Unit 1- Psychology, Critical Thinking, and Science PDF

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Lecture Notes for Intro to Psychology - Unit 1 ...

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Psychology Key Terms- Unit 1 (Psychology, Critical Thinking, and Science)

Introspect: To look within; to examine one’s own thoughts, feelings, or sensations. Psychology: The scientific study of overt behaviour and mental processes (covert behaviour). Research methods: Systematic approaches to answering scientific questions. Cognitive unconscious: The part of the mind of which we are subjectively unaware and that is not open to introspection. Scientific observation: An empirical investigation structured to answer questions about the world in a systematic and intersubjective fashion (ex: observations can be reliably confirmed by multiple observers). Description: In scientific research, the process of naming and classifying. Understanding: In psychology, being able to state the causes of behaviour. Prediction: In psychology, an ability to accurately forecast behaviour. Control: In psychology, altering conditions that influence behaviour. Critical thinking: In psychology, a type of reflection involving the support of beliefs through scientific explanation and observation. Falsification: The deliberate attempt to uncover how a common sense belief or scientific theory might be false. Uncritical acceptance: The tendency to believe claims because they seem true or because it would be nice if they were true. Confirmation bias: The tendency to remember or notice information that fits one’s expectations, while forgetting or ignoring discrepancies.

Superstition: An unfolded belief held without evidence or in spite of falsifying evidence. Scientific method: A form of critical thinking based on careful measurement, controlled observation, and repeatable results. Hypothesis: A verifiably predicted outcome of an experiment, or an educated guess about the relationship between variables. Operational definition: Defining a scientific concept by stating the specific actions or procedures used to to measure it. For example, hunger might be defined as the number of hours of food deprivation. Theory: A system of ideas designed to interrelate concepts and facts in a way that summarizes existing data and predicts future observations. Stimulus: Any physical energy that an organism senses. Introspection: The formal method used by early psychologists to collect information by training people to use their first-person, subjective ability to directly examine their own thoughts, feelings, or sensations. Imageless thought: An old term describing the inability of introspectionists to become subjectively aware of some mental processes; an early term describing the cognitive unconscious. Structuralism: The school of thought concerned with analyzing sensations and personal experience into basic elements. Functionalism: The school of psychology concerned with how behaviour and mental abilities help people adapt to their environments. Natural Selection: Darwin’s theory that evolution favours those plants and animals best suited to their living conditions. Behaviourism: The school of psychology that emphasizes the study of overt, observable of behaviour.

Response: Any muscular action, glandular activity, or other identifiable aspect of behaviour. Radical behaviourism: A behaviourist approach that rejects both introspection and any study of covert mental events, such as thinking, as inappropriate topics for scientific psychology. Gestalt psychology: A school of psychology emphasizing the study of thinking, learning, and perception in whole unites, not by analysis into parts. Dynamic unconscious: In Freudian theory, the parts of the mind that are beyond awareness, especially conflicts, impulses, and desires not directly known to a person. Psychoanalysis: A Freudian approach to therapy that emphasizes exploring unconscious conflicts. Neo-Freudian: A psychologist who accepts the broad features of Freud’s theory but has revised the theory to fit his or her own concepts. Psychodynamic theory: Any theory of behaviour that emphasizes internal conflicts, motives, and unconscious forces. Humanism: An approach to psychology that focuses on human experience, problems, potentials, and ideals. Determinism: The idea that all behaviour has prior causes that would completely explain one’s choices and actions if all such causes were known. Free will: The idea that human beings are capable of making choices or decisions themselves. Self-actualization: The ongoing process of fully developing one’s personal potential. Cognitive behaviourism: An approach that focuses on the study of how covert mental processes, such as thinking, feeling, problem solving, perception, and the use of language, influence human behaviour.

Cognitive Psychology: An approach that focuses on the study of how covert mental processes, such as thinking, feeling, problem solving, perception, and the use of language, influence human behaviour, Gender bias in research: A tendency for females and female-related issues to be underrepresented in research, whether psychological or otherwise. Biological perspective: The attempt to explain behaviour in terms of underlying biological principles. Neuroscience: The broader field of biopsychologists and others who study the brain and nervous system, such as biologists and biochemists. Evolutionary Psychology: The study of how human evolution and genetics might explain current human behaviour. Psychological perspective: The traditional view that behaviour is shaped by psychological processes occurring at the level of the individual. Positive psychology: The study of human strengths, virtues, and effective functioning. Sociocultural perspective: The focus on the importance of social and cultural contexts in influencing the behaviour of individuals. Cultural relativity: The idea that behaviour must be judged relative to the values of the culture in which it occurs. Social norms: Rules that define acceptable and expected behaviour for members of a group. Psychologist: A person highly trained in the methods, factual knowledge, and theories of psychology. Animal model: In research, an animal whose behaviour is studied to derive principles that may apply to human behaviour.

Clinical psychologist: A psychologist who specializes in the treatment of psychological and behavioural disturbances or who does research on such disturbances. Counselling psychologist: A psychologist who specializes in the treatment of milder emotional and behavioural disturbances. Psychiatrist: A medical doctor with additional training in the diagnosis and treatment of mental and emotional disorders. Psychoanalyst: A mental health professional (usually a medical doctor) trained to practice psychoanalysis. Counselor: A mental health professional who specializes in helping people with problems that do not involve serious mental disorders; examples include marriage counselors, career counselors, and school counselors. Psychiatric social worker: A mental health professional trained to apply social science principles to help patients in clinics and hospitals. Experiment: A formal trial undertaken to confirm or disconfirm a hypothesis about cause and effect. Experimental subjects: Humans (also referred to as participants) or animals whose behaviour is investigated in an experiment. Participants: Humans whose behaviour is investigated in an experiment. Variable: Any condition that changes or can be made to change; a measure, event, or state that may vary. Independent variable: In an experiment, the condition being investigated as a possible cause of some change in behaviour. The experimenter chooses the values that this variable takes. Extraneous variable: A condition or factor that may change and is excluded from influencing the outcome of an experiment.

Experimental group: In a controlled experiment, the group of subjects exposed to the independent variable or experimental condition. Control group: In a controlled experiment, the group of subjects exposed to all experimental conditions or variables expect the independent variable. Random assignment: The use of chance (for example, flipping a coin) to assign subjects to experimental and control groups. Statistically significant: Experimental results that would rarely occur by chance alone. Meta-analysis: A statistical technique for combining the results of many stuies on the same subject. Research participant bias: Changes in the behaviour of study participants caused by the unintended influence of their own expectations. Placebo: An inactive substance given in the place of a drug in psychological research or by physicians who want to treat a complaint by suggestion. Single-blind experiment: An arrangement in which participants remain unaware of whether they are in the experimental group or the control group. Researcher bias: Changes in participants’ behaviour caused by the unintended influence of a researcher’s actions. Self-fulfilling prophecy: A prediction that prompts people to act in ways that make the prediction come true. Double-blind experiment: An arrangement in which both participants and experimenters are unaware of whether participants are in the experimental group of control group, including who might have been administered a drug or a placebo. Experimental method: Investigating causes of behaviour through controlled experimentation. Naturalistic observation: Observing behaviour as it unfolds in natural settings.

Correlational method: Making measurements to discover relationships between events. Case study method (clinical method): An in-depth focus on all aspects of a single person. Survey method: Using questionnaires and surveys to poll large groups of people. Observer effect: Changes in an organism’s behaviour brought about by an awareness of being observed. Observer bias: The tendency of an observer to distort observations or perceptions to match his or her expectations. Anthropomorphic error: The error of attributing human thoughts, feelings, or motives to animals, especially as a way to explain their behaviour. Observational record: A detailed summary of observed events or a videotape of observed behaviour. Correlation: The existence of a consistent, systematic relationship between two events, measures, or variables. Correlational study: A nonexperimental study designed to measure the degree of relationship (if any) between two or more events, measures, or variables. Coefficient of correlation: A statistical index ranging from- 1.00 to +1.00 that indicates the direction and degree of correlation. Positive correlation: A statistical relationship in which increases in one measure are matched by increases in the other (and decreases correspond with decreases). Negative correlation: A statistical relationship in which increases in one measure are matched by decreases in the other. Causation: The act of causing some effect.

Representative sample: A small, randomly selected part of a larger population that accurately reflects characteristics of the whole population. Population: An entire group of animals or people belonging to a particular category (for example, all college students are all married women). Biased sample: A subpart of a larger population that does not accurately reflect characteristics of the whole population....