Chapter 1 - The Science of Psychology Flashcards
Define Psychology:
- Explain it’s 2 main components
• Psychology: scientific study of behaviour and the mind.
o Behaviour -‐ actions and responses that we can directly observe
o Mind – internal states and processes that are inferred from observable responses
List the SUBFIELDS of Psychology
- Clinical
- Cognitive
- Biopsychology/ Behavioural Neuroscience
- Developmental
- Experimental
- Industrial- Organisational
- Personality
- Social
Explain Clinical Psychology:
• Clinical psychology: study and treatment of mental disorders
Explain Cognitive Psychology:
• Cognitive psychology: study of mental processes e.g. attention, consciousness, memory, decision-‐making, problem-‐solving
Explain Biopsychology/Behavioural Neuroscience:
•Biopsychology/behavioural neuroscience:
how brain processes, genes and hormones influence our actions, thoughts, and feelings. Particular emphasis on how evolution has influenced psychological capabilities and behavioural tendencies
Explain Developmental Psychology:
• Developmental psychology: human physical, psychological and social development across the life span
Explain Experimental Psychology:
• Experimental psychology: basic processes e.g. learning, sensory systems, perception and motivation states
Explain Industrial-Organisational psychology:
• Industrial-‐organisational psychology (I/O):
people’s behaviour in the workplace, e.g. leadership, team-‐work etc.
Explain Personality Psychology:
• Personality psychology: study of personality – how core personality traits relate and influence behaviour
Explain Social Psychology:
• Social psychology: people’s behaviour pertaining to the social world – how people influence one another
Psychology’s Scientific Approach (1): Explain EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE
• Empirical evidence: evidence gained through experience and observation. Includes evidence obtained by manipulating variables and then observing.
• Is a public affair, reducing any confirmation bias (paying too much attention to information consistent with what we believe)
o ***Thus, science is a self-‐correcting process. We build on each other’s research and discriminate what is correct and incorrect
Psychology’s Scientific Approach (1): Explain CRITICAL THINKING
• Critical thinking is a tool used to actively understand the world rather than just taking in information.
There are a series of questions to interrogate claims used in psychology:
o What is the claim?
o Who is making the claim – is the source credible/trustworthy?
o What’s the evidence and how good is it?
o Are other explanations possible? Can I evaluate those?
o What is the best conclusion?
List and Explain the GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY (4):
- Description – describe how people behave, think, and feel
- Explain – understand why people act as they do (in hypotheses and theories)
- Control – designing experiments to test whether their proposed explanations are accurate
- Application – apply psychological knowledge to enhance human welfare
Explain BASIC VS APPLIED RESEARCH
- Basic research – the quest for knowledge for its own sake
* Applied – to solve problems
What is Psychological Levels of Analysis?
List and Explain them: (3)
They are factors considered to understand behaviour.
• They Examine behaviour and its causes at various levels: (e.g. eating)
o Biological level (chemicals, neural circuits and structures that regulate whether you feel hungry or full)
o Psychological level (moods, preferences and motives)
o Environmental and social level (stimuli e.g. appearance of the food, or cultural customs)
