Chapter 1 - Section 2 The Scope of Psychology, and 3 Flashcards
At what levels can a person’s behavior or mental experience be examined in psychology?
Biological
Neural: brain as a cause.
Physiological: internal chemical functions, such as hormones, as cause.
Genetic: genes as cause.
Evolutionary: natural selection as cause.
Less directly biological - effects of experiences and knowledge
Learning: the individual’s prior experiences with the environment as cause.
Cognitive: the individual’s knowledge or beliefs as cause.
Social: the influence of other people as cause.
Cultural: the culture in which the person develops as cause.
Developmental: age-related changes as cause. (p. 13)
What is behavioral neuroscience?
Trying to understand how the nervous system produces the specific type of experience or behavior being studied.
All mental experiences and behavioral acts are products of the nervous system. (p. 13)
What is biopsychology?
It studies the ways hormones and drugs act on the brain to alter behavior and experience, either in humans or in nonhuman animals. (p. 14)
What is behavioral genetics?
The research specialty that attempts to explain psychological differences among individuals in terms of differences in their genes. (p. 15)
What is evolutionary psychology?
Explaining how or why universal human characteristics came about in the course of evolution.
Most evolutionary psychologists are interested in identifying the evolutionary functions - that is, the survival or reproductive benefits - of the types of behaviors and mental experiences that they study.
(p. 15-16)
What is learning psychology?
The psychological specialty that is most directly and exclusively concerned with explaining behavior in terms of learning. (p. 16)
What does the term cognition refer to?
Information in the mind - that is, to information that is somehow stored and activated by the workings of the brain.
Such (conscious or unconscious) information includes thoughts, beliefs, and all forms of memories. (p. 16)
How do learning and cognitive explanations differ?
Cognition, unlike learning, is never measured directly but is inferred from the behaviors we can observe.
In general, cognitive psychology differs from the psychology of learning in its focus on the mind. Learning psychologists typically attempt to relate learning experiences directly to behavioral changes and are relatively unconcerned with the mental processes that mediate such relationships.
To a learning psychologist, experience in the environment leads to change in behavior. To a cognitive psychologist, experience in the environment leads to change in knowledge or beliefs, and that change leads to change in behavior. (p. 17)
On what level of analysis is the specialty cognitive psychology focusing?
Any behavioral action or mental experience is explained by relating it to the cognitions (items of mental information) that underlie that action or experience. (p. 16)
What is social psychology?
Explaining mental experiences and behavior by identifying how they are influenced by other people or by one’s beliefs about other people.
Allport: “Social psychology is the attempt to understand and explain how the thought, feeling, and behavior of individuals are influenced by the actual, imagined, or implied presence of others.” (p. 17)
What is cultural psychology?
The psychological specialty that explains mental experiences and behavior in terms of the culture in which the person developed. (p. 18)
How do social and cultural explanations differ?
They are very closely related but differ in emphasis.
While social psychologists emphasize the immediate social influences that act on individuals, cultural psychologists strive to characterize entire cultures in terms of the typical ways that people within them feel, think and act.
While social psychologists use concepts such as conformity and obedience to explain an individual’s behavior, cultural psychologists more often refer to the unique history, economy, and religious or philosophical traditions of a culture to explain the values, norms, and habits of its people. (p. 18)
What is developmental psychology?
The psychological specialty that documents and describes the typical age differences that occur in the ways that people feel, think, and act.
Developmental psychologists are particularly interested in understanding how experiences at any given stage of development can influence behavior at later stages. (p. 18-19)
What are some research specialties in psychology that are defined primarily not by levels of analysis, but rather in terms of topics studied?
Sensory psychology: the study of basic abilities to see, hear, touch, taste, and smell the environment.
Perceptual psychology: the study of how people and animals make sense of, or interpret, the input they receive through their senses.
Psychology of motivation
Psychology of emotion
Personality psychology: is concerned with normal differences in people’s general ways of thinking, feeling, and behaving - referred to as personality traits.
Abnormal psychology: concerned with variations in psychological traits that are sufficiently extreme and disruptive to people’s lives as to be classified as mental disorders.
Clinical psychology: the specialty that is concerned with helping people who have mental disorders or less serious psychological problems.
Clinical psychologists who conduct research are usually interested in identifying or developing better treatment methods. (p. 20)
What are the three main divisions of academic studies? How does psychology link them together?
The psychocentric theory of the university defines three broad areas (divisions) with disciplines.
Natural sciences: physics, chemistry and biology.
Social sciences: sociology, cultural anthropology, political science, and economics.
Humanities (things that humans do, unlike other animals): languages, philosophy, art and music.
Psychology bridges the natural and social sciences, and it has strong connections to the humanities. In this sense, it lies in the center of the academic persuits of the university. (p. 21)
