Chapter 1 - What Is Psychology

Question 1

What is psychology

Answer 1

scientific study of mind and behaviour

Question 2

Research psychologist

Answer 2

use scientific methods to create new knowledge about the causes of behaviour

Question 3

psychologist practitioners

Answer 3

use existing research to enhance the everyday life of others

Question 4

Creative and critical thinking (8 guidelines)

Answer 4

• Ask questions and be willing to wonder
• define the problem
• examine the evidence
• analyze assumptions and biases
• avoid emotional reasoning
• avoid over-generalizing
• Consider other explanation
• tolerate uncertainty

Question 5

facts

Answer 5

objective statements determined to be accurate through empirical study

Question 6

values and beliefs

Answer 6

personal statements that have not been evaluated using the scientific method

Question 7

social-cultural psychology

Answer 7

study of how the social situations and the cultures in which people find themselves influence thinking and behaviour

Question 8

Phrenology

Answer 8

Gall; read from shape of skull

Question 9

Structuralism; Introspection

Answer 9

Wundt; self-examination of conscious thoughts, feelings, and sensations

uses introspection as a method to map the elements of consciousness

introspection - asking research participants to describe exactly what they experience as they work on a mental task

Question 10

Psychodynamic

Answer 10

Freud; role of unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories

used the process of psychoanalysis - dream analysis and talk therapy

Question 11

Functionalism

Answer 11

James; attempts to understand why animals and humans have developed the particular psychological aspects that they currently possess

• natural selection

Question 12

Empirical methods

Answer 12

the processes of collecting and organizing data and drawing conclusions about those data.

Question 13

scientific method

Answer 13

the set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientists use to conduct empirical research.

Question 14

cognitive psychology

Answer 14

studies mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgment

Question 15

Levels of psychology

Answer 15

lower - biological
middle - interpersonal
higher- cultural and social

Question 16

Individual differences

Answer 16

variations among people on physical or psychological dimensions

Question 17

multiply determined behavior

Answer 17

produced by many factors

Question 18

repressed

Answer 18

memories that remain outside our consciousness (forget without knowing)

Question 19

behaviourism

Answer 19

Based on that it is not possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore that psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behaviour itself

Question 20

cognitive

Answer 20

The study of mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgments

Question 21

social-cultural

Answer 21

The study of how the social situations and the cultures in which people find themselves influence thinking and behaviour

Question 22

free will vs determinism (heritability of intelligence)

Answer 22

what is the extent to which people have control over their own actions?

Question 23

accuracy vs inaccuracy (heritability of intelligence)

Answer 23

to what extent are humans good information processors?

Question 24

conscious vs unconscious processing (heritability of intelligence)

Answer 24

to what extent are we conscious of our own actions and the causes of them, and to what extent are our behaviors caused by influences that we are not aware of?

Question 25

Differences vs similarities

Answer 25

to what extent are we all similar and/or different?