Module 1 What is psychology Flashcards
The actual application of discovered techniques to solve specific practical problems
Applied Practice
The use of psychological principles to solve practical problems, typically by influencing behavior or changing the environment to match existing behavior
Applied Psychology
Research done in an effort to discover a new or more effective way to solve a specific practical problem
Applied research
Work done by psychologists to understand the fundamental principles of behavior and mind
Basic research
Any observable action, including words, gestures, responses, and more that can be repeated, measured, and are affected by a situation to produce or remove some outcome. Behavior can also refer to biological activity, including actions on the cellular level
Behavior
An approach to psychology that suggests observable behavior should be the only topic of study, ignoring conscious experience
Behaviorism
The view that all human behavior is controlled by genetic and biological influences
biological determinism
A form of applied psychology that focuses on identifying, preventing, and relieving distress or dysfunction that is psychological in origin
clinical psychology
Psychologists who focus on helping people deal with ongoing situations, or on the adjustment from one situation to another
Counseling psychologists
A shared set of beliefs, attitudes, behaviors, and customs belonging to a specific group of community
Culture
The philosophical position that the mind and the body are entirely separate from one another
Dualism
An approach to clinical psychology that uses different therapeutic techniques based on their effectiveness for the current situation.
eclectic approach
The view that knowledge arises directly from experience
Empiricism
The study of psychology from an evolutionary perspective, it proposes that many mental processes have developed in response to natural selection to solve adaptive problems
Evolutionary psychology
An approach to psychology that is critical of cultural influences on gender and gender differences in behavior
Feminist psychology
A kind of proximate explanation that seeks to identify a specific problem as the cause of a trait, behavior, or mental process
Functional explanation
An early movement in psychology whose proponents believed that an understanding of a behavior or process’ function was critical to understanding its operation
Functionalism
An approach to psychology that emphasizes the ability of humans to make their own choices and realize their own potential
Humanistic psychology
An approach to studying cultural influences that emphasizes examining how multiple social identities intersect at the level of the individual person to alter their experiences
intersectional approach
The acknowledgment that different explanations for a phenomenon can complement one another
Levels of explanation
The contents of conscious experience, including sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and emotions
Mind
The view that some forms of knowledge are inborn, or innate
Nativism
The principle that traits which contribute to improvements in survival and reproduction are more likely to be passed down to later generations
Natural selection
The pseudoscientific study of the shape of the human skull in an attempt to associate brain areas with specific characteristics, thoughts, or abilities
Phrenology
An outgrowth of humanistic psychology, positive psychology studies specific virtues of the human experience, including topics such as happiness, trust, charity, and gratitude
Positive psychology
A kind of proximate explanation that focuses on how a specific mental or physical process directly explains a trait or behavior
Process-oriented explanations
Explanations that seek to describe an immediate cause of a trait, behavior, or mental process
Proximate explanations
A medical doctor who is trained to assess and treat psychological disorders. Psychiatrists often prescribe and manage psychiatric medications
Psychiatrist
A form of psychotherapy coined by Sigmund Freud that seeks to help clients gain more insight into their unconscious thoughts, behaviors, and motivations
Psychoanalysis
The scientific study of both behavior and mind
Psychology
The first movement in the history of psychology, which focused on breaking down immediate conscious experiences (such as sensations and feelings) into their constituent parts
Structuralism
One of the first strategies to make inferences about the contents of the mind, it was an effort to standardize the way that people reported their own experiences
Systematic introspection
Research that attempts to take basic findings and turn them into solutions for practical problems
Translational research
Explanations that seek to describe the reasons why a trait, behavior, or mental process exists by appealing to its role in the process of evolution
Ultimate explanations
