Unit 1 - Psychology's History and Approaches Flashcards
Behavioral Psychology
How we learn observable responses.
Psychodynamic Psychology
How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts.
Cognitive Psychology
How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information.
Biological Psychology
How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences; how genes combine with environment to influence individual differences.
Evolutionary Psychology
How the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes.
Humanistic Psychology
How we meet our needs for love and acceptance and achieve self-fulfillment.
Socio-Cultural Psychology
How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures.
Psychometrics
Branch of psychology dedicated to studying the measurement of our abilities, attitudes, and traits.
Developmental Psychology
The scientific study of physical, cognitive, and social change throughout the life span.
Educational Psychology
The study of how psychological processes affect and can enhance teaching and learning.
Personality Psychology
The study of an individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Social Psychology
The scientific study of how we think about, influence, and relate to one another.
Applied Research
Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.
Industrial-Organizational (I/O) Psychology
The application of psychological concepts and methods to optimizing human behavior in workplaces.
Basic Research
Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base.
Human Factors Psychology
The study of how people and machines interact and the design of safe and easily used machines and environments.
Counseling Psychology
A branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, or marriage) and in achieving greater well-being.
Clinical Psychology
A branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.
Psychiatry
A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who often provide medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as psychological therapy.
Levels of Analysis
The differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon.
Biopsychosocial Approach
An integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis.
Nature-Nurture Issue
The longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors. Today’s science sees traits and behaviors arising from the interaction of nature and nurture.
Natural Selection
The principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.
Experimental Psychology
The study of behavior and thinking using the experimental method.
