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PSY 201 Fall 2012
Midterm 1 study on chapters 1 & 2
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| Structuralism | The analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind |
| Psychology | The scientific study of mind and behavior |
| Mind | Our private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings |
| Behavior | Observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals |
| Nativism | The philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn |
| Philosophical empiricism | The philosophical view that all knowledge is acquired through experience |
| Phrenology | A now defunct theory that specific mental abilities and characteristics, ranging from memory to the capacity for happiness, are localized in specific regions of the brain |
| Physiology | The study of biological processes, especially in the human body |
| Stimulus | Sensory input from the environment |
| Reaction time | The amount of time taken to respond to a specific stimulus |
| Consciousness | A person’s subjective experience of the world and the mind |
| Introspection | The subjective observation of one’s own experience |
| Functionalism | The study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment |
| Natural selection | Charles Darwin’s theory that the features of an organism that help it survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to subsequent generations |
| Hysteria | A temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as a result of emotionally upsetting experiences |
| Unconscious | The part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness but influences conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions |
| Psychoanalytic theory | Sigmund Freud’s approach to understanding human behavior that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors |
| Psychoanalysis | A therapeutic approach that focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness to better understand psychological disorders |
| Humanistic psychology | An approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings |
| Behaviorism | An approach that advocates that psychologists restrict themselves to the scientific study of objectively observable behavior |
| Response | An action or physiological change elicited by a stimulus |
| Reinforcement | The consequences of a behavior that determine whether it will be more likely that the behavior will occur again |
| Illusions | Errors of perception, memory, or judgment in which subjective experience differs from objective reality |
| Gestalt psychology | A psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts |
| Cognitive psychology | The scientific study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, and reasoning |
| Behavioral neuroscience | An approach to psychology that links psychological processes to activities in the nervous system and other bodily processes |
| Cognitive neuroscience | A field that attempts to understand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity |
| Evolutionary psychology | A psychological approach that explains mind and behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by natural selection |
| Social psychology | A subfield of psychology that studies the causes and consequences of interpersonal behavior |
| Cultural psychology | The study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members |
| Empiricism | The belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation |
| Scientific method | A set of principles about the appropriate relationship between ideas and evidence |
| Theory | A hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomenon |
| Hypothesis | A falsifiable prediction made by a theory |
| Empirical method | A set of rules and techniques for observation |
| Operational definition | A description of a property in concrete, measureable terms |
| Measure | A device that can detect the condition to which an operational definition refers |
| Electromyograph (EMG) | A device that measures muscle contractions under the surface of a person’s skin |
| Validity | The extent to which a measurement and a property are conceptually related |
| Reliability | The tendency for a measure to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing |
| Power | The ability of a measure to detect the concrete conditions specified in the operational definition |
| Demand characteristics | Those aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think they should |
| Naturalistic observation | A technique for gathering scientific information by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments |
| Double-blind | An observation whose true purpose is hidden from both the observer and the person being observed |
| Frequency distribution | A graphical representation of measurements arranged by the number of times each measurement was made |
| Normal distribution | A mathematically defined frequency distribution in which most measurements are concentrated around the middle |
| Range | The value of the largest measurement in a frequency distribution minus the value of the smallest measurement |
| Standard deviation | A statistic that describes the average difference between the measurements in a frequency distribution and the mean of that distribution |
| Variable | A property whose value can vary across individuals or over time |
| Correlation | Two variables are said to “be correlated” when variations in the value of one variable are synchronized with variations in the value of the other |
| Correlation coefficient | A measure of the direction and strength of a correlation, which is signified by the letter “r” |
| Natural correlation | A correlation observed in the world around us |
| Third-variable correlation | The fact that two variables are correlated only because each is causally related to a third variable |
| Matched samples | A technique whereby the participants in two groups are identical in terms of a third variable |
| Matched pairs | A technique whereby each participant is identical to one other participant in terms of a third variable |
| Third-variable problem | The fact that a causal relationship between two variables cannot be inferred from the naturally occurring correlation between them because of the ever-present possibility of third-variable correlation |
| Experiment | A technique for establishing the causal relationship between variables |
| Manipulation | The creation of an artificial pattern of variation in a variable in order to determine its causal powers |
| Independent variable | The variable that is manipulated in an experiment |
| Experimental group | The group of people who are treated in a particular way, as compared to the control group, in an experiment |
| Control group | The group of people who are not treated in the particular way that the experimental group is treated in an experiment |
| Dependent variable | The variable that is measured in a study |
| Self-selection | A problem that occurs when anything about a person determines whether he or she will be included in the experimental or control group |
| Random assignment | A procedure that uses a random event to assign people to the experimental or control group |
| Internal validity | The characteristic of an experiment that establishes the causal relationship between variables |
| External validity | A property of an experiment in which the variables have been operationally defined in a normal, typical, or realistic way |
| Population | The complete collection of participants who might possibly be measured |
| Sample | The partial collection of people drawn from a population |
| Case method | A method of gathering scientific knowledge by studying a single individual |
| Random sampling | A technique for choosing participants that ensures that every member of a population has an equal chance of being included in the sample |
| Informed consent | A written agreement to participate in a study made by an adult who has been informed of all the risks that participation may entail |
| Debriefing | A verbal description of the true nature and purpose of a study |
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