Psychology 200 NOVA EXAM 1 Study Guide
Psychology - answerthe scientific study of mind and behavior
Mind - answerThe private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings.
Behavior - answerObservable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals.
3 Key Questions in Psychology...
Psychology - answer✔the scientific study of mind and behavior
Mind - answer✔The private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings.
Behavior - answer✔Observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals.
3 Key Questions in Psychology - answer✔How do we perceive the electrical and chemical
activity in our brains as things like thoughts, feelings, and behavior?
How do our minds respond to, and learn from, the world around us so quickly, and in ways that
ensure our survival?
What leads the mind to function so ineffectively in some people, such as in those who experience
hallucinations, dramatic mood swings, or intense urges to end their own lives?
Nativism - answer✔The philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn.
Does Nativism reflect "Nature" or "Nurture"? - answer✔Nuture
How did work with brain damaged patients help establish a mind- body connection? -
answer✔When Paul Broca worked with a patient who had suffered damage to a small part of the
left side of the brain the patient was virtually unable to speak yet was able to understand
everything that was said and could communicate using gestures. Broca had the crucial insight
that damage to a specific part of the brain impaired a specific mental function, clearly
demonstrating that the mind and body are linked.
Who is credited as being the founder of psychology including teaching its first course and
opening its first lab in 1879? - answer✔Wilhelm Wundt
consciousness - answer✔A person's subjective experience of the world and the mind.
How did Wundt study consciousness using stimuli and reaction time? - answer✔He would train
his human participants to respond after he applied pressure. He would then use the time of the
stimulus to the time reacted as his basis for how long nerve impulses took to reach the brain and
respond.
Structuralism - answer✔The analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind.
Introspection - answer✔The subjective observation of one's own experience.
What is the problem with using introspection as a research method? - answer✔People see things
differently due to their own experiences so using this method for research would pose a problem
since there would be no consistency.
Functionalism - answer✔The study of how mental processes enable people to adapt to their
environments.
William James ideas on how consciousness should be studied? - answer✔He thought of
consciousness like a flowing stream and to understand it, you needed to understand it in its
entirety.
Wundt's ideas on how consciousness should be studied? - answer✔He thought consciousness
could be broken down into separate elements.
Charles Darwin's Theory (Natural Selection) - answer✔The features of an organism that help it
survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to subsequent
generations.
Hysteria - answer✔A temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as a result of
emotionally upsetting experiences.
Unconscious - answer✔The part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness but
influences conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Freud's Psychoanalytic Theory - answer✔An approach that emphasizes the importance of
unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
Psychoanalysis - answer✔A therapeutic approach that focuses on bringing unconscious material
into conscious awareness to better understand psychological disorders.
Criticism of Psychoanalysis - answer✔The Victorian Era thought it was "dirty". Nowadays we
think its unscientific. People don't like it when You analyze them.
What psychologist is associated with behaviorism? - answer✔John Broadus Watson
Criticisms of Behaviorism - answer✔This approach was 1 sided (dimensional) and doesn't
account for Free Will.
Gesalt Psychology - answer✔A psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive
the whole rather than the sum of the parts.
Cognitive Psychology - answer✔The scientific study of mental processes, including perception,
thought, memory, and reasoning.
What is behavioral Neuroscience? - answer✔An approach to psychology that links psychological
processes to activities in the Nervous System and other bodily processes.
Evolutionary Psychology - answer✔A psychological approach that explains mind and behavior
in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by natural selection.
Social Psychology - answer✔The study of the cases and consequences of sociality.
Cultural Psychology - answer✔The study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological
processes of their members.
Empiricism - answer✔The belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation.
Scientific Method - answer✔A procedure for finding the truth using empirical evidence.
Theory - answer✔A hypothetical explanation of a natural phenomenon.
Hypothesis - answer✔A falsifiable prediction made by a theory.
Operational Definition - answer✔A description of a property in terms of some concrete,
observable event.
Validity - answer✔The extent to which a concrete, observable event indicates the property.
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