Introduction to Psychology and Schools of Thought

Vocabulary flashcards covering historical foundations, schools of thought, conditioning principles, fields of psychological inquiry, and research methods.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mind, formed through a synthesis of ideas from physiology and philosophy.

Mind-Body Problem

A philosophical question asking whether the mind and the body are separate or if they are the same.

Turing Test

A test where people talk to an entity (AI or Human) for 5 minutes and have to say what they think it was.

Nature vs. Nurture

The debate questioning whether individuals are born with certain knowledge or have to learn everything, recognized as a mix between genetics and experience.

Structuralism

A school of thought stating that everything in consciousness can be reduced to sensations and feelings.

Wilhelm Wundt

Psychologist who established the first psychological laboratory in 1879.

Systematic Introspection

A research technique used in structuralism to study consciousness by examining sensations and feelings.

Functionalism

A school of thought attempting to understand a mental process by determining what problem in the environment it helps solve, relying heavily on Darwin's theory of evolution.

Psychoanalysis

A school of thought founded by Sigmund Freud asserting that the conscious and unconscious mind must be thoroughly analyzed before treatment can be given.

Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

A form of projective testing used in psychoanalysis to tap into the unconscious mind.

Behaviorism

A school of thought holding that the mind should not be studied and that only observable behaviors can be analyzed objectively.

Habituation

A learning phenomenon where an individual stops responding to an event that has become familiar.

Sensitization

A learning phenomenon where an individual responds more often to an intense event that has been repeated.

Classical Conditioning

A learning process involving forming associations between stimuli and responses.

Unconditioned Response (UR)

A natural reaction where a person does not have to be trained to respond.

Unconditioned Stimulus (US)

A stimulus that naturally triggers an unconditioned response without prior conditioning.

Neutral Stimulus

A stimulus that an individual has not been conditioned to react to.

Conditioned Stimulus (CS)

A stimulus that has been trained to be associated with a response.

Conditioned Response (CR)

A response that has been trained to be associated with a conditioned stimulus.

Extinction

The gradual weakening and disappearance of conditioned behavior, which commonly occurs when the conditioned stimulus is repeatedly presented without the unconditioned stimulus.

Spontaneous Recovery

The reappearance of a previously extinguished CR without exposure to the US.

Taste Aversion

A conditioned dislike for a food or drink that develops when an individual becomes ill from consuming it.

Instrumental Conditioning

A conditioning method that changes the probability that a response will occur by manipulating the consequences of the response.

Shaping

An instrumental conditioning technique of selectively reinforcing successively closer approximations of a target behavior.

Developmental Psychology

A field of psychological inquiry that studies the development of organisms over their lifespan.

Cognitive Psychology

A field of psychological inquiry that investigates mental processes including reasoning, problem-solving, memory, and language.

Social Psychology

A field of psychological inquiry exploring how people are affected by their social environments, including topics such as conformity, obedience, and persuasion.

Health Psychology

A field of psychological inquiry focusing on the role of psychological factors in development and prevention from illnesses.

Evolutionary Psychology

A field linked to functionalism that examines how certain psychological characteristics may have evolved over time.

Reasonableness

A way of knowing that evaluates whether information 'makes sense' given the facts.

Authority

A way of knowing that involves accepting information from a credible source.

Participant Observation

An empirical method of observing behavior while participating in the situation.

Reactivity

A measure of how much an individual's behavior is changed as a result of being observed.

Case Studies

A research method providing a highly detailed description of a single individual or event.

External Validity

The degree to which the experiences of the research subject are truly representative of others.

Survey Research

Gathering information from a large number of people, usually by using a questionnaire.

Correlational Research

Research evaluating a statistic ranging from $-1$ to $+1$ that indicates how two variables are related to one another.

Negative Correlation

A relationship that occurs when two variables move in opposite directions.

Experimental Designs

A research method involving manipulating some aspect of the environment to observe the effect, functioning as the only method that allows researchers to determine causation.

Extraneous Variable

A variable that is not controlled that could affect the dependent variable (DV).