1: The Foundations of Psychological Science

Operational definition

________: Defining a scientific concept by stating the specific actions or procedures used to measure it.

Cultural relativity

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

Gender bias

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

Self report data

________: Information that is provided by participants about their own thoughts, emotions, or behaviors, typically on a questionnaire or during an interview.

Hypothesis

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

Natural selection

________: Darwins theory that evolution favors those plants and animals best suited to their living conditions.

Pseudoscience

________: Unfounded belief system that seems to be based on science.

Uncritical acceptance

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

Description

________: In scientific research, the process of naming and classifying.

Falsification

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

Confirmation bias

________: The tendency to remember or notice information that fits ones expectations, while forgetting or ignoring discrepancies.

Neuroscience

________: The broader field of biopsychologists and others who study the brain and nervous system, such as biologists and biochemists.

Humanistic psychology

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

Prediction

________: In psychology, an ability to accurately forecast behavior.

Self fulfilling

________ prophecy: A prediction that prompts people to act in ways that make the prediction come true.

Single blind study

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

Critical thinking

________: In psychology, a type of reflection involving the support of beliefs through scientific explanation and observation.

Double

________- blind study: Research in which neither the observer nor the subjects know which subjects received which treatment.

Behaviorism

________: School of thought in psychology that emphasizes study of observable actions over study of the mind.

Psychologists goals

________ are description (name and classify behavior through detailed records), understanding (state causes of behavior), prediction (forecast behavior), and control (after conditions that influence behavior)

American Psychological Association

In 1921 she (Washburn) became the second female to serve as President of the ________ (Mary Whiton Calkins was the first)

Introspection

________: Personal observation of your own thoughts, feelings, and behavior.

Psychoanalyst

________: A mental health professional (usually a medical doctor) trained to practice psychoanalysis.

correlation coefficient

A(n) ________ is computed to gauge the strength of the relationship between those variables.

1904 1990

B.F. Skinner (________): Skinner studied simple behaviors under carefully controlled conditions.

Superstition

________: Unfounded belief held without evidence or in spite of falsifying evidence.

Meta analysis

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

biopsychosocial model

The ________ holds that human behavior and mental processes are best understood by combining insights from biology (including biopsychology and evolutionary psychology), psychology (including culture, access to education, and poverty)

Functionalism

________: School of psychology that considers behaviors in terms of active adaptions.

Cognitive psychology

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

bias

Researcher ________ (changes in participant behavior brought about by researcher influence)

psychoanalytic approach

The ________ developed by Freud.

Evolutionary psychology

________: Approach that emphasizes inherited, adaptive aspects of behavior and mental processes.

Cognitive unconscious

________: The part of the mind of which we are subjectively unaware and that is not open to introspection.

Random assignment

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

Survey

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

Placebo

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

Stimulus

________: Any physical energy that an organism senses.

Social desirability

________: Deliberate tendency to provide polite, socially acceptable responses.

Neo Freudians

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

Self actualization

________: The process of fully developing personal potentials,

Psychoanalysis

________: Freudian approach to psychotherapy emphasizing the exploration of the unconscious using free association, dream interpretation, resistances, and transference to uncover unconscious conflicts.

Counselor

________: A mental health professional who specializes in helping people with problems that do not involve serious mental disorders.

Correlation

________ does not equal causation.

Psychiatrist

________: A medical doctor with additional training the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders.

Psychology

________: The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Psychologist

________: A person highly trained in the methods, factual knowledge, and theories of psychology.

Comprehensive explanation

Theory: ________ of observable events.

Case study

________ (clinical method): In- depth analysis of the behavior of one person or a small number of people.

Structuralism

________: Study of sensations and personal experience analyzed as basic elements.

Uncritical acceptance

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

Confirmation bias

The tendency to remember or notice information that fits ones expectations, while forgetting or ignoring discrepancies

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 observations and experiments

Psychologist

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

Basic Research

Seek knowledge to understand

Applied Research

Solving immediate problems

Animal Research

Working with animals to relate to humans

Animal model

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

Clinical psychologist

A psychologist who specializes in the treatment of psychological and behavioral disturbances or who does research on such disturbances

Counseling psychologist

A psychologist who specializes in the treatment of milder emotional and behavioral disturbances

Psychiatrist

A medical doctor with additional training the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders

Psychoanalyst

A mental health professional (usually a medical doctor) trained to practice psychoanalysis

Counselor

A mental health professional who specializes in helping people with problems that do not involve serious mental disorders

Scientific observation

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

Stimulus

Any physical energy that an organism senses

Introspection

Personal observation of your own thoughts, feelings, and behavior

Structuralism

Study of sensations and personal experience analyzed as basic elements

Wilhem Wundt (1832-1920)

Wundt is credited with making psychology an independent science, separate from philosophy

Imageless thought

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

Cognitive unconscious

The part of the mind of which we are subjectively unaware and that is not open to introspection

Gestalt psychology

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

Max Wertheimer (1880-1941)

Wertheimer first proposed the Gestalt viewpoint to help explain perceptual illusions

Functionalism

School of psychology that considers behaviors in terms of active adaptions

Natural selection

Darwins theory that evolution favors those plants and animals best suited to their living conditions

William James (1842-1910)

William James was the son of philosopher Henry James, Sr., and the brother of novelist Henry James

Behaviorism

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

Response

Any muscular action, glandular activity, or other identifiable aspect of behavior

John B. Watson (1878-1958)

Watsons intense interest in observable behavior began with his doctoral studies in biology and neurology

Radical behaviorism

A behaviorist approach that rejects both introspection and any study of mental events, such as thinking, as inappropriate topics for scientific psychology

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

Skinner studied simple behaviors under carefully controlled conditions

Dynamic unconscious

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 unconscious using free association, dream interpretation, resistances, and transference to uncover unconscious conflicts

Neo-Freudians

Psychologists who accept the broad features of Freuds 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 behavior that emphasizes internal conflicts, motives, and unconscious forces

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

For over 50 years, Freud probed the unconscious mind

Cognitive psychology

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

Operational definition

Defining a scientific concept by stating the specific actions or procedures used to measure it

Determinism

The idea that all behavior has prior causes that would completely 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 unconscious 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,

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

As a founder of humanistic psychology, Maslow was interested in studying people of exceptional mental health

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Biopsychosocial model

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

Biological perspective

The attempt to explain behavior in terms of underlying biological principles

Evolutionary psychology

Approach that emphasizes inherited, adaptive aspects of behavior and mental processes

Neuroscience

The broader field of biopsychologists and others who study the brain and nervous system, such as biologists and biochemists

Psychological perspective

The traditional view that behavior is shaped by psychological processes occurring at the level of the individual