unit 1 psychology test

psychology

study of mental processes and behavior

behaviorism

study of observable actions only

gestalt

early school of psychology that originated in germany; human aibility to perceieve elements as a part of a larger system. “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” STRUCTURALISM

structuralism

what elements make up the mind

functionalism

why the mind does what it does, how our minds function

psychoanalysis

human behavior is influenced by unconscious memories, thoughts, and urges

nature vs. nurture

do our genes/hereditary traits affect how we act or do our environments/influences affect our actions?

Id

unconscious urges, desrie, fears, impulses (what we don’t have control over)

always pulls in the direction of what is most pleasurable to you (not always rational—→ pleasure principle)

ego

common sense/rational thought

superego

moral compass; pulls in opposite direction of Id (rational)

comes from parents, values you are taught, moral system

oedipus complex

comples of emotions aroused in a young child by an unconscious sexual desire for the parent of the opposite sex and wish to exclude the parent of the same sex

contemporary psychology

defined by seven perspectives- each perspective is helpful but cannot reveal the whole picture

neuroscience (biological)

how do we know how to move? how are we able to use our bodies/brains to enable movement both physically and mentally? (how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences)

evolutionary (natural selection)

what traits allow your species to survive? ex: if there a psychological reason for why fear occurs (mindset, protects us from danger)

behavior genetics (nature vs. nurture)

are we born with the DNA that makes us who we are? or is it more our environment, our surroundings that shape us? (how our genes and our environment influence our individual differences)

psychodynamic (freudian)

about freud, concerned about our unconscious. how does our unconsicous explain who we are/what we like and don’t like? (use past events/experiences to explain certain characteristics/traits)

behavioral

study of observable actions only; how do we learn to behave? how do we learn to fear things? (how we learn observable responses)

cognitive (mental only)

abstractly talking about mental processes, the process of thinking. how do we store memories for retrieval?

cognitive vs. neuroscience

cog= general, neuro=specific anatomy

social-cultural

idea that behavior and how we understand ourselves can change depending on the culture we’re in (how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures)

humanistic perspective

everything that we do is motivated by the desire to be fulfilled, always working to make our way to the top of the pyramid

bias

any inclination towards a perspective or beliefs (unavoidable but can negatively affect the outcome of psychological research)

volunteer bias

occurs because surveys can only evaluate people who choose to take it

hindsight bias

tendency to believes something was inevitable after seeing it occur (I knew it all along bias)

confirmation bias

tendency to interpret only evidence that supports our beliefs while ignoring evidence that contradicts it

experimenter bias

tendency of a researcher to treat experimental and control groups differently to confirm their hypothesis

placebo effect

when an inter or “fake” substance delivers a real, measurable result; caused by participant expectation

descriptive

research that observes and records

correlation

detects naturally occurring relationships; uses statistics and data analysis to find connections

experiment

backbone of research in psychology; determines cause and effect relationships

case study

complex, multifaceted investigation of an individual or small group of individuals, event, or community; usually narrative or biographical in nature, realtes to past events/everyday occurencesd

naturalistic observation

observing behavior in natural environment (in contrast to lab/controlled setting); no control/interaction, just observation

hawthorne effect

tendency to perform differently when being observed

survey

determine self-reported attitudes, opinions, or behaviors of a population by asking a sample of people

population (target population)

groups of people who are your survey applies to (not same as sample)

sample

groupd of people you choose to take your survey

random sample

groups of people who are randomly selected to take a survey, everyone in the population has an equal chance at being chosen

stratified sample

groups of people chose strategically to match the demographic breakdown of the target population

generalize

when you can accurately apply the results from a sample to your target population

causation

cause and effect; x causes y

ethics

moral principles that govern a person’s behavior or the conducting of an activity

APA ethical standards

psychologists who conduct research must have Informed consent (participants have knowledge), Limited deception (deception has to be necessary), Protection from harm and discomfort (limit harm & risk), Confidentiality (personal info= private), Debriefing (reveal all relevant info)

wilhelm wundt

1879 opens up the first psych lab in germany; official “start date” in pyschology

william james

“founded” the idea of functionalism

john watson

led little albert study; goal of study was to scare baby through classical conditioning (used behaviorism)

operational definitions

descriptions or definitions for unclear terms to make the experimental method more measurable or precise

dependent variable

factor that is measured based on the change made to the independent variable

independent variable

fact that is manipulated to test its effect (is changed)

confounding variable

any variable other than the independent variable that could affect the dependent variable (all other besides IV and DV)

experimental group

groups exposed to independent variable

control group

group receiving no treatment or independent variable; used as comparison

random assignment

participants must be randomly assigned to their groups to ensure validity

single blind study

 participants are unaware if they are in the experimental or control group

double blind study

participants and experimenters are unaware who is the experimental or control group