Chapter 1 - Thinking critically with Psychological Science Flashcards
critical thinking
thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, appraises the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions
How do the scientific attitudes three main components relate to critical thinking?
the ideal of curious, skeptical, humble scrutiny of competing ideas unifies psychologists as a community as they check and recheck one another’s finding and conclusions
structuralism
early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener; used introspection to reveal the structure of the mind
functionalism
early school of thought promoted by james and influenced by Darwin; explored how mental and behavioral processes function – how they enable the organism to adapt, survive and flourish
“For a lot of bad ideas, science is society’s garbage disposal” describe what this tells us about the scientific attitude and what’s involved in critical thinking.
Many ideas and questions may be scrutinized scientifically, and the bad ones end up discarded as a result. Scientific thinking combines (1) curiosity about the world around us, (2) skepticism about unproved claims and ideas and (3) humility about one’s own understanding. This process leads us to evaluate evidence, assess conclusions, and examine our own assumptions, which are essential parts of critical thinking.
William Wundt
Wundt established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany
William James and Mary Whiton Calkins
James was a legendary teacher-writer who authored an important 1890 psychology text. He mentored Calkins, who became a pioneering memory researcher and the first woman president of the American Psychological association.
Margaret Floy Washburn
The first woman to receive a psychology P.H.D. Washburn synthesized animal behavior research in the animal mind
What event defined the start of scientific psychology?
Scientific psychology began in Germany in 1879 when William Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory
Why did introspection fail as a method for understanding how the mind works?
People’s self reports varied, depending on the experience and the person’s intelligence and verbal ability
the school of (blank) used introspection to define the mind’s makeup; (blank) focused on how mental processes enable us to adapt, survive and flourish
structuralism; functionalism
behaviorism
the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most psychologists today agree with (1) but not with ; redefined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior.
humanistic psychology
historically significant perspective that emphasized human growth potential; drew attention to ways that current environmental influences can nurture or limit our growth potential and to the importance of having our needs for love and acceptance satisfied
psychology
the science of behavior and mental processes; behavior is anything an organism does any action we can observe and record. mental processes are the internal subjective experiences we infer from behavior – sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts , beliefs and feelings.
B.F Skinner
this leading behaviorist rejected introspection and studied how consequences shape behavior
Sigmund Freud
the controversial ideas of this famed personality theorist and therapist have influenced humanity’s self understanding.
Freudian psychology
which emphasized the ways our unconscious thought processes and emotional responses to childhood experiences affect our behavior
John B Watson
dismissed introspection and redefined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior
cognitive psychology
today continues it scientific exploration of how we perceive, process, and remember information and the cognitive roots of anxiety, depression and other psychological
cognitive neuroscience
the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory and language)
nature-nurture issue
the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors. Today’s science sees traits and behaviors arising from the interaction of nature and nurture
natural selection
the principles that those chance inherited traits that better enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations
evolutionary psychology
the study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using principles of natural selection
behavior genetics
the study of the relative power and limits of genetic and environmental influences on behavior
culture
the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, values and traditions shared by a group of people and transmitted from one generation to the next
how did the cognitive revolution affect the field of psychology?
it recaptured the field’s early interest in mental processes and made them legitimate tops for scientific study
what is contemporary psychology’s position on the nature-nurture issue?
psychological events often stem from the interaction of nature and nurture rather than from either of them acting alone
What is psychology’s current perspectives in neuroscience?
How the body and brain enable emotions, memories and sensory experiences
What is psychology’s current evolutionary perspective?
How the natural selection of traits has promoted the survival of genes
What is psychology’s current behavioral genetics perspective?
how our genes and our environment influence our individual differences
what is psychology’s current cognitive perspective
How we encode, process, store and retrieve information
what is psychology’s current social-cultural perspective
How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures
positive psychology
the scientific study of human functioning, with the goals of discovering and promoting strengths and virtues that help individuals and communities to thrive
level of analysis
the differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon
biopsychosocial approach
an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological and social-cultural levels of analysis
what advantage do we gain by using the biopsychosocial approach in studying psychological events?
By incorporating different levels of analysis, the biopsychosocial approach can provide a more complete view than any one perspective could offer
the (blank) perspective in psychology focuses on how behavior and thought differ from situation to situation and from culture to culture, while the (blank) perspective emphasizes observation of how we respond to and learn in different siutations
social-cultural; behavioral
basic research
pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
applied research
scientific study that aims to solve practical problems
counseling psychology
a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work or marriage) and in achieving greater well being
clinical psychology
a branch of psychology that studies, assesses and treats people with psychological disorders
psychiatry
a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as psychological therapy
community psychology
a branch of psychology that studies how people interact with their social environments and how social institutions affect individuals and groups
intuition
an effortless, immediate, automatic feeling or thought as contrasted with explicit, conscious reasoning
hindsight bias
the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have forseen it
theory
an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes observations and predicts behaviors or events
hypothesis
a testable prediction, often implied by a theory
operational definition
a carefully worded statement of the exact procedures (operations) used in a research study.
