Exam 1 Vocab

Question 1

psychology

Answer 1

the scientific study of the mind brain and behavior

Question 2

scientific theory

Answer 2

explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world

Question 3

confirmation bias

Answer 3

tendency to seek out evidence that supports our beliefs and deny evidence that contradicts them

Question 4

metaphysical claim

Answer 4

assertion about the world thats not testable

Question 5

ad hoc immunizing hypothesis

Answer 5

escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification

Question 6

patternicity

Answer 6

tendency to perceive meaningful patterns in their absence

Question 7

functionalism

Answer 7

school of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics

Question 8

behaviorism

Answer 8

school of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking largely at observable behavior

Question 9

cognitive psychology

Answer 9

thinking is central to understanding behavior

Question 10

psychoanalysis

Answer 10

founded by freud, internal psychological processes of which were unaware

Question 11

naturalistic observation

Answer 11

watching behavior in real world settings not manipulating the situation

Question 12

external validity

Answer 12

extent to which we can generalize findings to real world settinga

Question 13

internal validity

Answer 13

extent to which we can draw cause and effect inferences from a study

Question 14

response set

Answer 14

tendency ti distort answers to paint themselves in better light

Question 15

experimenter expectancy effect

Answer 15

phenomenon in which researchers hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the outcome of a study

Question 16

demand characteristics

Answer 16

cues that participants pick up from a study that allow them to guess regarding the researchers hypothesis

Question 17

inferential statistics

Answer 17

mathematical methods that allow us to determine whether we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population

Question 18

g

Answer 18

general intelligence hypothetical factor that accounts for overall differences in intellect among people

Question 19

s

Answer 19

specific abilities particular ability level in a narrow domain

Question 20

fluid intelligence

Answer 20

capacity to learn new ways of solving problems

Question 21

crystallized intelligence

Answer 21

accumulated knowledge of the world acquired over time

Question 22

multiple intelligences

Answer 22

idea that people vary markedly in their ability levels across different domains of intellectual skill

Question 23

triarchic model

Answer 23

model of intelligence propsed by Robert Sternberg positing three distinct types of intelligence - analytical, practical and creative

Question 24

mental age

Answer 24

age corresponding to the average individuals performance on an inteligence test

Question 25

deviation IQ

Answer 25

expression of a persons IQ relative to his or her same aged peers

Question 26

stereotype threat

Answer 26

fear the we may confirm a negative group stereotype

Question 27

divergent thinking

Answer 27

capactiy to generate many different solutions to a probelm

Question 28

convergent thinking

Answer 28

capacity to generate the single best solution to a problem