psych 9a // chapter 1

• Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior.
• WEIRD samples refer to research participants from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic backgrounds.
• Psychology is summative, meaning that it rests on a body of knowledge that is continuously growing.
• The overconfidence effect is the tendency to overestimate one’s own abilities, knowledge, or judgment.
• Confirmation bias is the tendency to search for, interpret, and recall information in a way that confirms one’s preexisting beliefs or hypotheses.
• The scientific approach is one of the two early branches of psychology, which equates psychology with experimental studies of perception, thought, and behavior.
• The clinical approach is one of the two early branches of psychology, which equates psychology with psychotherapy, psychiatry, and clinical practice.
• Pseudoscience refers to a collection of beliefs or practices mistakenly thought to be based on valid science.
• Evidence involves the available body of facts or information indicating whether a belief or proposition is true or valid.
• The best evidence is primarily empirical, or based on astute observation and accurate measurement.
• Popular psychology is simplified, often sensationalized, and sometimes misleading interpretations of psychological concepts and principles that are disseminated through popular media channels such as books, magazines, television, social media, and self-help resources.
• Critical thinking is the purposeful, reasoned, and goal-directed process of exploring a situation or problem; it is an essential component of psychological literacy.
• The evolutionary perspective is the psychological perspective on behavior that seeks to identify how humans’ evolutionary past shapes certain cultural universals that all human beings share, such as the preference for fairness.
• Cultural universals are common features or patterns that exist across all human cultures throughout history.
• The cultural perspective is the psychological perspective that seeks to understand how cultural context affects a person’s thoughts and preferences.
• Culture refers to the rules, values, customs, and beliefs that exist within a group of people who share a common language and environment.
• The cognitive perspective is the psychological perspective that studies the mental processes that underlie perception, thought, learning, memory, and creativity.
• The emotional perspective is the psychological perspective that seeks to understand how the human capacity to feel, express, and perceive emotions plays an important role in decisio, behavior, and social relationships.
• The unconscious is the part of a person’s mental life that influences their thoughts, feelings, and actions in ways that they cannot directly observe and of which they are unaware.
• The biological-neuroscience perspective is the psychological perspective that seeks to understand the biological underpinnings of how humans think, act, and behave.
• Neuroscience is the scientific study of how nerves and cells send and receive information from the brain, body, and spinal cord.
• The personality perspective is the psychological perspective that seeks to understand aspects of human behavior that are relatively stable over time and situation.
• The social perspective is the psychological perspective that studies the ways in which immediate social contexts influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, independent of personality.
• The clinical perspective is the psychological perspective that focuses on the causes and treatment of psychological disorders, with the goal of improving human well-being, daily functioning, and social relationships.
• Growth mindset refers to a belief that personality and behavior can be changed.
• Positive psychology is the scientific study of the factors that make people happy, keep them happy, and help them manage stress; includes the study of important human experiences, such as hope, courage, and creativity.
• Metacognition refers to the awareness and understanding of one’s own thought processes.
• Wilhelm Wundt is a German psychologist who pioneered the field of psychology, specifically the scientific approach.
• William James is an American psychologist who was the first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States.
• Sigmund Freud is an Austrian neurologist who pioneered the field of psychology, specifically the clinical approach.