Chap 1 Flashcards
Empiricism
Contention that an attribute is determined by experience rather than by genetics. Within epistemology, it is the belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experiences
Determinism
Belief that all behavior is caused and is therefore not free
Epiphenomenalism
Contentions that mental events are the by-products of bodily events. Bodily events cause mental events but mental events cannot cause bodily events. Mental, therefore, can be ignored in the analysis of human behavior.
Epistemology
Study of the nature of human knowledge.
Hedonism
Contention that the major motive in life is to pleasure and avoid pain.
Heuristic function of a theory
Theory’s ability to generate new information.
Human nature
Those qualities that characterize all humans. (One task of the personality theorist is to specify the nature of human nature).
Idiographic Research
Intense study of a single person.
Individual Differences
Important ways in which humans differ from one another. (One task of the personality theorist is the describe and explain individual differences).
Interactionism
Contention that the mind influences the body and the body influences the mind. Mind and body are causally related.
Introspection
Self examination. Directing one’s thoughts inward to discover the truth about one’s self.
Mind-body problem
Problem do specifying how something mental (cognitive) can influence something physical, such as body, and vice versa.
Nativism
Contention that an attribute is determined by genetics rather than by experience.
Nativism-Empiricism Controversy
Nature-Nurture Controversy
Argument concerning the extent to which an attribute, such as intelligence, is influenced by inheritance as opposed to experience.
Paradigm
Term used by Kuen to describe a theoretical viewpoints shared by many researchers.
Parallelism
Contention that an environmental event causes both mental and bodily reactions at the same time. According to this proposed answer to the mind-body question, bodily and mental phenomena run parallel to each other as therefore not causally related.
Person variables
Variables contained within persons thought to be responsible for their behavior. Traits, habits, memories, information processing mechanisms, and repressed early experiences exemplify person variables.
Persona
Latin word meaning mask.
Physical monism
Materialism
Contention that no mind-body problem exists because no mind exist. No mental events occur, only physical events.
Principal of Falsifiability
Principle of refutability
Popper’s contention that a scientific theory must make risky predictions; that is, it must make predictions that could conceivably be false and, of so, would refute the theory.
Principle of verification
The stipulation that scientific propositions must be capable of objective, empirical testing that is available to any interested person.
Rationalism
Belief that knowledge can be gained only by exercising the mind.
Ex. Deducing, or inferring
Risky predictions
Predictions that run the risk of being incorrect. According to the Popper, for a theory to be considered scientific it must make risky predictions.
Science
Epistemological pursuit that combines the philosophical schools of empiricism and rationalism.
Scientific theory
Combination of the philosophical schools and rationalism and empiricism, with two major functions: 1. To synthesize (explain) many observations, and 2. To generate new information
Self
Concept employed by several personality theorists to account for the facts that human behavior is smooth running, consistent and well organized. The concept of self has also been used to explain why we are self aware or ourselves as individuals
Self actualization
Situation that exists when a person is acting in accordance with his or her full potential
Situation variables
Those variables found in the environment thought to be responsible for behavior
Synthesizing function of a theory
A theory’s ability to organize and explain several otherwise disjointed observations
Teleological behavior
Purposive behavior
