Types of psychology
The study of behavior and thinking using the experimental method.
Experimental Psychology
doughnut-shaped neural system (including the hippocampus, amygdala, and hypothalamus) located below the cerebral hemispheres; associated with emotions and drives.
Limbic System
Contributions- First psychology lab in 1879; structuralism
Wilhelm Wundt
the hopelessness and passive resignation an animal or human learns when unable to avoid repeated aversive events.
Learned Helplessness
the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.
Nature nurture issue
The historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual's potential for personal growth.
Humanistic Psychology
a nerve network in the brainstem that plays an important role in controlling arousal.
Reticular Formation
Contributions- Founder of behaviorism; classical conditioning
John B. Watson
the tendency to recall faces of one's own race more accurately than faces of other races. Also called the cross-race effect and the own-race bias
Other-Race Effect
scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.
Applied research
A branch of psychology concerned with the links between biology and behavior.
Biological Psychology
cells in the nervous system that support, nourish, and protect neurons.
Glial Cells (glia)
Contribution- Psychosocial stages of development
Erik Erikson
stronger responses on simple or well-learned tasks in the presence of others.
Social Facilitation
the scientific study of the measurement of human abilities, attitudes, and traits.
Psychometrics
The study of the roots of behavior and mental processes using the principles of natural selection.
Evolutionary Psychology
portion of the cerebral cortex lying at the top of the head and toward the rear; receives sensory input for touch and body position.
Parietal Lobes
Contribution- Hierarchy of needs; self-actualization
Abraham Maslow
people's ideas about their own and others' mental states—about their feelings, perceptions, and thoughts, and the behaviors these might predict.
Theory of Mind
an experimental procedure in which both the research participants and the research staff are blind about whether the research participants have received the treatment or a placebo.
Double blind procedure
A branch of psychology that studies how unconscious drives and conflicts influence behavior, and uses that information to treat people with psychological disorders.
Psychodynamic Psychology
areas of the cerebral cortex that are not involved in primary motor or sensory functions; rather, they are involved in higher mental functions such as learning, remembering, thinking, and speaking.
Association Areas
Contribution- Stages of cognitive development
Jean Piaget
the theory that our experience of emotion is our awareness of our physiological responses to emotion-arousing stimuli.
James-Lange Theory
a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score.
Standard deviation