Exam 1 Flashcards
Contemporary
Modern or current
Functionalist
A psychologist who studies the function rather than the structure of consciousness
Psychoanalyst
Psychologist who studies how unconscious motives and conflicts determine human behaviors, feelings, and thoughts
Cognitivist
A psychologist who studies how we process, store, retrieve, and use information and how thought processes influence our behavior
Psychobiologist
A psychologist who studies how physical and chemical changes in our bodies influence our behavior
Psychologist
A scientist who studies the mind and behavior of humans and animals
Psychiatry
A branch of medicine that deals with mental, emotional, or behavioral disorders
Variable
Any factor that is capable of change
descriptive statistics
The listing and summarizing of data in a practical, efficient way
Frequency distribution
An arrangement of data that indicates how often a particular score or observation occurs
Central tendency
A number that describes something about the average score of a distribution variance
Standard deviation
A measure of variability that describes an average distance of every score from the mean
Variance
A measure of variability that is the mean of squares of the deviations from the mean of the set
Correlation coefficient
Describes the direction and strength of a relationship between two sets of variables
Inferential statistics
Numerical methods used to determine whether research data supported a hypothesis or whether results were due to chance
Self concept
How we see or describe ourselves; our total perception of ourselves
Compliance
A change or a maintenance of behavior to avoid discomfort or rejection and to gain approval
Identification
Seeing oneself as similar to another person or group and accepting the attitudes of another person or group as one’s own
Internalization
Incorporating the values, ideas, and standards of others as part of oneself
Cognitive dissonance
The uncomfortable feeling when a person’s experiences contradictory or conflicting thoughts, attitudes, beliefs, or feelings
Counterattitudinal behavior
The process of taking a public position that contradicts once private attitude
Self justification
The need to rationalize one’s attitude and behavior
Prejudice
Preconceived attitudes towards a person or group that have been formed without sufficient evidence and are not easily changed
Inoculation effect
Developing resistance to persuasion by exposing a person to arguments that challenge his or her beliefs so that he or she can practice defending them
Brainwashing
Extreme form of attitude change semicolon uses peer pressure, physical suffering, threats, rewards, guilt, and intensive indoctrination
