Psych 101 Exam 1 CHAPTER 1 (Dixon, University of Dayton) Questions & Answers Already Graded A+

Psychology - the discipline concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism's physical state, mental state, and external environment Psychology is an empirical science, meaning - psychology focuses on evidence gathered by careful observation, experimentation, or measurement Phrenology - meaning "study of the mind"; once a theory that different areas of the brain account for specific character and personality traits which can be read by "bumps" on the skull (now discredited) Sigmund Freud - Physician who became convinced that many of his patients' reports of depression, obsessive habits, nervousness stemmed from mental causes. - childhood conflicts and traumas, such as forbidden sexual feelings for a parent Psychonanalysis - formulated by Freud: his theory and method of treating people with emotional problems that emphasize unconscious motives and conflicts Major perspectives in psychology - how modern psychological scientists typically approach their investigations Biological perspective - focuses on how bodily events affect behavior, feelings, and thoughts: we cannot really know ourselves if we do not know our bodies Evolutionary perspective - focuses on how genetically influenced behavior that was once functional during our evolutionary past may be reflected in many of our present behaviors, mental processes, and traits Learning perspective - concerned with how the environment and experience affect an individual's actionsBehaviorists - those who focus on the environmental rewards and punishments that maintain or discourage specific behaviors - they stick to what they can observe and measure directly in the environment Social-cognitive learning theorists - combine elements of behaviorism with research on thoughts, values, and intentions - believe that people learn not only by adapting behavior to environment, but by imitation of others and thought about the events happening around them Cognitive perspective - emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving, and other areas of behavior - one of the strongest forces in psychology and has inspired an explosion of research on the mind Socio-cultural perspective - focuses on how social and cultural forces outside individual forces that shape every aspect of behavior (i.e. urinal etiquette -> society teaches us b/c culture makes sure you know) - like studying the "water" that we swim in everyday Psychological practice - providing mental health services Clinical psychologist - requires a doctorate, typically Ph.D diagnose, treat, and study mental health problems Psychiatrist - a medical doctor (M.D.) trained to diagnose and treat mental disorders Critical thinking - assessing claims and making objective judgements on the basis of wellsupported reasons and evidence rather than emotion or anecdote - fundamental to all scienceHypothesis - a statement that can be tested and attempts to explain a given behavior - leads to predictions about what will happen Operational definition - a specification of precisely how to observe and measure a variable in a hypothesi Confirmation bias - a tendency to look for and believe information that confirms one's own belief, and ignore information that contradicts our beliefs Theory - an organized set of principles used to explain observed phenomena Representative sample - A group of individuals, selected from a population for study, which matches the population on important characteristics such as age and sex - yields extremely accurate results