Term
|
Definition
| science of behavior and mental process (psychology is considered science because psychologists attempt to understand people through careful, controlled observation) |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| all of a person's overt actions that others can directly observe |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the private thoughts, emotions, feelings, and motives that others cannot directly observe |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| tentative explanations of facts and relationships in sciences |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener's study of the elements of consciousness using a method of looking inward at one's own conscious experiences |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Wudnt and Titchener's viewpoint of the basic elements of the conscious experience and how those elements are organized.. determining the structure of the mind through controlled introspection |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| structuralist who is best known for his studies of the sensations of heat and cold. He discovered that we feel cold when one kind of nerve ending in the skin is stimulated, and we feel warm when a different kind of nerve ending is stimulated. He found that we only feel intense heat when both the warmth and cold receptors in the skin are stimulated at the same time. For example, in 1920 he constructed an apparatus by wrapping two water pipes together, one carrying miderately warm water and the other carrying cold water. When people grasped these pipes, they felt the sensation of intense heat because both the warmth and the cold receptors in the skin were stimulated by the twisted pipes. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Max Wertheimer led a group of psychologists known as Gestalt psychologists. Their approach to psychology was founded on the concept of the gestalt, or whole. They felt that human consciousness could not be meaningfully broken down into raw elements as the structuralists tried to do. They were fond of saying, "the whole is different from the sum of its parts." To demonstrate this, they drew exactly the same angled lines and organized them differently. Although the parts are the same in each example, the whole is seen as a triangle in one example and arrows in the other. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Gestalt psychologists used the phi phenomenon to demonstrate that the whole is different from the sum of its parts. Phi phenomenon is the perception of apparent movement between two stationary stimuli. Motion pictures are based on the phi phenomenon. A series of still images that change slightly in each frame are projected on the screen so quickly that the image appears to be moving even when the "moving picture" is not present in between the two pictures. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Emerged from the work of William James, functionalism is the nineteenth-century school of psychology that emphasized the useful functions of consciousness. James was concerned with what the mind could do rather than its structure. He criticized the structuralists for creating a barren approach to psychology. He compared human consciousness to a flowing stream: We could study the stream by isolating single molecules of water like the structuralists, but by doing so we would miss that nature and beauty of the whole stream. Also studying the water molecules would tell us nothing about what the stream does. Similarly, studying the elements of the mind tells us nothing about how it functions to help us adapt to the demands of life. The functions of the mind, not its raw elements, were the subject matter of psychology to the functionalists. Today, the terminology has changed. Rather than speaking about the functions of human consciousness, psychologists now use the term "cognitive processes." |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| broad term that refers to all intellectual processes - perceiving, believing, thinking, remembering, knowing, deciding, and so on. The modern cognitive perspective in psychology can be thought of as a modern version of functionalism, but with some key ideas from Gestalt psychology and structuralism thrown in for good measure. |
|
|
Term
| HERMANN EBBINGHAUS and MARY WHITON CALKINS |
|
Definition
| early pioneers in the study of memory |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| took the study of the useful functions of conscious mental processes and developed a way to measure intelligence. He experimented with a large number of tests items and found a set of questions (arithmetic problems, word definitions, memory tasks, and so on) that could be answered by most children of a given age, but not by children who were younger or who had low intelligence. These questions were used to create an intelligence test that was later revised and translated in the US to become the still widely used Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale. Binet's work led to the modern branch of psychology that specializes in the measurement of intelligence, personality, job aptitude, and so on. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| He identified a simple form of learning called conditioning. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| when an inherited reflex (salivating) comes to be triggered by a stimulus that has nothing to do with that reflex (the metronome). Through conditioning, even inherited reflexes can be influenced dramatically by learning experiences. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| John B. Watson felt that it was impossible to study private mental processes because only outward behavior could be measured and scientifically understood. He felt that psychologists should study only overt behavior. Behaviorism is the school of psychology that emphasizes the process of learning and the measurement of overt behavior. B.F Skinner was the leading exponent of this strict form of behaviorism. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| The viewpoint that the most important aspects of our behavior are learned from other persons in society - family, friends, and culture. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| All mental activity which we are unaware. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| internal states or conditions that activate behavior and give it direction |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| an Austrian physician who practiced neurology, the treatment of diseases of the nervous system. Unlike the other founders of psychology, he was responsible for the day-to-day care of a large number of patients, many of whom had seious psychological problems. Perhaps this explains the enormous differences between his view of psychology and those of the other founders. Freud believed conscious mental processes were of trivial importance compared with the owrkings of the unconscious mind. He felt that the roots of the psychological problems that he tried to treat were innate motives, particularly sexual and aggressive ones, that reside in an unconscious part of the mind. He believed that these unconscious motives and the conflicts that surround them influence our behavior even though we do not know they exist. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the technique of helping persons with emotional problems based on Sigmund Freud's theory of the unconscious mind. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the psychological view that human beings possess an innate tendency to improve and determine their lives by the decisions they make. The humanists believe that the unconscious mind often defeats our efforts to make good decisions. Also the humanists believe that society often makes it difficult to have an accurate self-concet - our view of what we are like. For example, we are bombarded with information that says that only witty, athletic, and attractive people are worth loving. So what if you are like most of us and see yourself as someone who is a little dull, slightly clumsy, and not so attractive? Humanists believe that we often push such upsetting information about ourselves into the unconscious. Thus most of us have an inaccurate self-concept because we push out of consciousness information about ourselves that doesn't match what society values. The negative unconscious information sometimes threatens our self-concept and makes us anxious. Therefore, humanists see this as the most important cause of human problems. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| Spanish scientist who first identified neurons - the cells that make up the brain and nervous system - in the early 1900s. His view that the brain was made up of a network of interacting neural cells laid the foundation for our modern understanding of the role of the brain in psychology. |
|
|
Term
| SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE |
|
Definition
| the theory of psychology that states that it is necessary to understand one's culture, ethnic identity, and other sociocultural factors to fully understand a person |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the patterns of behavior, beliefs, and values that are shared by a group of people. For example, language, superstitions, moral beliefs, and food preferences. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| group of persons who are descendants from a common group of ancestors, usually from a particular country of area. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| each person's sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group and sharing that group's beliefs, attitudes, skills, music, ceremonies, and the like. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| refers to one's view of oneself as male or female. a term that is important to the sociocultural pespective. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| the perspective that promotes thinking of different cultures in relative terms rather than judgmental terms |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| psychologists who use knowledge of psychology to solve and prevent human problems, such as emotional instability, marital difficulties, underachievement in school, and job dissatisfaction. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| methods of gathering information based on systematic observation. three general types of scientific methods: descriptive methods, correlational methods, and formal experiment. |
|
|
Term
|
Definition
| a research method that utilizes interviews and questionnaires with individuals in the community |
|
|
