Psychology Introduction and Vocabulary

Psychology Introduction and Ch. 1 vocab the scientific study of behavior and mental processes the view that knowledge comes from experience via the senses science flourishes through observation and experiment an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind a school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make the development of psychological traits and behaviors the principle that those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed onto succeeding generations the differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon an integrated perspective that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base scientific study that aims to solve practical problems a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living and in achieving greater wellbeing a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people used personalized methods to study personality in hopes of fostering personal growth the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions psychology empiricism empiricism structuralism functionalism nature-nurture issue natural selection levels of analysis biopsychosocial approach basic research applied research counseling psychology clinical psychology psychiatry psychiatry humanistic psychology humanistic psychology hindsight bias critical thinking Psychology Introduction and Ch. 1 vocab thinking that examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions critical thinking an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations theory a testable prediction, often implied by a theory a statement of the procedures used to define research variables repeating the essence of a research study, usually with different participants in different situations repeating a research study to see whether the basic finding extends to other participants and circumstances an observation technique in which one person is studied in depth in the hope of revealing universal principles a technique for ascertaining the self-reported attitudes or behaviors of people questioning a representative, random sample of people the tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share our beliefs and behaviors all the cases in a group, from which samples may be drawn for a study a sample that fairly represents a population because each member has an equal chance of inclusion observing and recording behavior in naturally occurring situations without trying to manipulate and control the situation a measure of the extent to which two factors vary together how well either factor predicts the other mathematical expression of a relationship, ranging from -1 to +1 a graphed cluster of dots, each of which represents the values of two variables the slope of the points suggests the directions of the relationship between the two variables the amount of scatter suggests the strength of the correlation a perception of a relationship where none exists hypothesis operational definitions replication replication case study survey survey false consensus effect population random sample naturalistic observation correlation correlation correlation coefficient scatterplot scatterplot scatterplot illusory correlation Psychology Introduction and Ch. 1 vocab a research method in which an investigator manipulates one or more factors to observe the effect on some behavior or mental process by random assignment, this research method aims to control other relevant factors an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are ignorant about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo commonly used in drug-evaluation experimental results caused by expectations alone any effect on behavior caused by the administration of an inert substance or condition, which is assumed to be an active agent the condition of an experiment that exposes participants to the treatment, that is, one version of the independent variable the condition of an experiment that contrasts with the experimental condition and serves as a comparison for evaluating the effect of the treatment assigning participants to experimental and control conditions by chance minimizing preexisting differences between those assigned to the different groups the experimental factor that is manipulated the variable whose effect is being studied the outcome factor the variable that may change in response to manipulations of the independent variable the enduring behaviors, ideas, attitudes, and traditions shared by a large groups of people and transmitted form one generation to the next experiment experiment double-blind procedure double-blind procedure placebo placebo experimental condition control condition random assignment random assignment independent variable independent variable dependent variable dependent variable culture