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Psych Ch 1 Vocab
The Science of Psychology
| Question | Answer |
|---|---|
| psychology | the scientific study of behavior and mental processes |
| scientific method | an approach to knowledge that relies on collecting data, generating a theory to explain the data, producing testable hypotheses based on the theory, and testing these hypotheses empirically |
| theory | systematic explanation of a phenomenon; it organizes known facts, allows us to predict new facts, and permits us to exercise a degree of control over the phenomenon |
| hypotheses | specific, testable predictions derived from a theory |
| structuralism | school of psychology that stressed the basic units of experience and the combination in which they occur |
| functionalist theory | theory of mental life and behavior that is concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to function in its environment |
| psychodynamic theories | personality theories contending that behavior results from psychological forces that interact within the individual, often outside conscious awareness |
| behaviorism | school of psychology that studies only observable and measurable behavior |
| Gestalt psychology | school of psychology that studies how people perceive and experience objects as whole patterns |
| humanistic psychology | school of psychology that emphasizes nonverbal experience and altered states of consciousness as a means of realizing one's full human potential |
| cognitive psychology | school of psychology devoted to the study of mental processes in the broadest sense |
| evolutionary psychology | an approach to, and subfield of, psychology that is concerned with the evolutionary origins of behaviore and mental processes, their adaptive values, and the purposes they continue to serve |
| positive psychology | an emerging field of psych that focuses on positive experiences, including subjective well-being, self-determination, the relationship between positive emotions and physical health, and the factors that allow indivs, communities, societies to flourish |
| gender | the psychological and social meanings attached to being biologically male or female; often used interchangeably with one's biological makeup or sex |
| gender stereotypes | general beliefs about characteristics that are presumed to be typical of each sex |
| gender roles | behaviors that we expect each gender to engage in |
| sexual orientation | refers to the directions of one's sexual interest toward members of the same sex, other sex, or both sexes |
| race | a subpopulation of a species, defined according to an identifiable characteristic (e.g. geographic location, skin color, hair texture, genes, facial features) |
| ethnic group | a category of people who have migrated to another country but still see themselves as distinctive because of a common background |
| culture | the tangible goods and the values, attitudes, and beliefs that are passed from one generation to another |
| empirical evidence | information derived from systematic, objective observation |
| naturalistic observation | research method involving the systematic study of animal or human behavior in natural settings rather than in the laboratory |
| observer bias | expectations or biases of the observer that might distort or influence his or her interpretation of what was actually observed |
| case study | intensive description and analysis of a single individual or just a few individuals |
| survey researh | research technique in which questionnaires or interviews are administered to a selected group of people |
| correlational research | research technique based on the naturally occuring relationship between two or more variables |
| experimental method | a research technique in which an investigator deliberately manipulates selected events or circumstances and then measures the effects of those manipulations on subsequent behavior |
| participants | individuals whose reactions or responses are observed in an experiment |
| independent variable | in an experiment, the variable that is manipulated to test its effects on the other, dependent variable |
| dependent variable | in an experiment, the variable that is measured to see how it is changed by manipulations in the independent variable |
| experimental group | in a controlled experiment, the group subjected to a change in the independent variable |
| control group | in a controlled experiment, the group not subjected to a change in the independent variable; used for comparison with the experimental group |
| experimenter bias | expectations by the experimenter that might influence the results of an experiment or its interpretation |
| sample | selection of cases from a larger population |
| random sample | sample in which each potential participant has an equal chance of being selected |
| representative sample | sample carefully chosen so that the characterisitcs of the participants corresponds closely to the characteristics of the larger population |
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