Psychology: from Inquiry to Understanding: Chapter 1

Metaphysical Claim

Assertion about the world that is not testable.

Falsifiable

Capable of being disproved.

Multiply Determined

Caused by many factors.

Evolutionary Psychology

Discipline that applies Darwin's theory of natural selection to human and animal behavior.

Correlation-Causation Fallacy

Error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other.

Ad Hoc Immunizing Hypothesis

Escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification.

Scientific Theory

Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world.

Decline Effect

Fact that the size of certain psychological findings appears to be shrinking over time.

Introspection

Method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences.

Structuralism

School of psychology that aimed to identify the basic elements of psychological experience.

Functionalism

School of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purpose of psychological characteristics.

Behaviorism

School of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking at observable behavior.

Cognitive Psychology

School of psychology that proposes that thinking is central to understanding behavior.

Psychoanalysis

School of psychology, founded by Sigmund Freud, that focuses on internal psychological processes of which we're unaware.

Pseudoscience

Set of claims that seems scientific but isn't.

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them.

Belief Perseverance

Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them.

Hypothesis

Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory.

Psychology

The scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior.

Patternicity

The tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli.

Terror Management Theory

Theory proposing that our awareness of our death leaves us with an underlying sense of terror with which we cope by adopting reassuring cultural world views.

Individual Differences

Variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior.

Replicability

When a study's findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigators.

Naive Realism

belief that we see the world precisely as it is.

Variable

Anything that can vary.

Natural Selection

Principle that organisms that possess adaptations survive and reproduce at a higher rate than do other organisms.

Cognitive Neuroscience

Relatively new field of psychology that examines the relation between brain functioning and thinking.

Basic Research

Research examining how the mind works.

Applied Research

Research examining how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems.

Levels of Analysis

Rungs on a ladder of analysis, with lower levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences.