Chapter 1 - What is Psychology? Flashcards
empirical
relying on or derived from observation, experimentation, or measurement
psychology
the discipline concerned with behaviour and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism’s physical state, mental state, and external enviornment, the term is often represented by the Greek letter psi (looks like a fancy pitchfork)
psychobabble
pseudoscience and quackery covered by a veneer of pscyhological and scientific soudning language
critical thinking
the ability and willigness to asses claims and make objective judgements on the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence, rather than emotion or anecdote
phrenology
the now discredited theory that different brain areas account for specific character and personality traits whcih can be read from bumps on the skull
structuralism
an early psychological approach that emphasized the analysis of immediate expereience into basic elements
functionalism
an eraly spuch approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behaviour and consciousness
psychoanalysis
a theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy, origianlly formulated by sigmund freud, that emphasizes unconsious motives and conflcits
major psycholoogoical perspectives
biological, leraning, cognitive, sociocultural, psychdynamic
bioloigcal perpsepective
a psych approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings, and thoughts
evolutionary psych
a field of psych emphasizing evolutionary mechanisms that may help explain human commonalities in cognition, devlopment, emotion, social practicies and other areas of behaviour
learning perspective
a psych approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affecta a person’s or animal;s actions, it includes behaviourism and social cognitice learning theories
behaviourism
an approach to psuch that emphasizes the study of observable behaviour and the role of the enivornment as a determinant of behaviour
