chapter one Flashcards
Psychological science
the study through research of mind, brain, and behavior
Mind refers to
mental activity ,Memories ,Thoughts
Feelings ,Perceptual insights (smell, touch, taste, feel, sound)
Behavior describes the totality of (—)human (or animal) actions
observable
Amiable skepticism
Weighing facts when deciding what to believe
Human brain is highly efficient at finding (-) and noticing (-)between things
patterns, connections
Ignoring evidence (confirmation bias)
people are inclined to over weigh evidence that supports their beliefs and tend to downplay evidence that does not match what they believe
Seeing causal relationships that do not exist:
the misinterpretation that two events that happen at the same time must somehow be related
Accepting after the fact explanations (hindsight bias):
interpret and reinterpret old evidence to make sense of that outcome. Gives false sense of certainty about our ability to make predictions of future behavior
Taking mental shortcuts (heuristics):
produce reasonably good decisions without too much effort
Can lead to inaccurate judgement
availability heuristic
things that come most easily to mind guide our thinking
Hypothesis Generation:
considering the possibilities/explanations of the why of the experiment
Mind/Body Problem:
a fundamental psychological issue: are mind and body separate and distinct or is the mind simply the brain’s subjective experience?
Dualism
idea that the mind and body are separate yet intertwined
Nature vs Nurture
Is an individual’s psychological characteristics biologically innate or are learned and acquired
Johnathan Stuart Mill
Psychology should leave the realm of speculation and philosophy and become a science
Defined psychology as the science of the elementary laws of the mind
Stream of consciousness (William James)
describe each person’s continuous series of ever-changing thoughts
Functionalism
an approach to psychology concerned with the adaptive purpose or function of mind and behavior
Mind came into existence over the course of human evolution
Helps humans adapt to environmental demands
Natural selection
those who adapt to their environment are at an advantage over those who do not adapt
Clinical psychology
area of psychology that seeks to understand, characterize, and treat mental illnesses
Cognitive psychology
understand the basic skills and processes that are the foundation of mental life and behavior
ex: Laboratory research
Topics such as memory, attention, sensation and perception
Cultural psychology:
how cultural factors such as geographical regions, national beliefs, and religious values can have profound effects on mental life and behavior
Developmental psychology:
studies how humans grow and develop from the prenatal period through infancy and early childhood through adolescence and early adulthood and into old age
Health psychology:
how psychological processes influence physical health and vice versa
Industrial/Organizational psychology
how psychological processes plays out in the workplace
Close relationship psychologists:
research our intimate relationships, properties that make them succeed or fail and the two-way effects between intimate relationships and other aspects of our lives
Social personality psychology:
study of everyday thoughts, feelings, and behaviors and the factors that give rise to them
Focuses on the situational and dispositional causes of behavior and interactions between them
Developments in neuroscience
Brain imaging
Localization of functions: the brain is specialized for different functions
Progress in genetics and epigenetics
Epigenetics: study of biological or environmental influences on gene expression that are not part of inherited genes
Advances in immunology and other peripheral systems
Behaviorism
a psychological approach that emphasizes environmental influences on observable behavior
Big Data:
uses tools from the computer science world (social media, youtube, data mining, machine learning ,etc) to identify complex patterns in large data sets
Data ethics:
grapples with issues of privacy, equal access to information, and how much information we can control information about ourselves
Open science movement
a social movement among scientists to improve methods, increase research transparency, and promote data sharing
Culture has a profound effect on a person’s behavior and shaping an individual’s psychology
Instills rules/norms
Biological level of analysis deals with how the physical body contributes to mind and behavior
Brain systems, neurochemistry, genetics
Individual level of analysis focuses on individual differences in personality and in the mental processes that affect how people perceive and know the world
Individual relationships, perception and cognition, behavior
Social level of analysis involves how group contexts affect the ways in which people interact and influence each other
Interpersonal behavior, social cognition
Cultural level of analysis explores how people’s (-) (-)(-) are similar or different across cultures
thoughts, feeling, actions
Retrieval based learning:
learning new information by repeatedly recalling it from long term memory
Elaborative interrogation:
thinking through why a fact is true or why it is true in some cases but not others
Self-explanation:
reflecting on your learning process and trying to make sense of new material in your own terms
Interleaved practice:
switching between topics during studying
Distributed practice
learning material in several bursts over a prolonged time frame
