Psychology Chapter 1

metacognition

Our ability to adequately assess our own knowledge

Free Will

René Descartes believed in free will

Fitness

The extent to which having a given genetic characteristic helps an individual organism survive and reproduce at a higher rate than do other members of the species who do not have the characteristic.

Levels Of Explanation

The perspectives that are used to understand behavior

Heritability

The proportion of the observed differences on characteristics among people (e.g., in terms of their height, intelligence, or optimism) that is due to genetics.

Psychology

The scientific study of mind and behavior

Scientific Method

The set of assumptions, rules, and procedures that scientists use to conduct empirical research.

Hindsight Bias

The tendency to think that we could have predicted something that has already occurred that we probably would not have been able to predict.

Neuroimaging

The use of various techniques to provide pictures of the structure and function of the living brain.

Individual Differences

The variations among people on physical or psychological dimensions.

Social Norms

The ways of thinking, feeling, or behaving that are shared by group members and are perceived by them as appropriate

Clinical and counseling psychology

These are the largest fields of psychology. The focus is on the assessment, diagnosis, causes, and treatment of mental disorders.

Developmental psychology

These psychologists conduct research on the cognitive, emotional, and social changes that occur across the lifespan.

Personality psychology

These psychologists study people and the differences among them. The goal is to develop theories that explain the psychological processes of individuals, and to focus on individual differences.

Social and cross-cultural psychology

This field examines people's interactions with other people. Topics of study include conformity, group behavior, leadership, attitudes, and person perception.

Biopsychology and neuroscience

This field examines the physiological bases of behavior in animals and humans by studying the functioning of different brain areas and the effects of hormones and neurotransmitters on behavior.

School and educational psychology

This field studies how people learn in school, the effectiveness of school programs, and the psychology of teaching.

Sports psychology

This field studies the psychological aspects of sports behavior. The goal is to understand the psychological factors that influence performance in sports, including the role of exercise and team interactions.

Cognitive psychology

This field uses sophisticated research methods, including reaction time and brain imaging to study memory, language, and thinking of humans.

Highest Level of Explanation

Underlying Process: Cultural and Social -Ex: women experience more depression than men

Middle Level of Explanation

Underlying Process: Interpersonal -directed at helping individuals cope with negative life experiences that may cause depression

Forensic psychology

Forensic psychologists apply psychological principles to understand the behavior of judges, attorneys, courtroom juries, and others in the criminal justice system

Culture

A common set of social norms, including religious and family values and other moral beliefs, shared by the people who live in a geographical region.

Social-Cultural Psychology

A field of psychology that focuses on how the social situations and the cultures in which people find themselves influence thinking and behavior.

Cognitive Psychology

A field of psychology that studies mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory, and judgment.

Introspection

A method of learning about psychological processes in which research participants are asked to describe exactly what they experience as they work on mental tasks. -Wundt discovered that it took people longer to report what sound they had just heard than to simply respond that they had heard the sound

Behaviorism

A school of psychology that is based on the premise that it is not possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore that psychologists should limit their attention to the study of behavior itself.

Structuralism

A school of psychology whose goal was to identify the basic elements (or "structures") of psychological experience -uses the study of introspection -most well known structuralist: Edward Bradford Titchener -->marked the beginning of psychology as a science, but also established the limitations of introspection

Functionalism

A school of psychology whose goal was to understand why animals and humans have developed the particular psychological aspects that they currently possess.

Psychodynamic Psychology

An approach to understanding human behavior that focuses on the role of unconscious thoughts, feelings, and memories -focuses on how early childhood experiences affect our behavior

Data

Any information collected through formal observation or measurement

Health psychology

Health psychologists are concerned with understanding how biology, behavior, and the social situation influence health and illness.

Industrial-organizational and environmental psychology

Industrial-organizational psychology applies psychology to the workplace with the goal of improving the performance and well-being of employees.

Evolutionary Psychology

A branch of psychology that applies the Darwinian theory of natural selection to human and animal behavior.

Nature versus nurture

-Are genes or environment most influential in determining the behavior of individuals and in accounting for differences among people? -The name is misleading because humans have strong associations with the word nature, and with the word nurture -Plato argued for the nature side, Aristotle argued for the nurture side arguing that every child is an "empty slate"

Lower Level of Explanation

-Underlying process: Biological Examples: -depression is in part genetically influenced -depression is affected by the action of neurotransmitters in the brain