Test #4 Study Guide Flashcards
define psychology
the scientific study of overt behavior and mental processes
where does the word psychology come from?
ancient Greek roots psyche, meaning mind, and logos, meaning knowledge or study
what are the goals of psychology?
description, understanding, prediction, and control
the process of naming and classifying
description
when the causes of a behavior can be stated
understanding
an ability to accurately forecast behavior
prediction
altering conditions that influence behavior
control
define pseudopsychology
any false and scientific system of beliefs and practices that is offered as an explanation of behavior
which type of pseudopsychology that involves the shape of the skull and how it reveals personality traits
phrenology
claims lines on the hand reveal personality traits and depict the future
palmistry
personality traits are revealed by handwriting
graphology
psychological research must be done ethically to protect the _____, _____, and ______ of participants
rights, dignity, and welfare
what are the different schools of thought?
structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism, Gestalt psychology, psychoanalytic, humanistic
analyzing sensations and personal experience into basic elements
structuralism
how behavior and mental abilities help people adapt to their environments
functionalism
emphasizes the study of overt, observable behavior
behaviorism
emphasizes the study of thinking, learning, and perception in whole units, not by analysis into parts
Gestalt psychology
school of thought that emphasizes exploring unconscious conflicts
psychoanalytic
focuses on human experience, problems, potentials, and ideals
humanism
in an experiment, the condition being investigated as a possible cause of some change in behavior. the experimenter chooses the values that this variable takes
independent variable
in an experiment, the condition (usually a behavior) that is affected by the independent variable
dependent variable
changes in behavior due to participants’ expectations that a drug (or other treatment) will have some effect
placebo effect
an inactive substance given in the place of a drug in psychological research or by physicians who want to treat a complaint by suggest
placebo
observing behavior as it unfolds in natural settings
naturalistic observations
a non-experimental study designed to measure the degree of relationship (if any) between two or more events, measures, or variables
correlational study
an in-depth focus on all aspects of a single person
case study
a public polling technique used to answer psychological questions
survey
a sensory impression; also, the process of detecting physical energies with the sensory organs
sensation
the mental process of organizing sensations into meaningful patterns
perception
a decrease in sensory response to an unchanging stimulus
sensory adaptation
giving priority to a particular incoming sensory message
selective attention
a misleading or misconstructed perception
illusion
an imaginary sensation- such as seeing, hearing, or smelling something that does not exist in the external world
hallucination
any relatively permanent change in behavior that can be attributed to experience
learning
a form of learning in which reflex responses are associated with new stimuli
classical conditioning
learning based on the consequences of responding
operant conditioning
events that precede a response
antecedent
effects that follow a response
consequences
Russian psychologist known for his work in classical conditioning
Ivan Pavlov
a stimulus innately capable of eliciting a response (example: meat powder)
unconditioned stimulus
an innate reflex response elicited by an unconditioned stimulus (example: reflex salivation to the meat powder)
unconditioned response
a stimulus that does not evoke the unconditioned response (example: bell before conditioning)
neutral stimulus
a stimulus that evokes a response because it has been repeatedly paired with an unconditioned stimulus (example: bell after conditioning)
conditioned stimulus
a learned response elicited by a conditioned stimulus (example: salivation to the bell)
conditioned response
any event that reliably increases the probability or frequency of responses it follows
operant reinforcer
the active mental system for receiving, encoding, storing, organizing, altering, and retrieving information
memory
converting information into a form in which it will be retained in memory
encoding
holding information in memory for later use
storage
recovering information from storage in memory
retrieval
the first, normally unconscious, stage of memory, which holds an exact record of incoming information for a few seconds or less
sensory memory
the memory system used to hold small amounts of information in our conscious awareness for about a dozen seconds
short-term memory (STM)
the memory system used for relatively permanent storage of meaningful information
long-term memory (LTM)
information bits grouped into larger units
information chunks
process by which memories are reconstructed or expanded by starting with one memory and then following chains of association to other, related memories
redintegration
failure to store sufficient information to form a useful memory
encoding failure
loss of memory for events that preceded a head injury or other amnesia-causing event
retrograde amnesia
loss of the ability to form or retrieve memories for events that occur after an injury or trauma
anterograde amnesia
internal processes that initiate, sustain, direct, and terminate activities
motivation
what is the motivational sequence?
need, drive, response, goal, need reduction, start over
an internal deficiency that may energize behavior
need
a steady state of body equilibrium
homeostasis
cyclical changes in body functions and arousal levels that vary on a schedule approximating a 24-hour day
Circadian rhythms
weight reduction based on changing exercise and eating habits, rather than temporary self-starvation
behavioral dieting
active self-starvation or a sustained loss of appetite that has psychological origins
anorexia nervosa
excessive eating (gorging) usually followed by self-induced vomiting and/or taking laxatives
bulimia nervosa
a person’s unique and relatively stable patterns of thinking, emotions, and behavior
personality
the ability of a test to yield nearly the same score each time it is given to the same person
reliability
the ability of a test to measure what it purports to measure
validity
psychological tests that use ambiguous or unstructured stimuli
projective tests
a projective test that consists of 10 standardized inkblots
Rorschach Inkblot Test
a projective test consisting of 20 different scenes and life situations about which respondents make up stories
Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)
Freudian theory of personality that emphasizes unconscious forces and conflicts
psychoanalytic theory
innate biological instincts (pleasure principle)
id
the “executive” because it directs energies supplied by the id
ego
acts as a judge or censor for the thoughts and actions of the ego. called the conscience
superego
the process of fully developing personal potentials
self-actualization
innate biological instincts (pleasure principle)
id
the “executive” because it directs energies supplied by the id
ego
acts as a judge or censor for the thoughts and actions of the ego. called the conscience
superego
