Psychology: from Inquiry to Understanding: Chapter 1 – Flashcards
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Psychology
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The scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior.
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Levels of Analysis
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Rungs on a ladder of analysis, with lower levels tied most closely to biological influences and higher levels tied most closely to social influences.
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Multiply Determined
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Caused by many factors.
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Individual Differences
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Variations among people in their thinking, emotion, personality, and behavior.
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Naive Realism
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belief that we see the world precisely as it is.
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Scientific Theory
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Explanation for a large number of findings in the natural world.
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Hypothesis
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Testable prediction derived from a scientific theory.
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Confirmation Bias
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Tendency to seek out evidence that supports our hypothesis and deny, dismiss, or distort evidence that contradicts them.
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Belief Perseverance
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Tendency to stick to our initial beliefs even when evidence contradicts them.
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Metaphysical Claim
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Assertion about the world that is not testable.
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Pseudoscience
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Set of claims that seems scientific but isn't.
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Ad Hoc Immunizing Hypothesis
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Escape hatch or loophole that defenders of a theory use to protect their theory from falsification.
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Patternicity
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The tendency to detect meaningful patterns in random stimuli.
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Terror Management Theory
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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.
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Correlation-Causation Fallacy
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Error of assuming that because one thing is associated with another, it must cause the other.
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Variable
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Anything that can vary.
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Falsifiable
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Capable of being disproved.
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Replicability
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When a study's findings are able to be duplicated, ideally by independent investigators.
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Decline Effect
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Fact that the size of certain psychological findings appears to be shrinking over time.
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Introspection
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Method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental experiences.
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Structuralism
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School of psychology that aimed to identify the basic elements of psychological experience.
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Functionalism
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School of psychology that aimed to understand the adaptive purpose of psychological characteristics.
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Natural Selection
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Principle that organisms that possess adaptations survive and reproduce at a higher rate than do other organisms.
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Behaviorism
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School of psychology that focuses on uncovering the general laws of learning by looking at observable behavior.
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Cognitive Psychology
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School of psychology that proposes that thinking is central to understanding behavior.
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Cognitive Neuroscience
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Relatively new field of psychology that examines the relation between brain functioning and thinking.
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Psychoanalysis
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School of psychology, founded by Sigmund Freud, that focuses on internal psychological processes of which we're unaware.
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Evolutionary Psychology
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Discipline that applies Darwin's theory of natural selection to human and animal behavior.
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Basic Research
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Research examining how the mind works.
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Applied Research
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Research examining how we can use basic research to solve real-world problems.
