Unit One Flashcards
Defn. Applied Psychology
The branch of psychology concerned with everyday, practical problems.
Defn. Behaviour
Any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism
Defn. Behaviourism
A theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behaviour
Defn. Biological Psychology
Physiological basis of behavior in humans and animals
Defn. Cell Assembly
a group of neurons that are repeatedly active at the same time and develop as a single functional unit, which may become active when any of its constituent neurons is stimulated. This enables, for example, a person to form a complete mental image of an object when only a portion is visible or to recall a memory from a partial cue. Cell assembly is influential in biological theories of learning and memory.
Defn. Clinical Psychology
Evaluate diagnose and treat individuals with psychological disorders as well as treatment of less severe behavioral and emotional problems.
Defn. Cognition
The mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.
Defn. Critical Thinking
The use of cognitive skills and strategies that increase the probability of a desired outcome.
Defn. Culture
The widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations.
Defn. Empiricism
The premise that knowledge should be acquired through observation
Defn. Ethnocentrism
The tendency to view one’s own group as superior to others and as the standard for judging the worth of foreign ways.
Defn. Evolutionary Psychology
Evolutionary basis of behavior in humans and animals
Defn. Functionalism
A school of psychology based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure.
Defn. Humanism
A theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth.
Defn. Introspection
Careful, systematic observation of one’s own conscious experience.
Def. Natural Selection
Principle stating that heritable characteristics that provide a survival reproductive advantage are more likely than alternative characteristics to be passed on to subsequent generations and thus come to be “selected” over time.
Defn. Nature
the innate, presumably genetically determined, characteristics and behaviors of an individual. In psychology, the characteristics most often and traditionally associated with nature are temperament, body type, and personality
Defn. Nurture
the totality of environmental factors that influence the development and behavior of a person, particularly sociocultural and ecological factors such as family attributes, parental child-rearing practices, and economic status
Defn. Personality Psychology
Is interested in describing and understanding individuals consistency in behavior which represents their personality.
Defn. Positive Psychology
theory and research to better understand the positive adaptive creative and fulfilling aspect of human existence.
Defn. Psychiatry
A branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders
Defn. Psychoanalytic Theory
A theory developed by Freud that attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behaviour.
Defn. Psychology
The science that studies behaviour and the physiological and cognitive processes that underlie it, and the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems.
Defn. Psychometrics
Concerned with the measurement of behavior and capacities usually through the development of psychological tests.
Defn. Skepticism
an attitude of questioning, disbelief, or doubt.
Defn. Social Psychology
The branch of psychology concerned with the way individuals’ thoughts, feelings, and behaviours are influenced by others.
Defn. SQ3R
A study system designed to promote effective reading by means of five steps: survey, question, read, recite, and review
Defn. Stimulus
Any detectable input from an environment.
Defn. Stimulus-Response Psychology
Although some behaviourists, including Watson, were centrally concerned with stimulus-response relationships, other behaviourists never followed this approach. Skinner, for example, emphasized the concept of contingency, not simple stimulus-response relationships, as the basic unit of analysis. Another influential behaviourist, J. R. Kantor, developed a field theory of behaviour that departed radically from simple S-R psychology.
Defn. Stream of Consciousness
Conscious was a continuous flow of thoughts, which he called stream of consciousness.
Defn. Structuralism
A school of psychology based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and to investigate how these elements are related.
Defn. Testwiseness
The ability to use the characteristics and format of a cognitive test to maximize one’s score.
Defn. Theory
A system of interrelated ideas that is used to explain a set of observations.
Defn. Unconscious
According to Freud, thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behaviour
Significance. Sigmund Freud
He developed psychoanalysis, which was the diagnosis and treatment of people with psychological problems. He also developed the theory of unconscious, where thoughts, memoires and desires below our conscious awareness influence our behavior. Psychoanalytic theory attempts to explain personality, motivation and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior.
Significance. G. Stanley Hall
G Stanley Hall
Briefly studied with Wundt
Established America’s first research laboratory in psychology at John Hopkins
He launched America’s first psychology journal
Driving forces behind the APA (American Psychological Association) and was first president
Today AOA worlds largest organization devoted to advancement of psychology
Significance. Donald Hebb
Professor at Mcgill
Pioneered ideas with importance of physiological and neuropsychological perspective
Importance of the brain in behaviour
Created theory of cell assembly
Significance. William James
One of leaders in emergence of functionalism
Wrote “Principles of Psychology” one of the most influential text in history of psychology
Impressed with Natural selection theory, typical characteristics must serve a purpose, thus psychology should investigate the functions rather than the structure of consciousness.
Argued that structuralists approach missed real nature of conscious experience
Consciousness consists of a continuous flow of thoughts. Stream of consciousness
Significance. Brenda Milner
Canadian women psychologist
Contributions to understanding of memory and one of the founders of neuropsychology in Canada
Significance. Carl Rogers
Aruged human behaviour is governed primarily by each individuals sense of self or self concept which animals presumably lack
Significance. Martin Seligman
Founder of positive psychology movement
Pscy was too devoted to pathology, weakness, damages and ways to heal suffering
Significance. B. F. Skinner
Was influence by watson’s methodological behaviorism
Eventually developed s system based on his own philosophy of radical behaviorism
Significance. John B. Watson
Founded behaviorism
Proposed psychologists abandon study of consciousness and focus exclusively on behaviors that they could observe directly. Redefining that scientific psychology should be about
Asserted they could not study thoughts, wishes and feelings, but could observe behaviors such as eating, shopping, playing chess
Firmly believed in nurture in the nature vs nurture debate. Behavior governed primarily by environment
Paved way for stimulus-response approach
Significance. Wilhelm Wundt
- mounted campaign to make psychology an independent discipline
1879 established first formal laboratory for research in psychology
1881 developed first journal devoted to publishing research on psychology
Psychology focuses on mind and mental process but demanded methods used to investigate be scientific
