Psych 100 Flashcards
What is Psychology?
The scientific study of the mind, brain, and behaviour
what are levels of analysis?
rungs on ladder of analysis, with lower levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences.
what is multiply determined?
human behaviour is difficult to predict, in part because all actions are multiply determined - that is, produced by many factors.
What are individual differences?
variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behaviour.
what is introspection?
method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences
what is structualism?
school of psychology that aimed to indentify the basic elements of psychological experience
E.B. Tichener
what is functionalism?
school of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics
William James
What is behaviourism?
school of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking at observable behaviour.
John B. Watson
what is cognitive psychology?
school of psychology that proposes that thinking is central to understanding behaviour.
what is cognitive neuroscience?
relatively new field of psychology that examines the relation between brain functioning and thinking.
what is psychoanalysis?
school of psychology, founded by Sigmund Freud, that focuses on internal psychological processes of which we’re unaware.
qhat is evolutionary psychology l?
discipline that applies Darwin’s theory of natural selection to human and animal behaviour
what is naive realism?
belief that we see the world precisely as it is.
What is scientific theory?
explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world
what is a hypothesis?
testable prediction derived from a scientific theorym
what is confirmation bias?
tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them.
what is belief perseverance?
tendency to stick to our nitial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them.
what a is metaphysical claim?
assertions about the world that is not testable.
what is pseudoscience?
a set of claims that seems scientific but isnt
what is ad hoc immunizing hypothesis?
escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification.
What is patternicity?
the tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli
what is terror management theory?
theory proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with with an underlying sense of terror we cope with by adopting reassuring cultural world views.
What is scientific skepticism?
approach of evaluating all claims with an open mind but insisting on persuasive evidence before accepting them
what is critical thinking?
set of skills for evaluating all claims in an open minded and careful fashion
what is correlation-causation fallacy?
error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other.
what is a variable?
anything that can vary
what is falsifiable?
capable of of being disproved
What is risky prediction?
forecast that stands a good chance of being wrong
what is replicability?
when a study’s findings are able to be duplicated; ideally by independent investigators
what is basic research?
research examining how the mind works.
applied research
research examining how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems
What is a prefrontal Lobotomy
surgical procedure that severs fibers connecting the frontal lobes of the brain from the underlying thalamus
what is heuristic?
mental shortcut or rule of thumb that helps us to streamline our thinking and make sense of our world
what is naturalistic observation?
watching behaviour in real-world settings without trying to manipulate the situation
what is external validity?
extent to which we can generalize findings to real world setting
what is iternal validity?
extent to which we can draw cause-and-effect inferences from a study
what is a case study?
research design that examines one person or a small number of people in depth, often over an extended time period
what is existence proof?
demonstration that a given psychological phenomenon can occur
what is random selection?
procedure that ensures that every person in a population has an equal chance of being chosen to participate
what is reliability?
consistency of measurement
what is validity?
extent to which a measure assesses whit it purports to measure
response set
tendency of research participants to distort their responses to questionnaire items
what is correlation design?
research design that examines the extent to which two variables are associated
what is a scatter plot?
grouping of points on a two dimensional graph in which each dot represents a single person’s draft.
what are illusionary correlation?
perception of a statistical association between two variables where none exists
what is an experiment?
research design characterized by random assignment of participants to conditions and manipulation of an independent variable
what is a random assignment?
randomly sorting participants into groups
what is a experimental group?
in an experiment, the group of participants that recieves the manipulation
what is the control group?
in an experiment, the group of participants that doesnt recieve the manipulation
what is between-subjects design?
in an experiment, researchers assign different groups to the control or experimental condition.
what is within-subjects design?
in an experiment, each participant acts as his or her own control
what is a independent variable?
variable that an experimenter manipulates
what is a dependent variable?
variable that an experimenter measures to see whether the manipulation has an effect
what is operational definition?
A working definition of what a researcher is measuring
what is placebo effect?
improvement resulting from the mere expectation of improvement
what is blind?
unaware of whether one is in the experimental or control group
what is experimental expectancy effect?
phenomenon in which researchers hypotheses lead them to unintentionally bias the coutcome of a study
what is double-blind
when neither researchers nor participants are aware of who’s in the experimental or control group
what are demand characteristics?
cues that participants pick up from a study that allow them to generate guesses regarding the researcher’s hypothesis
what is informed consent?
informing research participants of what is involved in a study before asking them to participate
what is statistics?
application of mathematics to describing and analyzing date
what are descriptive statistics?
numerical characterizations that describe date
what is central tendency?
measure of the central scores in a date set, or where the group tends to cluster
what is mean?
average; a measure of central tendency
what is median?
middle score in a data set; a measure of central tendency
what is mode?
most frequent score in a data set; a measure of central tendency
what is variability?
measure of how loosely of tightly bunched scores are
What is range?
difference between the highest and lowest scores; a measure of variability
What is standard deviation?
measure of variability that takes into account how far each data point is from the mean
what is inferential statistics?
mathamatical methods that allows us to determine whether we can generalize findings from our sample to the full population
what is base rate?
how common a characteristic or behaviour is in the general public
what is developmental psychology?
study of how behaviour changes over the lifespan
what is post hoc fallacy?
false assumption that because one event occurs before another event, it must have caused that event.
What is cross-sectional design?
research design that examines people of different ages at a single point in time
what are cohort effects?
effect observed in a sample of participants that results from individuals in the sample growing up at the same time
what is a longitudinal design?
research design that examines development in the same group of people on multiple occasions over time
what is gene-environment interaction?
situation in which the effects of Genes depend on the environment in which they are expressed
what is nature via nurture?
tendency of individuals with certain genetics predospitions to seek out and create environments that permit the expression of those predispositions
what is gene expression?
activation or deactivation of Genes by environmental experiences throughout development
what is prenatal?
prior to birth
what is zygote?
fertilized egg
what is blastocyst?
ball of identical cells early in pregnancy that haven’t yet begun to take on any specific function in a body part
what is a embryo?
second to eighth week of prenatal development, during which limbs, facial features, and major organs of body take form
What is fetus?
period of prenatal development from ninth week until birth after all major organs are established and physical maturation is the primary charge
what is a teratogen?
an environmental factor that can exert a negative impact on prenatal development
What is fetal alcohal spectrum disorder?
condition results from high levels of prenatal alcohal exposure, causing learning disabilities, physical growth retardation, facial malformations, and behavioural disorders
What is motor behaviour?
bodily motion that occurs as result of self-intiated force that moves that bones and muscle
What is adolescence?
the transition between childhood and adulthood commonly associated with the teenage years
what is puberty?
the achievment of sexual maturation resulting in the potential to reproduce
What are primary sex characteristics?
a physical feature such as the reproductive organs and genitials that distinguish sexes
what are secondary sex characteristics?
a sex-differenting characteristic that doesnt relate directly to reproduction, such as breast enlargement in women and deepening voices in man
what is menarche
start of menstruation
what is spermarche?
boys’ first ejaculation
what is menopause?
the termination of menstruation, markings
the end of a woman’s reproductive potentials
What is cognitive development?
study of how children acquire the ability to learn, think, reason, communicate, and remember.
What is Assimilation?
Piagetian process of absorbing new experiences into current knowledge structures
What is accommodation?
Pagetian process of altering a belief to make it more compatible with experience
1) sensorimotor stage?
2) preoperational stage?
3) concrete operation stage?
4) formal operations stage?
(4 stages of cognitive development in paigent’s theory)
1) stage characterized by a focus on the here and now without the ability to represent experiences mentally
2) stage characterized by the ability to construct mental representations of experience but not yet perform operations on them
3) stage characterized by the ability to perform mental operations on physical events only
4) stage characterized by the ability to perform hypothetical reasoning beyond the here and now
What is object permanence?
the understanding that objects continue to exist even when out of view
What is egocentrism?
inability to see the world from others’ perspectives
What is conversation?
Piagetiam task requiring children to understand that despite a transformation in the physical presentation of an amount remains the same
What is scaffolding?
Vygotskian learning mechanism in which parents provide assistance in children’s learning but gradually remove structure as children become more competent
what is the zone of proximal development?
phase of learning during which children can benefit from instruction
what is theory of mind?
ability to reason about about what other people know or believe
What is stranger anxiety?
a fear of strangers, developing at 8 or 9 months of age
What is temperament?
basic emotional style that appears early in development and is largely genetic in origin.
what is attachment?
the strong emotional connection we share with those to whom we feel closest
What is contact comfort?
positive emotions afforded by touch
what is mono-operation bias?
drawing conclusions on the basis of only a single measure
what is average expectable environment?
environment that provides children with basic needs for affection and discipline
what is gender identity?
individuals’ sense of being male or female
What is gender role?
a set of behaviours that tend to be associated with being male or female
what is identity?
our sense of who we are, and our life goals and priorities
what is a psychological crisis?
dilemma concerning an individual’s relations to other people
what is emerging adulthood?
period of life between the ages of 18 and 25 during which many aspects of emotional development, identity, and personality become solified
what is midlife crisis?
supposed phase of adulthood characterized by emotional distress about the aging process and an attempt to regain youth
What is empty nest syndrome?
alleged period if depression In mothers following the departure of their grown children from the home
