Chapter 1 Flashcards
Psychology
The scientific study of thought and behavior.
True Or False? Psychology is all about curing mental illness.
False: Psychologists not only diagnose and treat mental illness but also test hypotheses using the scientific method. Psychology is both a practice and a science.
Psychology is best defined as the scientific study of
a. human behavior
b. mental illness
c. neuroses
d. human thought and behavior
d. human thought and behavior
as a field, psychology is
a. a social science
b. the practice of diagnosing and treating mental illness.
c. a biological science
d. all of the above
d. all of the above
How does psychology differ from the related field of sociology?
a. psychology studies systems; sociology studies cultures.
b. Psychology studies culture; sociology studies people.
c. psychology studies individuals; sociology studies groups
d. psychology studies groups and cultures; sociology studies human behavior
c. psychology studies individuals; sociology studies groups
Cognitive psychology
The study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.
Developmental psychology
The study of how thought and behavior change and remain stable across the life span.
Behavioral neuroscience
The study of the links among brain, mind, and behavior.
Biological psychology
The study of the relationship between bodily systems and chemicals and how they influence thought and behavior.
Personality psychology
The study of what makes people unique and the consistencies in peoples behaviors across time and situations.
Social psychology
The study of how living among others influences thought, feeling, and behavior.
Clinical psychology
The diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and the promotion of psychological health.
True or false? Psychology is made up of many different subfields.
True: Psychology has many subfields and is not just one overall discipline. Each subfield examines an important component of thought and behavior, such as cognition, personality, or social influence.
Health Psychology
The study of the role psychological factors play in regard to health and illness.
Educational Psychology
The study of how students learn, the effectiveness of particular teaching techniques, the social psychology of schools, and the psychology of teaching.
Industrial/organized (I/O) psychology
The application of psychological concepts and questions to work settings.
Sports psychology
The study of psychological factors in sports and exercise.
Forensic Psychology
The field blends psychology, law, and criminal justice.
What sub discipline of psychology examines how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors change over the life span?
a. Development psychology
b. cognitive psychology
c. personality psychology
d. educational psychology
a. development psychology
A psychologist has conducted a series of studies on which part of the brain is most active during a memory task. She is probably
a. a developmental psychologist
b. a behavioral neuroscientist
c. a cognitive psychologist
d. an industrial/organizational psychologist
b. A behavioral neuroscientist
The main difference between a clinical and counseling psychologist is that counseling psychologists treat
a. people with more severe psychological disorders
b. more children than adults
c. people with less severe psychological disorders
d. people with learning disabilities
c. people with less severe psychological disorders
Shamans
Medicine men or women who treat people with mental problems by driving out their demons with elaborate rituals, such as exorcisms, incantations, prayers.
Asylums
Facilities for treating the mentally ill in Europe during the Middle Ages and into the 19th century
Moral treatment
the 19th century approach to treating the mentally ill with dignity in a caring environment
Psychoanalysis
A clinically based approach to understand and treating psychological disorders; it assumes that the unconscious mind is the most powerful force behind thought and behavior.
Empiricism
The view that all knowledge and thoughts come from experience
Psychophysics
The study of how people psychologically perceive physical stimuli, such as light, sound waves, and touch.
Structuralism
A 19th century school of psychology that argues that breaking down experience into its elemental parts offered the best way to understand thought and behavior.
Introspection
The main method of investigation for structuralists; it involves looking into one’s own mind for information about the nature of conscious experience.
Fuctionalism
A 19th century school of psychology that argues it was better to look at why the mind works the way it does than to describe its parts
Behaviorism
A school of psychology that proposed that psychology could be a true science only if it examines observable behavior, not ideas, thoughts, feelings, or motives.
Human psychology
A theory of psychology that focuses on personal growth and meaning as a way of reaching one’s highest potential.
Positive psychology
A scientific approach to studying, understanding, and promoting healthy and positive psychological functioning.
Gestalt psychology
A theory of psychology that maintains that we perceive things as wholes rather than as a compilation of parts.
True or false? Genetic influence on our thoughts and actions is set at birth and can’t be changed.
False: Experience can and does change how and when genes get expressed.
What perspective in psychology assumes that unconscious is the most powerful force behind most behavior?
a. trephination
b. cognitive psychology
c. structuralism
d. psychoanalysis
d. psychoanalysis
______ argues that thoughts, feelings, and motives are unimportant in understanding human behavior.
a. behaviorists
b. psychoanalysts
c. functionalists
d. gestalt psychologists
a. behaviorists
Positive psychology is a modern form of which school of thought?
a. structuralism
b. humanism
c. functionalism
d. introspectionism
b. humanism
softwiring
In contrast to hardwiring, biological systems-genes, brain structures, and brain cells–are inherited by open to modification from the environment.
Nature through nurture
The position that the environment constantly interacts with biology to shape who we are and what we do.
evolution
The change over time in the frequency with which specific genes occur within a breeding species.
Natural Selection
A feedback process whereby nature favors one design over another because it has an impact on reproduction.
How does natural selection work?
Natural selection is one of the basic mechanisms of evolution. This hypothetical example shows how natural selection might change the predominant color of a population of beetles from green to brown.
Adaptions
Inherited solutions to ancestral problems that have been selected for because they contribute in some way to productive success.
Evolutionary psychology
The branch of psychology that studies human behavior by asking what adaptive problems it may have solved for our early ancestors.
Which phrase most accurately reflects a modern perspective in psychology?
a. nature vs. nurture
b. nature over nurture
c. nurture over nature.
d. nature through nurture
d. nature through nurture
Charles Darwin’s great contribution was the theory of
a. how evolution works (natural selection)
b. evolution
c. psychoanalysis
d. adaptations
a. how evolution works (natural selection)
Mind-body dualism proposes that a. the mind and body are one. b. the mind influences the body and the body influences the mind. c. the mind and body are separate. the mind and body are both adaptions.
c. the mind and body are separate
True or false? Psychologists agree that most of human thought and behavior cannot be explained by one perspective.
True: Human thought and behavior are so complex and determined by so many different factors that no one perspective can fully capture the richness of human psychology.
Which of the following is a technique we argue for integrating the many perspectives in psychology?
a. using not believing everything you think
b. using the scientific method
c. making connections within and between chapters
d. all of the above
d. all of the above
Research on the association between vaccines and autism has shown
a. no connection between the two.
b. a weak connection between the two
c. a strong connection between the two
d. inconclusive results
a. no connection between the two.
