Chapter 1: History / Methods Flashcards
Why is psychology a science?
Because, like other sciences it relies on the Scientific Method when seeking to answer questions.
Scientific Method
An approach to knowledge that relies on collecting data, generating a theory to explain the data, producing testable hypothesis based on the theory, and testing those hypotheses empirically.
Experimental Research Design
Technique in which an investigator deliberately manipulates selected events or circumstances and then measures the effects of those manipulations on subsequent behavior.
Correlational Research
Technique based on the naturally occurring relationship between two or more variables.
Case Study
Intensive description and analysis of a single individual or just a few individuals
Observer Bias
Expectations or biases of the observer that might distort or influence his or her interpretation of what was actually observed.
APA Code of Ethics
- Participants must be informed of the nature of research in clearly understandable language
- Informed consent must be documented
- Risks, limitations on confidentiality, and adverse side-effects must be spelled out in advance
- If a participant is a condition of course credit, equitable alternative activities must be offered
- Participants may not be deceived about aspects of the research that would affect their willingness to participate
- Deception about the goals of the research can be used only when absolutely necessary for the integrity of the research.
Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Bradford Titchener
Voluntarism and structuralism.
-Psychology born in 1879, Wundt finds first psych lab at University of Leipzig, Germany.
William James
Developed Functionalist Theory
Structuralism
School of psychology that stresses the basic units of experience and the combinations in which they occur.
Functionalist Theory
Theory of mental life and behavior that is concerned with how an organism uses its perceptual abilities to function in its environment.
Sigmund Freud
Psychodynamic Psychology
Psychodynamic Theories
Personality theories contending that behavior results from psychological factors that interact within the individual, often outside conscious awareness.
John B. Watson
Behaviorism
Behaviorism
School of psychology that studies only observable and measurable behavior.,
B.F. Skinner
Built on top of Watson’s Behaviorism theories.
Gestalt Psychology
School of psychology that studies how people perceive and experience objects as whole patterns.
Humanistic Psychology
School of psychology that emphasizes nonverbal experiences and altered states of consciousness as a means of realizing one’s full human potential.
Cognitive Psychology
School of Psychology devoted to the study of mental processes in the broadest sense.
Evolutionary Psychology
An approach to, and subfield of, psychology that is concerned with the evolutionary origins of behaviors and mental processes, their adoptive value, and the purposes they continue to serve.
Positive Psychology
An emerging field of psychology that focuses on positive experiences, including subjective well-being, self-determination, the relationship between positive emotions and physical health and the factors that allow individuals, communities, and societies to flourish.
