Ch 1 Vocab

Question 0

The scientific study of behavior and mental process

Answer 0

Psychology

Question 1

Everything we do that can be directly observed

Answer 1

Behavior

Question 2

The use of systematic methods to observe the natural world, including human behavior, and to draw conclusions.

Answer 2

Science

Question 3

The thoughts, feelings, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be served directly.

Answer 3

Mental process

Question 4

The process of thinking deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating the evidence.

Answer 4

Critical thinking

Question 5

Wilhelm Wundt’s approach to discovering the basic elements, or structures, of mental process.

Answer 5

Structuralism

Question 6

William James’s approach to mental process, emphasizing the functions and purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual’s adaptation to the environment.

Answer 6

Functionalism

Question 7

Darwin’s principal of an evolutionary process in which organisms that are best adapted to their environment will survive and produce offspring.

Answer 7

Natural selection

Question 8

The scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system, emphasizing that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion.

Answer 8

Neuroscience

Question 9

An approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system.

Answer 9

Biological approach

Question 10

An approach to psychology emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants

Answer 10

Behavioral approach

Question 11

An approach to psychology emphasizing unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives (such as the drive for sex) and societies demands, and early childhood family experiences.

Answer 11

Psychodynamic approach

Sigmund Freud was the founding father of the psychodynamic approach

Question 12

An approach to psychology centered on evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors

Answer 12

Evolutionary approach

Question 13

An approach to psychology emphasizing a person’s positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny.

Answer 13

Humanistic approach

Question 14

An approach to psychology emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.

Answer 14

Cognitive approach

Question 15

An approach to psychology that examines the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior.

Answer 15

Socialcultural approach

Question 16

Anything that can change

Answer 16

Variable

Question 17

A broad idea or set of closely related ideas that attempts to explain observations and to make predictions about future observations

Answer 17

Theory

Question 18

An educated guess that derives logically from a theory; a prediction that can be tested.

Answer 18

Hypothesis

Question 19

A definition that provides an objective description of how variable is going to be measured and observed in a particular study

Answer 19

Operational definition

Question 20

Also called a case history, an in-depth look at a single individual.

Answer 20

Case study

Question 21

Research that examines the relationships between variables, whose purpose is to examine whether and how two variables change together.

Answer 21

Correlational research

Question 22

The circumstance where a variable that has not been measured accounts for the relationship between two other variables

Answer 22

Third variable problem

Question 23

A special kind of systematic observation, used by correlational researchers, that involves obtaining measures of the variables of interest in multiple waves over time.

Answer 23

Longitudinal design

Question 24

A carefully regulated procedure in which the researcher manipulates one or more variables that are believed to influence some other variable

Answer 24

Experiment

Question 25

Researchers assignment of participants to groups by chance, to reduce the likelihood that an experiments results will be due to pre-existing differences between groups.

Answer 25

Random assignment

Question 26

A person who is given a role to play in a study so that the social context can be manipulated

Answer 26

Confederate

Question 27

The outcome the factor that change in an experiment in response to changes in the independent variable

Answer 27

Dependent variable

Question 28

The participants in experiment who are as much like the experimental group as possible and who are treated in every way like the experimental group except for manipulated factor, the independent variable

Answer 28

Control group

Question 29

The soundness of the conclusions that a researcher draws from an experiment

Answer 29

Validity

Question 30

The degree to which an experimental design actually reflects the real-world issues it is supposed to address

Answer 30

External validity

Question 31

A manipulated experimental factor, the variable that the experimenter changes to see what its effects are

Answer 31

Independent variable

Question 32

The participants in experiments who receive the drug or other treatment under study that is, those who are exposed to the change that the independent variable represents

Answer 32

Experimental group

Question 33

The degree to which changes in the dependent variable ate due to the manipulation of the independent variable

Answer 33

Internal validity

Question 34

The situation where participants expectations, rather than the experimental treatment, produce an experimental outcome

Answer 34

Placebo effect

Question 35

An experimental design in which neither the experimenter 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

Answer 35

Double-blind experiment

Question 36

The influence of the experimenter’s expectations on the outcome of research

Answer 36

Experimenter bias

Question 37

Any aspects of a study that communicate to the participants how the experimenter wants them to behave

Answer 37

Demand characteristics

Question 38

In an experiment, the influence of participants expectations, and of their thoughts about how they should behave, on their behavior.

Answer 38

Research participant bias

Question 39

In a drug study, a harmless substance that has no physiological effect, given to participants in a control group so that they are tested identically to the experimental group except for the active agent

Answer 39

Placebo

Question 40

The subset of the population chosen by the investigator for study

Answer 40

Sample

Question 41

The entire group about which the investigator wants to draw conclusions

Answer 41

Population

Question 42

A sample that gives every member of the population an equal chance of being selected

Answer 42

Random sample

Question 43

The observation of behavior in a real world setting

Answer 43

Naturalistic observation