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Psych: Ch. 1
Term | Definition |
---|---|
empirical | relying on or derived from observation, experimentation, or measurement. |
psychology | the discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism's physical state, mental state, and external environment |
psychobabble | pseudosicence and quackery covered by a veneer pf psychological and scientific-sounding language. |
critical thinking | The ability and willingness to assess claims and make judgements on the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence rather than emotion or anecdote. |
Occam's razor | Once serval explanations of a phenomenon have been generated, a critical thinker chooses the one that accounts for the most evidence while making the fewest unverified assumptions. |
phrenology | The now-discredited theory that different brain areas account for specific charater and personality traits, which can be "read" from bumps on the skull. |
Wilhelm Wundt | Began the study of psychology and the approach of structuralism. |
structuralism | An early psychological approach that emphasized the analysis of immediate experience into basic elements. |
functionalism | An early psychological approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behavior and consciousness. |
William James | Helped begin and lead the approach of functionalism. |
Charles Darwin | Brought the idea to functionalism of how certain traits help enhance survival. |
Sigmund Freud | Began psychoanalysis. Mental, not physical, causes. Neurologist. |
Psychoanalysis | A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy, originally formulated by Freud, that emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts. |
biological perspective | A psychological approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings, and thoughts. |
evolutionary psychology | A field of psychology emphasizing evolutionary mechanisms that may help explain human commonalities in cognition, development, emotion, social practices, and other areas of behavior. |
learning perspective | A psychological approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a persn's or animal's actions; it includes behaviorism and social-cognitive learning theories. |
behaviorists | focus on the environmental rewards and punishers that maintain or discourage specific behaviors. 19 |
social-cognitive learning theorists | combine elements of behaviorism with research on thoughts, values, expectations, and intentions. 19 |
cognitive perspective | A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving, and other areas of behavior. |
sociocultural perspective | A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behavior. |
social psychologists | focus on social rules and roles, how groups affect attitudes and behavior, why people obey authority, and how each of us is affected by other people. |
cultural psychologists | examine how culture rules and values affect people's development, behavior, and feelings. |
psychodynamic perspective | A psychological approach that emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or the movement of instinctual energy. |
humanist psychology | A psychological approach that emphasizes free will, personal growth, resilience, and the achievement of human potential. |
positive psychology | focuses on the qualities that enable people to be happy, optimistic, and resilient in times of stress. |
feminist psychology | A psychological approach that analyzes the influence of social issues on gender relations and on behavior of the two sexes. |
psychological practice | providing health or mental health services |
basic psychology | The study of psychological issues in order to seek knowledge for it's own sake rather than for its practical application. |
applied psychology | The study of psychological issues that have direct practical significance; also, the application of psychological findings. |
experimental psychologist | conduct laboratory studies of learning, motivation, emotion, sensation and perception, physiology, and cognition. |
educational psychologist | study psychological principles that explain learning and sear for ways to improve educational systems. |
developmental psychologist | study how people change and grow over time physically, mentally, and socially. |
industrial/organizational psychologist | study behavior in the work place. |
psychometric psychologist | design and evaluate tests of mental abilities, aptitudes, interests, and personality. |
counseling psychologist | help people with every day problems. eg. test anxiety, family conflicts, or low job motivation. |
school psychologist | work with parents, teachers, and students to enhance students' performance and resolve emotional difficulties. |
clinical psychologist | diagnose, treat, and study mental or emotional problems. Range from severely disturbed to just unhappy patients. |
psychotherapist | Anyone who does any type of psychotherapy. |
psychoanalist | person who specializes in psychoanalysis. |
psychiatrist | a medical doctor who has done three-yea residency in psychiatry to learn how to diagnose and treat mental disorders. |