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PSYC-1113-106

Chapter 1: The Science of Psychology

QuestionAnswerNotes
Science the use of systematic methods to observe the natural world, including human behavior, and to draw conclusions.
Behavior Everything we do that can be directly observed. Behavior includes the observable act of two people kissing; mental processes include their unobservable thoughts about kissing.
Mental Processes The thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly.
Critical Thinking The process of thinking deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating the evidence.
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) Wundt founded the first psychology laboratory (with his two co-workers) in 1879 at the University of Leipzig in Germany.
William James (1842-1910) Jame's approach became known as functionalism.
Structuralism Wundt's approach to discovering the basic elements, or structures, of mental processes.
Functionalism Jame's approach to mental processes, emphasizing the functions and purpose of the mind and behavior in the individual's adaptation to the environment.
Natural Selection Darwin's principle of an envolutionary process in which organisms that are best adapted to their environment will survive and produce offspring. The survival of giraffes with long necks (and not giraffes with short no necks) vividly illustrates natural selection at work.
Neuroscience The scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and bio-chemistry of the nervous system, emphasizing that the brain and nervous system, emphasizing that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, a
Biological Approach An approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system.
Behavioral Approach An approach to psychology emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environment determinants.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Freud was the founding father of the Psychodynamic Approach.
Humanistic Approach An approach to psychology emphasizing a person's positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny.
Cognitive Approach An approach to psychology emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing; how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.
Evolutionary Approach An approach to psychology centered on evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors.
Sociocultural Approach An approach psychology that examines the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior.
Variable Anything that can change
Theory A broad idea or set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observation and to make predictions about future observations.
Hypothesis An educated guess that derives logically from a theory; a prediction that can be tested.
Operational Definition A definition that provides an objective description of how a variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study.
Case Study Also called a case history, an in-depth lock at a single individual.
Correlational Research Research that examines the relationships between variables, whose purpose is to examine whether and how two variables change together.
Third Variable Problem The circumstances where a variable that has not been measured accounts for the relationship between two other variables.
Longitudinal Design A special kind of systematic observation, used by correlational researchers, that involves obtaining measures of the variables of interest in multiple waves over time
Experiment A carefully regulated procedure in which the researcher manipulates one or more variables that are believed to influence some other variable.
Confederate A person who is given a role to play in a study so that the social context can be manipulated.
Independent Variable A manipulated experimental factor, the variable that the experimenter changes to see what its effects are.
Dependent Variable The outcome-the factor that can change in an experiment in response to changes in the independent variable.
Control Group The participants in an experiment who are as much like the experimental group as possible and who are treated in every way like the experimental group except for a manipulated factor, the independent variable.
Experimental Group The participants in an experiment who receive the drug or other treatment under study - that is, those who are exposed to the change that the independent variable represents.
Validity The soundness of the conclusions that a researcher draws from an experiments
External Validity The degree to which an experimental design actually reflects the real-world issues it is supposed to address.
Internal Validity The degree to which changes in the dependent variable are due to the manipulation of the independent variable.
Experiment Bias The influence of the experimenter's expectations on the outcome of research.
Demand Characteristics Any aspects of a study that communicate to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave.
Placebo Effect The situation where participant's expectations, rather than the experimental treatment, produce an experimental outcome.
Research Participants Bias In an experiment, the influence of participants' expectations, and of their thoughts about how they should behave, on their behavior.
Placebo In a drug study, a harmless substance that has no physiological effect, given to participants in a control group so that they are treated identically to the experimental group except for the active agent.
Double-Blind Experiment An experimental design in which neither the experimental nor the participants are aware of which participants are in the experimental group and which are in the control group until the results are calculated.
Samples The subset of the population chosen by the investigator for study
Population The entire group about which the investigator wants to draw conclusions.
Random Sample A sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected.
Naturalistic Observations The observation of behavior in a real-world setting
Psychology The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Psychodynamic Approach An approach to psychology emphasizing unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives (such as the drive for sex) and society's demands, and early childhood family experiments.
Created by: ambarth86
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