Psychology Chapter 1
Ethnic group
a group united by cultural heritage, race, language, or common history.
Associationism
a learned connection between two ideas or events.
Principle
a rule or law.
Theory
a set of assumptions about why something is the way it is and happens the way it does.
Introspection
an examination of one's own thoughts and feelings.
Psychoanalytic perspective
the perspective that stresses the influences of unconscious forces on human behavior.
Biological perspective
the psychological perspective that emphasizes the influence of biology on behavior.
Learning perspective
the psychological point of view that emphasizes the effects of experience on behavior.
Humanistic perspective
the psychological view that assumes the existence of the self and emphasizes the importance of self-awareness and the freedom to make choices.
Gestalt psychology
the school of psychology that emphasizes the tendency to organize perceptions into meaningful wholes.
Psychoanalysis
the school of psychology, founded by Sigmund Freud, that emphasizes the importance of unconscious motives and conflicts as determinants of human behavior.
Behaviorism
the school psychology, founded by John Watson, that defines psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior.
Functionalism
the school psychology, founded by Wilhelm Wundt, that emphasizes the purposes of behavior and mental processes.
Structuralism
the school psychology, founded by Wilhelm Wundt, that maintains that conscious experience breaks down into objective sensations and subjective feelings.
Psychology
the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Evolutionary perspective
the theory focusing on the evolution of behavior and mental processes.
Psychodynamic thinking
the theory that most of what fills an individual's mind is unconscious and consists of conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes.
Social-learning theory
the theory that suggests that people have the ability to change their environments or to create new ones.
Cognitive perspective
the viewpoint that emphasizes the role of thought process in determining behavior.
Psychological constructs
theoretical entities, or concepts, that enable one to discuss something that cannot be seen, touched, or measured directly.
Basic Research
research that is conducted for its own sake, that is, without seeking a solution to a specific problem.
Sociocultural perspective
in psychology, the perspective that focuses on the roles of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status personality formation, behavior, and mental processes.
Behavior
observable and measurable actions of people and actions.
Cognitive activities
private, unobservable mental processes such as sensation, perception, thought, and problem solving.
