midterm Flashcards
William James headed to what is now Germany, where he learned about the new field of psychology in:
1860
The structuralist approach to psychology gradually faded, mostly because of the subjective nature of
introspection
Locke argued that a child’s mind is
a tabula rasa, or “blank slate.”
The method of introspection is a problematic approach because…
it is difficult for psychologists to agree on the basic elements of consciousness, and the method is too subjective.
philosophical dualism
The idea that the mind and body are separate entities that interact to produce sensations, emotions, and conscious experiences.
psychology
the scientific study of mind and behaviour, and it has deep philosophical roots
philosophical materialism
all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena.
philosophical realism
perceptions of the physical world are produced by the information from the sensory organs
philosophical idealism
perceptions of the physical world are the brain’s interpretation of information from the sensory organs
philosophical empiricsm
the view that all knowledge is acquired through experience
philosophical nativism
some knowledge is innate rather than acquired
reaction time
the amount of time between the onset of a stimulus and a person’s response to the stimulus
structuralism
late 19th European psychologists attempted to isolate and analyze the mind’s basic elements
introspection
the analysis subjective experience by trained observers
functionalism
influenced by Darwin’s theory of Natural Selection, emphasizing the adaptive significance of mental processes
natural selection
the process by which the specific attributes that promote an organism’s survival and reproduction become more prevalent in the population over time
hysteria
a loss of function that has no obvious physical origin
unconscious
the part of the mind that contains information of which people are not aware
psychoanalytic theory
developed by Sigmund Freud, the influence of the unconscious on feelings, thoughts, and behaviours
psychoanalysis
a therapy devised by Freud that he believed could help people gain insight into the contents of their unconscious minds
behaviourism
developed by John Watson that restricted scientific inquiry to observable behaviour
principle of reinforcement
how organisms learn to operate in their environment
Gestalt psychology
how the mind creates perceptual experience
developmental psychology
how psychological phenomena change over the life span
social psychology
the study of the causes and consequences of sociality
cognitive psychology
the emergence of this allowed psychologists to use the language information processing to study mentalistic phenomena
evolutionary psychology
the study of how the human mind has been shaped by natural selection
cognitive neuroscience
the relationship between the brain and the mind (human)
behavioural neuroscience
the relationship between the brain and behaviour (animal)
cultural psychology
the study of how culture influences mental life
what impact did Freud have on psychology
little impact on experimental psychology, but a tremendous impact on the treatment of psychological disorders and on the intellectual climate of the Western world
empiricism
knowledge of the world can be acquired by observing it
scientific method
a procedure for using empirical evidence to establish facts
theories
explanations of natural phenomena
hypothesis
a falsifiable prediction made by a theory
empirical method
a set of rules and techniques for observation
operational definition
a description of a property in measurable terms
construct validity
a feature of operational definitions whose specified operations are generally considered good indicators of the specified properties
power
a detector’s ability to detect the presence of differences or changes in the magnitude of a property
reliability
a detector’s ability to detect the absence of differences or changes in the magnitude of a property
demand characteristics
those aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think someone else wants or expects
naturalistic observation
a technique for gathering information by unobtrusively observing people in their natural environments
observer bias
the tendency for observers’ expectations to influence both what they believe they observed and what they actually observed
double-blind study
a study in which neither the researcher nor the participant knows how the participants are expected to behave
population
a complete collection of people
sample
a partial collection of people drawn from a population
frequency distribution
a graphic representation showing the number of times that the measurement of a property takes on each of its possible values
normal distribution
a mathematically defined distribution in which the frequency of measurements is highest in the middle and decreases symmetrically in both directions
mode
the value of the most frequently observed measurement
mean
the average value of all the measurements
median
the value that is in the middle
range
the value of the smallest measurement
standard deviation
how each of the measurements in a frequency distribution differs from the mean
variable
properties that can have more than one value
correlation
a relationship between variables in which variations in the value of one variable are synchronized with variations in the value of the other
correlation coefficient (r)
a mathematical measure of both the direction and strength of a correlation
natural correlation
a correlation that is observed in the natural world
third-variable problem
the natural correlation between two variables cannot be taken as evidence of a causal relationship between them because a third variable might be causing them both
experimentation
a technique for establishing the causal relationship between variables
manipulation
a technique for determining the causal power of a variable by actively changing its value
independent variable
that variable that is manipulated in an experiement
dependant variable
the variable that is measured in an experiment
self-selection
a problem that occurs when anything about a participant determines the value of the independent variable to which the participant was exposed
random assignment
a procedure that assigns participants to conditions by chance
internal validity
an attribute of an experiment that allows it to establish causal relationships
external validity
an attribute of an experiment in which variables have been operationally defined in a representative way
case method
a procedure for gathering scientific information by studying a single individual
random sampling
a technique for selecting participants that ensures that every member of a population has an equal chance of being included in the sample
replication
an experiment that uses the same procedures as a previous experiment but with a new sample from the same population
type I error
occurs when researchers conclude that there is a causal relationship between two variables when in fact there is not
type II error
occurs when researchers conclude that there is not a causal relationship between two variables when in fact there is
informed consent
a verbal agreement to participate in a study made by an adult who has been informed of all risks that participation may entail
debriefing
a verbal description of the true nature and purpose of a study
