Chapter 1 Key Terms Flashcards
Adaptations
Inherited solutions to ancestral problems have been selected because they contribute in some way to reproductive success.
Asylums
Facilities for treating the mentally ill in Europe during the Middle Ages and into the 19th century.
Behavioral Neuroscience
The study of the links among brain, mind, and behavior.
Behaviorism
A school of psychology proposed that psychology can be a true science only if it examines observable behavior, not ideas, thoughts, feelings, or motives.
Biological Psychology
The study of the relationship between bodily systems and chemicals and how they influence behavior and thought.
Clinical Psychology
The diagnosis and treatment of mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders and the promotion of psychological health.
Cognitive Psychology
The study of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems.
Critical Thinking
A process by which one analyzes, evaluates, and form ideas.
Developmental Psychology
The study of how thought and behavior change and remain stable across the life span.
Educational Psychology
The study of how students learn, the effectiveness of particular teaching techniques, the social psychology of schools, and the psychology of teaching.
Empiricism
The view that all knowledge and thoughts come from experience.
Evolutionary Psychology
The branch of psychology that studies human behavior by asking what adaptive problems it may have solved for our early ancestors.
Evolution
The change over time in the frequency with which specific genes occur within a breeding species.
Forensic psychology
The field that blends psychology, law, and criminal justice.
Functionalism
The 19th Century school of psychology argued it was better to look at why the mind works the way it does than to describe its parts.
Health Psychology
the study of the role psychological factors play in regard to health and illness.
Humanistic Psychology
A theory of psychology that focuses on personal growth and meaning as a way of reaching one’s highest potential.
Industrial/ Organizational (I/O) Psychology
The application of psychology concepts and questions to work settings
Introspection
The main method of investigation for structuralists; involves looking into one’s own mind for information about the nature of conscious experience.
Metacognitive Thinking
The ability first to think and then to reflect on one’s own thinking.
The oversight of one’s own thinking process.
Moral Treatment
A 19th-Century approach to treating the mentally ill with dignity in a caring environment.
Nature Through nurture
The environment, be it the womb or the world outside, interacts continuously with biology to shape who we are and what we do.
Personality Psychology
The study of what makes people unique and the consistencies in people’s behavior across time and situations.
Positive Psychology
A scientific approach to studying, understanding, and promoting healthy and positive psychological functioning.
Psychoanalysis
A clinical based approach to understanding and treating psychological disorders; assumes that the unconscious mind is the most powerful force behind thought and behavior.
Psychophysics
The study of how people experience physical stimuli such as light, sound waves, and touch.
Psychology
The scientific study of thought and behavior. Psychology is both clinical practice and science.
Sexual selection
Operates when members of the opposite sex find certain traits attractive or appealing and therefore over long periods of time these traits become more common in the population.
Shamans
Medicine men or women treat people with mental problems by driving out their demons with elaborate rituals, such as exorcisms, incantations, and prayers.
Social Psychology
The study of how living among others influences thought, feeling, and behavior.
Sports Psychology
The study of psychological factors in sports and exercise.
Structuralism
The 19th Century school of psychology argued that breaking down experience into its elemental parts offers the best way to understand thought and behavior.
