Ch. 1 General Psychology
weekly time schedule:
A written plan that allocates time for study, work, and leisure activities during a one-week period
response
any muscular action, glandular activity, or other identifiable aspect of behavior
sef-testing:
evaluating learning by posing questions to yourself.
Experiential processing:
thought that is passive, effortless, and automatic.
Psychoanalysis:
A Freudian approach to psychotherapy emphasizing the exploration of unconscious using free association, dream interpretation, resistances, and transference to uncover unconscious conflicts.
Biological Perspective
The attempt to explain behavior in terms of underlying biological principles.
Uncritical acceptance:
The tendency to believe claims because they seem true or because it would be nice if they were true
procrastination
The tendency to put off working on unpleasant tasks.
physiological data
data that come from participants' physiological processes (including measures of the brain and heart, muscles, and the production of hormones).
observational data
data that come from watching participants and recording their behavior.
massed practice:
practice done in a long, uninterrupted study session.
Reflective listener:
A person who knows how to maintain attention, avoid distractions, and actively gather information from lectures.
psychosomatic theory
Any theory of behavior that emphasizes internal conflicts, motives, and unconscious forces
Overlearning
Continuing to study and learn after you think you've mastered a topic
natural selection:
Darwin's theory that evolution favors those plants and animals best suited to their living conditions
Reflective learning:
Deliberately reflective and active self-guided study
specific goals:
Goals with clearly defined and measurable outcomes
self-report data:
Information that is provided by participants about their own thoughts, emotions or behaviours, typically on a questionnaire or during an interview.
spaced practice:
Practice spread over many relatively short study sessions.
Self-reference:
The practice of relating new information to prior life experience.
psychology:
The scientific study of behavior and mental process.
superstition:
Unfounded belief held without evidence or in spite of falsifying evidence
Radical Behaviorism
a behaviorist approach that rejects both introspection and any study of covert mental events, such as thinking, as inappropriate topics for scientific psychology
PsycINFO:
a searchable online database that provides brief summaries of the scientific and scholarly literature in psychology.
term schedule:
a written plan that lists the dates of all major assignments for each of your classes for an entire term.
critical thinking:
an ability to evaluate, compare, analyze, critique, and synthesize information.
Reflective SQ4R method:
an active study-reading technique based in these steps: survey, question, read, recite, reflect, and review.
Biopsychosocial model:
an approach acknowledging that biological, psychological, and social factors interact to influence human behavior and mental processes.
scientific observation
an empirical investigation structured to answer questions about the world in a systematic and intersubjective fashion (i.e., observations can be reliably confirmed by multiple observers).
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.
stimulus:
any physical energy that an organism senses.
evolutionary psychology
approach that emphasizes inherited, adaptive aspects of behavior and mental processes.
operational definition
defining a scientific concept by stating the specific actions or procedures used to measure it. For example, hunger might be defined as the number of hours of food deprivation.
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.
naturalistic observation
observing behavior as it unfolds in natural settings
structured observation
observing behavior in situations that have been set up by the researcher.
Introspection
personal observation of your own thoughts, feelings, and behavior.
Neo-Freudians
psychologists who accepts the broad features of Freud's theory but have revised the theory to include the role of cultural and social factors while still accepting some of its basic concepts.
functionalism:
school of psychology that considers behaviors in terms of active adaptations.
behaviorism:
school of thought in psychology that emphasizes study of observable actions over study of the mind.
humanistic psychology
study of people as inherently good and motivated to learn and improve.
structuralism
study of sensations and personal experience analyzed as basic elements.
Biopsychology
study of the physical brain and body structures that underlie behavior and mental processes.
gestalt psychology:
study of thinking, learning, and perception in whole units, not by analysis into parts.
free will
the ability to freely make choices that are not controlled by genetics, learning, or unconscious forces; the idea that human being are capable of making choices or decisions themselves.
neuroscience
the broader field of biopsychologists and others who study the brain and nervous system, such as biologists and biochemists.
determinism
the idea that all behavior has prior causes that would completely explain one's choices and actions if all such causes were known
cognitive unconscious
the part of the mind of which we are subjectively unaware and that is not open to introspection.
self-actualization
the process of fully developing personal potentials.
cognitive psychology:
the study of information processing, thinking, reasoning, and problem solving.
confirmation bias:
the tendency to remember or notice information that fits one's expectations, while forgetting or ignoring discrepancies.
Reflective Processing:
thought that is active, effortful, and controlled.
