empirical - Answers relying on or derived from observation, experimentation, or measurement
psychology - Answers the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
psychobabble - Answers Pseudoscience and quackery covered by a veneer of psychological and
scientific-sounding language
critical thinking - Answers The ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments on
the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence rather than emotion or anecdote
Occams Razor - Answers The principle of choosing the solution that accounts for the most evidence
while making the fewest unverified assumptions.
phrenology - Answers The now discredited theory that different brain areas account for specific
character and personality traits, which can be "read" from bumps on the skull.
structuralism - Answers early psych approach that emphasized the analysis of immediate experiences
into basic elements
functionalism - Answers an early psychological approach that emphasized the function or purpose of
behavior and consciousness
psychoanalysis - Answers Freud's theory of personality that attributes thoughts and actions to
unconscious motives and conflicts; the techniques used in treating psychological disorders by seeking to
expose and interpret unconscious tensions
biological perspective - Answers approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with
actions feelings and thoughts
evolutionary psychology - Answers emphasizes the importance of adaptation, reproduction, and
"survival of the fittest" in shaping behavior
learning perspective - Answers emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person/animal
actions
behaviorism - Answers emphasizes the study of observable behavior and the role of the environment
and prior experiences as determinant of behavior
cognitive perspective - Answers A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes in
perception, memory, language, problem solving, and other areas of behavior
socioculture perspective - Answers perspective that focuses on the relationship between social behavior
and culture
,psychodynamic perspective - Answers emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as
inner forces, conflicts, or the movement of instinctual energy
humanist psychology - Answers a psychological approach that emphasizes personal growth, resilience,
and the achievement of human potential
feminist psychology - Answers a psychological approach that analyzes the influence of social inequities
on gender relations and on the behavior of the two sexes
psychological practice - Answers providing health or mental health services
basic psychology - Answers the study of psychological issues in order to seek knowledge for its own sake
rather than for its practical application
applied psychology - Answers The study of psychological issues that have direct practical significance;
also, the application of psychological findings.
psychotherapist - Answers
psychoanalyst - Answers a person who has obtained specialized training at a psychoanalysis institute
psychiatrist - Answers A medical doctor who has specialized in the diagnosis and treatment of
psychological disorders
theory - Answers an organized system of assumptions and principles that purports to explain a specified
set of phenomena and interrelationships
operational definition - Answers A precise definition of a term in a hypothesis, which specifies the
operations for observing and measuring the process or phenomenon being defined.
principle of falsifiability - Answers The principle that a scientific theory must make predictions that are
specific enough to expose the theory to the possibility of disconfirmation; that is, the theory must
predict not only what will happen but also what will not happen.
confirmation bias - Answers the tendency to look for or pay attention only to information that confirms
one's own belief
representative sample - Answers A group of individuals, selected from a population for study, which
matches the population on important characteristics such as age and sex.
descriptive methods - Answers methods that yield descriptions of behaviors but not necessarily casual
explanations
case study - Answers a detailed description or particular individual being studied or treated
, observational study - Answers a study in which the researcher carefully and systematically observes and
records behavior without interfering with the behavior; it may involve either naturalistic or laboratory
observation
psychological tests - Answers procedures used to measure and evaluate personality traits, emotional
states, aptitudes, interests, abilities, and values
standardize - Answers to develop uniform procedures for giving and scoring a test
norms - Answers established standard of performance
reliability - Answers consistency of scores derived from one time and place to another
validitiy - Answers the ability of a test to measure what it was designed to measure
surveys - Answers Questionnaires and interviews that ask people directly about their experiences,
attitudes, or opinions.
volunteer bias - Answers a shortcoming of findings derived from a sample of volunteers instead of a
representative sample; the volunteers may differ from those who did not volunteer
correlation study - Answers a descriptive study that looks for a consistent relationship between two
phenomena
correlation - Answers a measure of how strongly two variable are related to one another
variables - Answers characteristics of behavior or experience that can be measured or described by a
numeric scale
positive correlation - Answers an association between increases in one variable and increases in
another- or between decreases in one and in another
negative correlation - Answers an association between increases in one variable and decreases in
another
coefficient of correlation - Answers a measure of correlation that ranges in value from -1.00 to +1.00
experiment - Answers a controlled test of a hypothesis in which the researcher manipulates one variable
to discover its effect on another
independent variable - Answers variable that is manipulated
dependent variable - Answers a variable that an experimenter predicts will be affected by manipulations
of the independent variable
control condition - Answers a comparison condition in which participants are not exposed to the same
treatment as in the experimental condition