Term
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Definition
| Psychology is the scientific study of behaivior and mental processes. |
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Term
| What are the Goals of Psychology? |
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Definition
| Psychology seeks to describe, explain, predict, and control behavior and mental processes. |
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Term
| What do psychologists do? |
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Definition
| Psychologists engage in research, practice, and teaching. Research can be pure or applied. |
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Term
| Who were some of the ancient contributors to psychology? |
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Definition
| The ancient Greek philosopher Aristotle declared that people are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain. Another Greek, Democritus, suggested that we could think of behavior in terms of body and mind. |
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Term
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Definition
| Structuralism, founded by Wilhelm Wundt, used introspection to study the objective and subjective elements of experience. |
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Term
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Definition
| Functionalism dealt with observable behavior as well as conscious experience and focuse on the importance of habit. |
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Term
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Definition
| Behaviorism, founded by John B. Watson, argues that psychology must limit itself to observable behavior and not attempt to deal with consciousness. |
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Term
| What is Gestalt Psychology? |
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Definition
| Gestalt psychology is concerned with perception and argues that the wholeness of human experience is more than the sum of its parts. |
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Term
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Definition
| Psychoanalysis asserts that people are driven by hidden impulses and that they distort reality to protect themselves from anxiety. |
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Term
| What is the evolutionary perspective? |
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Definition
| The evolutionary perspective argues that in the age-old struggle for survival, only the fittest organisms reach maturity and reproduce, thereby transmitting the traits that enable them to survive to their offspring. |
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Term
| What is the biological perspective? |
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Definition
| The biological perspective studies the links between behavior and mental processes, on the one hand, and the functioning of the brain, the endocrine system, and heredity on the other. |
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Term
| What is the cognitive perspective? |
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Definition
| The cognitive perspective is concerned how we learn, remember the past, plan for the future, solve problems, form judgements, make decisions, and use language. |
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Term
| What is humanistic-existential perspective? |
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Definition
| Humanistic-existential psychologists stress the importance of subjective experience and assert that people have freedom to make their own choices. |
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Term
| What is the role of psychoanalysis today? |
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Definition
| Contemporary psychoanalysis focus less on unconscious processes and more on conscious choice and self-direction. |
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Term
| What are the two major perspectives on learning? |
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Definition
| The two key main perspectives on learning are the behavioral perspective and the social-cognitive perspective. |
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Term
| What is the sociocultural perspective? |
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Definition
| The sociocultural perspective focuses on the roles of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status in behavior and mental processes. |
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Term
| How have access to education and the field of psychology historically influenced the participation of women and people from certain ethnic and racial backgrounds? |
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Definition
| Woman have increasingly contributed to all areas in psychology. For example, Calkins studied memory and heightened awareness of prejudice against women. People from ethnic minority groups have likewise increasingly contributed to all areas of psychology, and some, like Kenneth Clark, Mamie Philips Clark, and Jorge Sanchez, have heightened awareness of issues concerning their group. |
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Term
| What is critical thinking? |
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Definition
| Critical thinking is associated with skepticism. It involves analyzing the statements,questions, and arguments of others. It means explaining the definitions of terms, examining the assumptions behind arguments, and scrutinizing the logic with which arguments are developed. |
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