Critical thinking in psychology

A type of reflection involving the support of beliefs through scientific explanation and observation.

Falsification

The deliberate attempt to uncover how a commonsense belief or scientific theory might be false.

Scientific method

A form of critical thinking based on careful measurement, controlled observation, and repeatable results.

Hypothesis

Predicted outcome of an experiment, or an educated guess about the relationship between variables.

Theory

Comprehensive explanation of observable events.

Self-report data

Information that is provided by participants about their own thouhghts, emotions, or behaviours, typically on a questionnaire or during an interview.

Survey

Descriptive research method in which participants are asked the same questions.

Population

The entire group of people from which a ample is drawn.

Sample

Subset of a population being studied.

Representative sample

A small randomly selected part of a larger population that accuratley reflects characteristics of the whole population.

Biased sample

A subpart of a larger population that does not accurately reflect characteristics of the whole population.

Social desirability

Deliberate tendency to provide polite, socially acceptable responses.

Observational data

Data that come from watching participants and recording their behaviour.

Naturalistic observation

Observing behaviour as it unfolds in natural settings.

Structured observation

Observing behaviour in situations that have been set up by the researcher.

Observer effect

Changes in an organisms behaviour brought about by an awareness of being observed.

Observer bias

The tendency of an observer to distort observations or perceptions to match his or her expectations.

Physiological data

Data that comes from participants physiological processes (including measures of the brain and heart muscles and the production of hormones)

Variable

Factor or characteristic manipulated or measured in research.

Experiment

A study in which the investigator manipulates at least one variable while measuring at least one other variable.

Independent variable

Variable manipulated by the researcher in an experiment.

Dependent variable

The element of an experiment that measures any effect of the manipulation.

Extraneous variable

A condition or factor that may change and is excluded from influencing the outcome of an experiment.

Experimental subjects

Humans (also referred to as participants) or animals whose behaviour is investigated in an experiment.

Participants

Humans whose behaviour is investigated in an experiment.

Experimental group

Group that receives the treatment the study is designed to test.

Control group

Subjects in an experimental study who do not receive the treatment being investigated.

Random assignment

Use of chance to place subjects in experimental and control groups.

Statistically significant

Experimental results that would rarely occur by chance alone.

Meta-analysis

A statistical technique for combining the results of many studies on the same subject.

Research participant bias

Changes in the behaviour of study participants caused by the unintended influence of their own expectations.

Placebo effect

Changes in behaviour due to participants expectations that a drug (or other treatment) will have some effect.

Placebo

Inactive substance or treatment that is disringuishable from a real, active substance or treatment.

Single blinde study

Research in which the subjects do not know which treatment they receive.

Researcher bias

Changes in participants behaviour cause by the unintended influence or a reseachers actions.

Self-fulfilling prophecy

A prediction that prompts people to act in ways that make the predictions come true.

Double blind study

Research in which neither the observer nor the subject know which subjects received which treatment.

Quasi-experimental study

A descriptive study in which researchers wish to compare groups of people but cannot randomly assign them to groups.

Correlational research

Descriptive study that quantifies the degree to which events, measures or variable are associated.

Correlation

The existence of a consistent, systematic relationship between two events, measures, or variables.

Correlation coefficient

A statistical index ranging from -1.00 to +1.00 that indicated the direction and degree of correlation.

Causation

The act of causing some effect.

Case Study

(Clinical method) In depth analysis of the behaviour of one person or a small number of people.

Central nervous system (CNS)

The brain and spinal cord.

Spinal cord

A column of nerves that transmits information between the brain and the peripheral nervous system.

Spinal nerves

Major nerves that carry sensory and motor messages in and out of the spinal cord.

Peripheral nervous system (PNS)

The part of the nervous system outside the brain and spinal cord.

Neuron

A cell in the nervous system that transmits information.

Nerve

A bundle of neuron axons.

Cranial nerves

Major nerves that leave the brain without passing through the spinal cord.

Somantic nervous system (SNS)

A network linking the spinal cord with the body and sense organs.

Autonomic nervous system (ANS)

The collection of axons that carry information to and from internal organs and glands.