Chapter 1 Vocbulary

Question 1

Belief that all behavior is caused and is therefore not free

Answer 1

Determinism

Question 2

Contention that an attribute is determined by experience rather than genetics. Within epistemology, it is the belief that all knowledge is derived from sensory experience

Answer 2

Empiricism

Question 3

Belief that determinants of behavior are in the environment instead of the person

Answer 3

Environmentalism

Question 4

Contention that mental events are the by-products of bodily events. Bodily events cause mental events but mental events cannot cause bodily events. Mental events, therefore, can be ignored in the analysis of human behavior

Answer 4

Epiphenomenalism

Question 5

Study of the human knowledge

Answer 5

Epistemology

Question 6

Contention that the major motive in life is to seek pleasure and avoid pain

Answer 6

Hedonism

Question 7

Theory’s ability to generate new information

Answer 7

Heuristic function of a theory

Question 8

Those qualities that characterize all humans. One task of the personality theorist is to specify t

Answer 8

Human Nature

Question 9

Intense study of a single person

Answer 9

Idiographic

Question 10

Important ways in which human beings differ from one another. One of the tasks of the personality theorist is to describe and explain

Answer 10

Individual differences

Question 11

Contention that the mind influences the body and the body influences the mind. That is, the mind and the body causally related.

Answer 11

Interactionism

Question 12

Self-examination. Directing one’s thoughts inward to discover the truth about one’s self

Answer 12

Introspection

Question 13

Problem of specifying how something mental (cognitive) can influence something physical, such as the body vice versa

Answer 13

Mind-body problem

Question 14

Contention that an attribute is determined by genetics rather than by experience

Answer 14

nativism

Question 15

Also called the nature-nuture controversy. Argument concerning the extent to which an attribute, such as intelligence, is influenced by inheritance as opposed to experience. Nomothetic research. Study of groups of individuals.

Answer 15

Nativism-empiricism controversy

Question 16

Term used by Kuhn to describe a theoretical viewpoint shared by many researchers

Answer 16

Paradigm

Question 17

Contention that an environmental event causes both mental and bodily reactions at the same time. According to this proposed answer to the mind-body question, bodily and mental phenomena run parallel to each other and are therefore not causally related.

Answer 17

Parallelism

Question 18

Variables contained within persons thought to be responsible for their behavior. Traits, habits, memories information-processing mechanisms, and repressed early experiences exemplify person variables

Answer 18

Person variables

Question 19

Latin word meaning mask

Answer 19

Persona

Question 20

Also called materialism. Contention that no mind-body problem exists because no mind exists. No mental events occur, only physical events.

Answer 20

Physical monism

Question 21

Also called principle of refutability. Popper’s contention that a scientific theory must make risky predictions; that is it must make predictions that could conceivably be false and, if so, would refute the theory.

Answer 21

Principe of falsifiability

Question 22

The stipulation that scientific propositions must be capable of objective, empirical testing that is available to any interested person

Answer 22

Principle of verification

Question 23

Belief that knowledge can gained only by exercising the mind, for example, by thinking, deducing, to inferring.

Answer 23

Rationalism

Question 24

Predictions that run the risk of being incorrect. According to Popper, for a theory to be considered scientific it must make risky predictions.

Answer 24

Risky predictions

Question 25

Epistemological pursuit that combines the philosophical schools of empiricism and rationalism

Answer 25

Science

Question 26

Combination of the philosophical schools of rationalism and empiricism, with two major functions: (1) to synthesize (explain) many observations, and (2) to generate new information.

Answer 26

Sciencitific theory

Question 27

Concept employed by several personality theorist to account for the facts human behavior is smooth running, consistent, and well organized. The concept of self has also been used to explain why we are aware of ourselves as individuals

Answer 27

Self

Question 28

Situation that exists when a person is acting in accordance with his or her full potential

Answer 28

Self-actualization

Question 29

Those variables found in the environment thought to be responsible for behavior

Answer 29

Situation variables

Question 30

A theory’s ability to organize and explain several otherwise disjointed observations

Answer 30

Synthesizing function of a theory

Question 31

Purposive behavior

Answer 31

Teleological behavior

Question 32

The study of groups of individuals

Answer 32

Nomothetic