Chapter 1 Flashcards
Identify the three key concepts in the definition of psychology.
- Scientific (collect & evaluate information)
- Behavior (things we do that can be observed)
- Mental Processes (our private internal experiences)
________ rely on nonscientific or deliberately fraudulent methods to explain personality.
Pseudopsychologists
Briefly explain the four goals of psychology
- Describe (What is their nature?)
- Explain (Why do they occur?)
- Predict (When will they occur?)
- Change (How can we change them?)
Psychologists four goals are to answer four basic questions about behavior and mental processes.
You dread going to the grocery store because you got lost there when you were a child. This illustrates psychologies goal of ________ behavior.
Explained behavior. (explains “why”)
The goal of ____(1)____ is to tell “what” occurred, whereas the goal of ____(2)____ is to tell “when”
- Description
2. Prediction
The ________ school of psychology sought to identify the basic building blocks of the mind.
Wundt School of Psychology
__________ investigated the function of mental processes in adapting to the environment
William James - a functionalist
What is structuralism?
Deals with the structure of mental life.
Structuralism seeks to identify elements of thought through introspection and then to determine how these elements combine to form the whole of experience.
Structuralism failed when different observers introspected and then disagreed on their experiences, no scientific method existed to settled the dispute.
Why are Freudian slips considered important to psychoanalysis?
Freudian slips supposedly revealed a person’s true unconscious desires and conflict.
He also believed many psychological problems are caused by conflicts between “acceptable” behavior and “unacceptable,” unconscious sexual or aggressive motives.
To deal with these unconscious conflicts, Freud developed a form of psychotherapy, or “talk therapy,” called psychoanalysis.
Which of the following terms do not belong together? A. structuralism, observable behavior; B. behaviorism stimulus-response; C. psychoanalytic unconscious conflict; D. humanism, free will
A. Structuralism, observable behavior
Structuralism: deals with the structures of mental life.
Structuralists sought to identify the elements of thought through introspection and then to determine how their elements combine to form the whole of experience.
Functionalism: Studies how the mind functions to adapt human and nonhuman animals to their environment.
Helped expand the scope of psychology to include research on the emotions and observable behaviors, initiated the psychological testing movement, and changed the course of modern education and Industry.
What is the biopsychosocial model?
The biopsychosocial model views biological processes (genetics, brain functions, neurotransmitters, evolution), psychological factors (learning, thinking, emotion, personality, motivation), and social forces (family, culture, ethnicity, social class, politics), as interrelated influences that interact with the previously described seven major perspective
What are the seven major perspective?
Behavioral, humanistic, cognitive, biological, evolutionary, sociocultural, psychodynamic.
What is psychodynamic psychology’s main emphasis?
Unconscious drives, motives, conflicts, and childhood experiences
What is behavioral psychology’s main emphasis?
Objective, observable, environmental influences on overt behavior
What is humanistic psychology’s main emphasis?
Free will, self-actualization, and human nature as naturally positive and growth-seeking
What is cognitive psychology’s main emphasis?
Thinking, perceiving, problem-solving, memory, language, and information processing
What is biological psychology’s main emphasis?
Genetics and biological processes in the brain and other parts of the nervous system
What is evolutionary psychology’s main emphasis?
Natural selection, adaption, and evolution of behavior and mental processes
What is sociocultural psychology’s main emphasis?
Social interaction and the cultural determinants of behavior and mental processes
What is Psychology?
Psyche - Mind
Logos - Word
•Psychology – scientific study of behavior and mental processes (empirically based)
APA – Ethical Principles of psychologists and Code of Conduct
–Informed consent –Voluntary participation –Restricted use of deception and debriefing –Confidentiality –Alternative activities
Basic vs. Applied Research
–Description, explanation, and prediction
–Change
•Scientific Method
–Replication
–Meta-analysis
–Theory
Experimental Method
Controlled scientific procedure that involves manipulation of variables to determine cause and effect
–Features:
•Experimental group – receives treatment
•Control group – no treatment
•Independent Variable – variable that is manipulated to determine its causal effect on the dependent variable
•Dependent Variable – variable that is measured; it is affect by the independent variable
•Confounding Variables – nuisance variables that may affect the outcome of the study and lead to erroneous conclusions
Types of Experimental method Bias
–Experimenter Bias – researcher influences research results in the expected direction
–Single-blind study – only researcher knows who is experimental or control group
–Double-blind study – both researcher and participants are unaware of who is in which group
Random participant Assignment
using chance to assign participants to experimental or control conditions
What is Descriptive Research?
–Observing and recording behavior and mental processes without producing causal explanations
–Naturalistic observation, surveys, and case studies
Correlational Research?
–Variables are observed or measured to identify relationships between them
–Correlation does not imply causation
Biological research?
–Autopsy –Brain lesioning –Brain injuries –Dissection, ablation, observation –Electroencephalogram EEG –Electrical stimulation –Brain imaging
What is Bx an abbreviation for?
Behavioral
