lecture 1 Flashcards
What is psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and the mind.
What is behavior in psychology?
Actions and responses that we can directly observe.
What is the mind in psychology?
Internal states and processes, such as thoughts and feelings.
What makes psychology a science?
It systematically gathers and evaluates empirical evidence to answer questions and test beliefs about the natural world.
What is the psychology of adjustment?
Psychology is “the science that studies behavior
and the physiological and mental processes that
underlie it, and it is the profession that applies
the accumulated knowledge of this science to
practical problems.”
* Adjustment is “the psychological processes
through which people manage or cope with the
demands and challenges of everyday life.”
What are the four central goals of psychology?
Describe how humans and other species behave.
Explain and understand the causes of behavior.
Predict how humans and other species will behave under certain conditions.
Influence or control behavior to enhance human welfare.
True or False: In romantic relationships, opposites usually attract.
False.
A person who is innocent of a crime has nothing to fear from a lie detector test.
A: False.
Q: True or False: It is usually safest to awaken someone who is sleepwalking.
True.
What is the claim behind the Cambridge University jumbled word study?
People can read jumbled words if the first and last letters remain in place.
People read words as a whole rather than individual letters.
This finding is based on research conducted at Cambridge University.
Q: What are psychological barriers to critical thinking?
Beliefs and emotions that prevent critical thinking
Difficulty solving problems
Difficulty questioning information
Resistance to new perspectives
What are the three scientific attitudes in psychology?
Curiosity – Asking “why?”
Skepticism – Requiring evidence
Open-mindedness – Recognizing results may go against instincts
What was the Kitty Genovese case, and what concept did it lead to?
Kitty Genovese was murdered while 38 bystanders failed to call the police.
Led to the study of bystander apathy and diffusion of responsibility.
What was Darley & Latane’s hypothesis about the bystander effect?
If multiple bystanders are present in an emergency,
Then the likelihood that any one bystander will intervene is reduced.
The smoke filled room study
Person taking questionaire sees smoke in room 1st one gets up and leaves when alone when there are 2 or more other people no one moved or said anything 2o minutes passed by
Conform to the silent rule by standard effect no one wants to get involved because no on else did until 1 person does
once he was dressed. up to look like them people helped and respected in group right away
The Basic Challenge of Modern Life
Finding direction and meaning is a major challenge of modern life,
including:
– A sense of purpose
– Significance
– Coherence
Elements of a Good Self-Help Book
- Are realistic: don’t promise too much change too soon
- Are by authors with good credentials
- Have basis in theory or research
- Provide detailed directions for altering behavior
- Focus on a particular kind of problem or behavior
What is Somewhat Important?
- Health and happiness have positive correlation of .32
- Social relations – people satisfied with their friendships and
socially active report above-average levels of happiness - Religious beliefs – people with sincere religious convictions more
likely to be happy - Culture – more affluent nations are more likely to be happy
What is very important?
Relationship satisfaction – for men and women across cultures,
married people are happier than people who are single or
divorced
* Work – job satisfaction is strongly related to happiness
* Genetics and personality
– Extraversion is a strong predictor of happiness
– Neuroticism is negatively correlated with happiness
– Genetic predispositions account for a substantial portion of the
variance in happiness
What Is Not Very Important? for happiness
- Money – the correlation between income and happiness is very
weak in the U.S. (between .12 and .20) - Age – unrelated to global estimates of happiness
- Gender – little impact on subjective well-being
- Parenthood – good and bad aspects of parenthood balance each
other out - Intelligence – no association between IQ and happiness
- Physical attractiveness – attractive people enjoy many
advantages in society, but relationship with happiness is very
weak
Conclusions About Happiness
- Subjective feelings of happiness more important than objective
measures - Happiness is relative
– We evaluate our happiness relative to what others around us have
– We evaluate our happiness relative to our own expectations - People often adapt to their own circumstances
– Happiness affected by hedonic adaptation
– Occurs when the mental scale that people use to judge the
pleasantness-unpleasantness of their experiences shifts so that
their neutral point, or baseline for comparison, is changed
