PS101 Chapter 1: Yesterday & Today

Vocabulary practice flashcards covering fundamental concepts, historical approaches, research levels, and subfields from PS101 Chapter 1: Yesterday & Today.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Behavior

Observable actions or responses, such as talking, crying, studying, and exercising.

Mental Processes

Internal activities such as thinking, remembering, reasoning, and perceiving.

Describe (Goal of Psychology)

The goal of carefully observing and documenting behavior or mental processes to answer what is happening.

Explain (Goal of Psychology)

The goal of attempting to identify causes or underlying mechanisms to answer why a behavior or mental process is happening.

Predict (Goal of Psychology)

The goal of identifying patterns to forecast future behaviors and determine when they will happen.

Control (Goal of Psychology)

The goal of determining how conditions can be altered to increase desirable outcomes or decrease undesirable ones.

Brain Level of Analysis

A level of analysis that examines biological processes, brain activity, and genetics.

Person Level of Analysis

A level of analysis that focuses on individual thoughts, personality, emotions, and beliefs.

Group Level of Analysis

A level of analysis that focuses on culture, society, and social relationships.

Psychophysics

The scientific study of the relationships between physical stimuli and psychological sensations.

Natural Selection

Charles Darwin's evolutionary principle stating that traits improving an organism's chances of surviving and reproducing are more likely to persist across generations.

Voluntarism

Wilhelm Wundt's approach emphasizing the active role of consciousness, attention, will, and deliberate mental activity.

Introspection

A method of carefully examining and describing one's own conscious mental experiences, including sensations, feelings, perceptions, and thoughts.

Structuralism

An early school of thought developed by Edward Titchener that aimed to discover the basic components or structure of consciousness through introspection.

Functionalism

An early psychological approach developed by William James that examined the purpose or function of mental processes and behaviors in helping humans adapt and survive.

Gestalt Psychology

A perspective challenging structuralism by asserting that the whole experience is different from simply adding together its parts.

Psychoanalytic Approach

Sigmund Freud's perspective emphasizing that unconscious conflicts, desires, and childhood experiences strongly influence behavior.

Unconscious Mind

Mental material outside conscious awareness, such as hidden desires, memories, fears, and conflicts, symbolized by the submerged portion of an iceberg.

Behaviorism

An approach championed by Watson and Skinner that rejected the study of invisible mental processes, focusing solely on observable behavior learned through the environment.

Humanistic Psychology

A perspective emphasizing freedom, personal choice, subjective experience, human potential, and psychological growth.

Self-Actualization

Abraham Maslow's concept describing the motivation to fulfill one's personal potential and become the best version of oneself.

Client-Centred Therapy

Carl Rogers's therapeutic method where the therapist provides empathy, acceptance, trust, and positive regard, treating the client as an active participant in their own growth.

Cognitive Psychology

The study of internal mental processes, including memory, thinking, problem solving, reasoning, language, and attention.

Information Processing

The cognitive framework proposing that the mind receives, processes, stores, retrieves, and uses information, analogous to computer hardware and software.

Neuroscience

The study of how biological mechanisms, such as brain structures, neural activity, the nervous system, hormones, and genetics, influence thoughts, emotions, and behavior.

Cognitive Neuroscience

An interdisciplinary field combining cognitive psychology and neuroscience to determine what brain processes are responsible for thinking, memory, attention, and language.

Behavioral Genetics

The field that studies how genes and environmental interactions influence behavior and cognition.

Evolutionary Psychology

An approach investigating how natural selection and evolutionary processes have shaped behavior, cognition, emotions, and social tendencies to solve ancestral survival and reproductive problems.

Academic Psychology

The branch of psychology mainly concerned with conducting research, developing theory, and teaching.

Applied Psychology

The branch of psychology that uses psychological knowledge to solve practical real-world problems in domains such as sports, education, and industry.

Clinical and Counselling Psychology

The branch of psychology focused on the assessment, therapy, and treatment of psychological problems to improve overall functioning.

Psychiatrist

A medical doctor specializing in mental health whose medical training allows the prescription of medication and medical treatments for psychiatric disorders.

Individualistic Cultures

Cultures that prioritize personal independence, individual identity, and personal goals over group goals.

Collectivist Cultures

Cultures that prioritize group needs, interpersonal relationships, and family or community goals over individual desires.

Cultural Universality

A behavior, practice, or psychological characteristic that occurs consistently across different human cultures.

Positive Psychology

The scientific study of what makes human beings thrive, investigating topics such as happiness, meaning, strength, creativity, resilience, and well-being.