1
● Psychology: Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
● Psychiatry: the medical specialization focusing on the brain and its disorders
● Historical perspectives:
○ Structuralism: a perspective from the early history of psychology that focused on
breaking down mental processes into their structure or basic parts.
○ Functionalism: a perspective from the early history of psychology that focused on the
function of our mental processes and behaviors.
○ Psychoanalysis: a perspective in psychology created by Sigmund Freud that
emphasizes unconscious mental activity and the long-lasting influence of childhood
experiences.
○ Behaviorism: is a perspective in psychology that emphasizes observable behavior over
internal mental processes.
○ Humanism: Humanism is a perspective in psychology that emphasizes the notion that
human nature is generally good and people are naturally motivated to grow toward their
own potential.
● Modern perspectives:
○ Multiculturalism: Multiculturalism is a perspective in psychology that emphasizes the
influence of culture on behavior and mental processes.
○ evolutionary psychology: is a perspective in psychology that emphasizes Charles
Darwin’s theory of evolution as an influence on behavior.
○ cognitive psychology: is a perspective in psychology that emphasizes processes such
as thinking, language, attention, memory, and intelligence.
○ Neuroscience: Neuroscience is a perspective in psychology that emphasizes the link
between behavior and the biological functioning of the brain.
○ positive psychology: is a perspective in psychology that emphasizes people’s strengths
and successes.
○ biopsychosocial theory: is a uniquely comprehensive popular perspective in
psychology that emphasizes biological, psychological, and social factors as influences on
behavior.
● Critical thinking:
○ Pseudopsychology: psychological information that is not supported by science but may
appear to be.
○ confirmation bias: a tendency to prefer information that confirms what you thought in
the first place.
○ belief perseverance: a tendency to maintain a belief even when evidence suggests it is
incorrect.
● Descriptive research: is research in which the goal is simply to describe a characteristic of the
population.
● correlational research: is research in which the goal is to determine the relationship between
two variables.
● Correlation-causation fallacy:the mistaken belief that when two variables correlate strongly with
each other, one must cause the other
● experimental research: is research in which the goal is to determine the cause-and-effect
relationship between two variables by manipulating one and observing changes in the other.
○ independent variable (IV): in experimental research, a variable that is manipulated by
the researcher.
○ dependent variable (DV): in experimental research, a variable that is expected to
depend upon the independent variable.
○ experimental group: in experimental research, the group of participants who receive
the treatment that is the focus of the study.
○ control group: in experimental research, the group of participants who do not receive
the treatment that is the focus of the study.
○ placebo effect: the effect of expectations rather than the experimental manipulations.
● Scientific method: is a way of asking and answering questions that follows a predetermined
series of steps: posing a question, conducting a literature review, developing a hypothesis, testing
the hypothesis by collecting data, and analyzing the data and drawing conclusions
○ Theory: a proposed explanation for observed events.
○ Hypothesis: a prediction, typically based on a theory, that can be tested.
