Psychology Ch. 1: Deck 1.1 Flashcards
Behavioral perspective
An approach that suggests behavior is primarily learned through associations, reinforcers, and observation.
Behaviorism
The scientific study of observable behavior
Biological perspective
An approach that uses knowledge about underlying physiology to explain behavior and mental processes.
Biopsychosocial perspective
Explains behavior through the interaction of biological, psychological, and sociocultural factors.
Cognitive perspective
An approach examining the mental processes that direct behavior.
Evolutionary Perspective
An approach that uses knowledge about evolutionary forces, such as natural selection, to understand behavior.
Functionalism
An early school of psychology that focused on the function of thought processes, feelings, and behaviors and how they help us adapt to the environment.
Humanistic psychology
An approach that suggests human nature is by and largely positive, and the human direction is toward growth.
Introspection
The examination of one’s own conscious activities.
Natural selection
The process through which inherited traits in a given population either increase in frequency because they are adaptive or decrease in frequency because they are maladaptive.
Nature
The inherited biological factors that shape behaviors, personality, and other characteristics.
Nurture
The environmental factors that shape behaviors, personality, and other characteristics.
psychoanalytic perspective
An approach developed by Freud suggesting that behavior and personality are shaped by unconscious conflicts.
psychologists
Scientists who study behavior and mental processes.
psychology
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
