Psych 1005 chapter 1

Psychology

The scientific study of mind and behavior.

Philosophical Dualism

The view that mind and body are fundamentally different things.

Philosophical Materialism

The view that all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena.

Philosophical Realism

The view that perceptions of the physical world are produced entirely by information from the sensory organs.

Philosophical Idealism

The view that perceptions of the physical world are the brain’s interpretation of information from the sensory organs.

Philosophical Empiricism

The view that all knowledge is acquired through experience.

Philosophical Nativism

The view that some knowledge is innate rather than acquired.

Reaction Time

The amount of time it takes to respond to a specific stimulus.

Structuralism

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

Introspection

The examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings.

Functionalism

An approach to psychology that was influenced by Darwin’s theory of natural selection, emphasizing the adaptive significance of mental processes. ; William James

Natural Selection

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

Hysteria

A psychological disorder whose symptoms include conversion of psychological stress into physical symptoms, selective amnesia, shallow volatile emotions, and overdramatic behavior.

Unconscious

The part of the mind that affects behavior and emotions but is inaccessible to the conscious mind.

Psychoanalytic Theory

A theory by Sigmund Freud emphasizing the influence of the unconscious on feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.

Psychoanalysis

A therapeutic approach focusing on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness to understand psychological disorders. ; Freud

Behaviorism

An approach to psychology that focuses on observable behavior. John B Watson

Principle of Reinforcement

The concept that behavior is repeated if rewarded and not repeated if punished. BF Skinner

Gestalt Psychology

An approach emphasizing perceiving the whole rather than the sum of parts.

Developmental Psychology

The study of how and why human beings change over their life.

Social Psychology

The study of how people’s thoughts, feelings, and behaviors are influenced by others.

Cognitive Psychology

The study of mind and mental function, including learning, memory, attention, perception, reasoning, language, and decision making.

Evolutionary Psychology

The study of behavior and mental processes using natural selection principles.

Cognitive Neuroscience

The study linking the brain and nervous system to cognitive processing and behavior.

Behavioral Neuroscience

The application of biology principles to study behavior mechanisms in humans and animals.

Cultural Psychology

The study of how cultures reflect and shape psychological processes.