Psychology 150 Test 1

All of the Psych Terms from Chapter 1, 2 & 6

Behavior

to any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism.

Behaviorism

a theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior.

Clinical psychology

the branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders.

Cognition

the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.

Critical thinking

purposeful, reasoned, goal-directed thinking that involves solving problems, formulating inferences, working with probabilities, and making carefully thought-out decisions.

Culture

the widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations.

Empiricism

the premise that knowledge should be acquired through observation.

Evolutionary psychology

examines behavioral processes in terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations.

Functionalism

based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure.

Humanism

a theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth.

Introspection

the careful, systematic self-observation of one’s own conscious experience.

Positive psychology

uses theory and research to better understand the positive, adaptive, creative, and fulfilling aspects of human existence.

Psychiatry

a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders.

Psychoanalytic theory

attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior.

Psychology

the science that studies behavior and the physiological and cognitive processes that underlie behavior; it is the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems.

Structuralism

based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how these elements are related.

Theory

a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations.

Unconscious

contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behavior.

Case study

is an in-depth investigation of an individual subject.

Confounding variables

occurs when two variables are linked in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific effects.

Control group

consists of similar subjects who do not receive the special treatment given to the experimental group.

Correlation

exists when two variables are related to each other.

Correlation coefficient

is a numerical index of the degree of relationship between two variables.

Data collection techniques

which are procedures for making empirical observations and measurements.

Dependent variable

is the variable that is thought to be affected by manipulation of the independent variable.

Double-blind procedure

is a research strategy in which neither subjects nor experimenters know which subjects are in the experimental or control groups.

Experiment

is a research method in which the investigator manipulates a variable under carefully controlled conditions and observes whether any changes occur in a second variable as a result.

Experimental group

consists of the subjects who receive some special treatment in regard to the independent variable.

Experimenter bias

occurs when a researcher’s expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained.

Extraneous variables

are any variables other than the independent variable that seem likely to influence the dependent variable in a specific study.

Hypothesis

is a tentative statement about the relationship between two or more variables.

Independent variable

is a condition or event that an experimenter varies in order to see its impact on another variable.

Journal

is a periodical that publishes technical and scholarly material, usually in a narrowly defined area of inquiry.

Meta-analysis

combines the statistical results of many studies of the same question, yielding an estimate of the size and consistency of a variable’s effects.

Naturalistic observation

a researcher engages in careful observation of behavior without intervening directly with the subjects.

Operational definition

describes the actions or operations that will be used to measure or control a variable.

Participants or subjects

are the persons or animals whose behavior is systematically observed in a study.

Placebo effects

occur when participants’ expectations lead them to experience some change even though they receive empty, fake, or ineffectual treatment.

Population

is the much larger collection of animals or people (from which the sample is drawn) that researchers want to generalize about.

Random assignment

of subjects occurs when all subjects have an equal chance of being assigned to any group or condition in the study.

Reactivity

occurs when a subject’s behavior is altered by the presence of an observer.

Replication

is the repetition of a study to see whether the earlier results are duplicated.

Research methods

consist of differing approaches to the observation, measurement, manipulation, and control of variables in empirical studies.

Sample

is the collection of subjects selected for observation in an empirical study.

Sampling bias

exists when a sample is not representative of the population from which it was drawn.

Social desirability bias

is a tendency to give socially approved answers to questions about oneself.

Survey

researchers use questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific aspects of participants’ background, attitudes, beliefs, or behavior.

Theory

is a system of interrelated ideas used to explain a set of observations.

Acquisition

the initial stage of learning a new response tendency.

Avoidance learning

when an organism acquires a response that prevents some aversive stimulation from occurring.

Classical conditioning

type of learning in which a stimulus acquires the capacity to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus.

Conditioned response (CR)

learned reaction to a conditioned stimulus that occurs because of previous conditioning.

Conditioned stimulus

previously neutral stimulus that, through conditioning, has acquired the capacity to evoke a conditioned response.

Conditioning

learning associations created between events occurring in an organism’s environment.

Continuous reinforcement

when every instance of a designated response is reinforced.

Cumulative recorder

device that creates a graphic record of responding and reinforcement in a Skinner box as a function of time.

Discriminative stimuli

cues that influence operant behavior by indicating the probable consequences (reinforcement or nonreinforcement) of a response.

Elicited

drawn forth.

Emit

to send forth.

Escape learning

when an organism acquires a response that decreases or ends some aversive stimulation.

Evaluative conditioning

changes in the liking of a stimulus that results from pairing that stimulus with other positive or negative stimuli.

Extinction

the gradual weakening and disappearance of a conditioned response tendency.

Fixed-interval schedule

when a reinforcer is given for the first response that occurs after a fixed time interval has elapsed.

Fixed-ratio schedule

when a reinforcer is given after a fixed. Number of nonreinforced responses.

Higher-order conditioning

when a conditioned stimulus functions as if it were an unconditioned stimulus.

Intermittent reinforcement

occurs when a designated response is reinforced only some of the time.

Latent learning

learning that is not apparent from behavior when it first occurs.

Learning

any relatively durable change in behavior or knowledge that results from experience.

Negative reinforcement

when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the removal of an aversive (unpleasant) stimulus.

Observational learning

when an organism’s responding is influenced by the observation of others, who are called models.

Operant conditioning

form of learning in which voluntary responses come to be controlled by their consequences.

Positive reinforcement

when a response is strengthened because it is followed by the presentation of a rewarding stimulus.

Preparedness

species-specific predispositions to be conditioned in certain ways and not others.

Primary reinforcers

events that are inherently reinforcing because they satisfy biological needs.

Punishment

when an event following a response weakens the tendency to make that response.

Reinforcement

when an event following a res\ponse increases an organism’s tendency to make that response. In other words, a response is strengthened because it leads to rewarding consequences.

Reinforcement contingencies

circumstances or rules that determine whether responses lead to the presentation of reinforcers.

Renewal effect

when a response is extinguished in a different environment than it was acquired but reappears when the animal returns to the original environment where acquisition occurred.

Resistance to extinction

when an organism continues to make a response after delivery of the reinforcer for the response has been terminated.

Schedule of reinforcement

specific pattern of presenting reinforcers over time.

Shaping

reinforcement of closer and closer approximations of a desired response.

Skinner box

small enclosure in which an animal can make a specific response that is systematically recorded while the consequences of the response are controlled.

Spontaneous recovery

the reappearance of an extinguished response after a period of non-exposure to the conditioned stimulus.

Stimulus discrimination

when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus does not respond in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus.

Stimulus generalization

when an organism that has learned a response to a specific stimulus responds in the same way to new stimuli that are similar to the original stimulus.

Trial

in classical conditioning, consists of any presentation of stimuli.

Unconditioned response (CR)

an unlearned reaction to an unconditioned stimulus that occurs without previous conditioning.

Unconditioned stimulus (US)

stimulus that evokes an unconditioned response without previous conditioning

Variable-interval schedule

the reinforcer given for the first response after a variable time interval has elapsed. The interval length varies around a predetermined average.

Variable-ratio schedule

when a reinforcer is given after a variable number of nonreinforced responses. The number of nonreinforced responses varies around a predetermined average.