Barons

• Wilhelm Wundt

  (1832-1920) set up the first psychological laboratory in an apartment near the university at Leipzip, Germany. Trained subjects in introspection. Subjects were asked to accurately record their cognitive reactions to simple stimuli.
• Introspection

  Technique used by Wilhelm Wundt who asked subjects to accurately record their cognitive reactions to simple stimuli. Through this process, Wundt hoped to examine basic mental processes.
• William James

  (1842-1910) Published "The Principles of Psychology", the science's first textbook. Established the Theory of Functionalism: How mental processes function in our lives.
• Functionalism

  Theory described by William James; Examines how the mental processes described by Wilhelm Wundt function in our lives
• Max Wertheimer

  (1880-1943) Gestalt psychologist; Argued against dividing human thought and behavior into discrete structures. Gestalt psychology tried to examine a person's total experience because the way we experience the world is more than just an accumulation of various perceptual experiences. Gestalt theorists demonstrated that the whole experience is often more than just the sum of the parts of the experience.
• Sigmund Freud

  (1856-1939) Believed he discovered the unconscious mind-a part of our mind over which we don't have conscious control that determines, in part, how we think and behave. Proposed that we must examine the unconscious mind through dream analysis, word association, and other psychoanalytic therapy techniques if we are truly understand human thought and behavior. Has been criticized for being unscientific and creating unverifiable theories.
• Margaret Floy Washburn

  (1871-1939) First woman to earn a Ph.D in psychology (1894)
• John Watson

  (1878-1958) Declared that psychology must limit itself to observable phenomena, not unobervable concepts like the unconscious mind, if it is to be considered a science.
• Ivan Pavlov

  (1849-1936) Performed pioneering conditioning experiments on dogs; these experiments led to the development of the classical conditioning model of learning.
• B.F. Skinner

  (1904-1990) Expanded the basic ideas of behaviorism to include the idea of reinforcement and punishment- environmental stimuli that either encourage or discourage certain responses; helped establish and popularize the operant conditiong model of learning; skinner's intellectual influence lasted for decades
• Mary Whiton Calkins

  (1863-1930) Student of William James; became president of american psychological association (1905); completed her doctoral studies but harvard refused to award her a Ph.D because, at the time they didn't grant doctoral degrees to women
• Humanist Perspective

  the humanists, including theorists abraham maslow (1908-1970) and carl rogers (1902-1987), stressed individual choice and free will. this contrsts with the deterministic behaviorists who theorized that all behaviors are caused by past conditioning. Humanists believe that we choose most of our behaviors and that these choices are guided by physiological, emotional, or spiritual needs.
• Psychoanalytic Perspective

  Described by Sigmund Freud; psychoanalysts believe the unconscious mind-a part of our mind that we don't have conscious control over or access to-controls much of our thoughts and actions; psychoanalysts would look for impulses or memories pushed into the unconscious mind through repression;psychoanalysts think we must examine our unconscious mind through dream analysis, word association and other psychoanalytic therapy techniques in order to understand human thought and behavior.
• Biopsychology Perspective

  biopsychologists explain human thought and behavior strictly in terms of biological processes. neuroscientists believe that human cognition and reactions might be caused by effects of our genes, hormones, and neurotransmitters in the brain or by a combination of all three.
• Evolutionary Perspective

  evolutionary psychologists examine human thoughts and actions in terms of natural selection. Natural selection in this context refers to the idea that some psychological traits might be advatageous for survival and that these traits would be passed down from the parents to the next generation. similar to the bipsychology perspective
• Behavioral Perspective

  Behaviorists explain human thought and behavior in terms of conditioning (learning). Behaviorists look strictly at observable behaviors and what reaction organisms get in response to specific behaviors. dominant school of thought in psychology from the 1920s through the 1960s.
• Cognitive Perspective

  cognitive psychologists examine human thought and behavior in terms of how we interpret, process and remember environmental events. cognitive psychologists believe that the rules or methods we us to view the world are important to understanding why we think and behave the way we do.
• Social-Cultural Perspective

  social-cultural psychologists look at how our thoughts and behaviors vary from people living in other countries. sociocultural psychologists emphasize the influence culture has on the way we think and act. for example, social-cultural psychologists are interested in the emphasis some cultures place on the value of the group (collectivism) or the individual (individualism)
• Hindsight Bias

  Tendency upon hearing about research findings (and many other things) to think that they knew it all along. After an event occurs, it is relatively easy to explain why it happened. The goal of scientific research, however, is to predict what will happen in advance.
• Applied Research

  Research that psychologists conduct to solve practical problems. such as investigating how people can best resolve personality conflicts at work. Research that has clear, practical applications.
• Basic Research

  Research that explores questions that are of interest to psychologists but are not intended to have immediate, real-world applications.
• Hypothesis

  A statement that expresses a relationship between two variables.
• Theory

  Aims to explain some phenomenon and allows researchers to generate testable hypotheses with the hope of collecting data that supports the theory.
• Operations Definitions

  An explanation of how variables are measures.
• Validity

  When research measures what the researcher set out to measure; it is accurate. A related concept is reliability.
• Reliability

  When research can be replicated and it is consistent. If the researcher conducted the same research in the same way, the researcher would get similar results.
• Sampling

  The individuals on whom research is conducted are called participants or subjects, and the process by which the participants are selected is called _____.
• Population

  The group from which a sample is selected. This includes anyone or anything that could possibly be selected to be in the sample.
• Random Selection

  A method of selection a sample from a population. Every member of the population has an equal chance of being selected. It increases the likelihood that the sample represents the population and that one can generalize the findings to a larger population.
• Stratified Sampling

  A process that allows a researcher to ensure that the sample represents the population on some criteria, such as age or race.
• Experiment

  The only research that can show a casual relationship. Allows the researcher to manipulate the independent variable and control the confounding variables. It compares at least two groups: an experimental group and a control group that differ based on the independent variable.
• Confounding Variables

  Any difference between the experimental and control conditions (such as time of day), except for the independent variable, that might affect the dependent variable.
• Assignment

  The process by which participants are put into either an experimental group or a control group.
• Experimenter Bias

  The unconscious tendency for researchers to treat member of the experimental and control groups differently to increase the chance of confirming their hypothesis.
• Double-Blind Procedure

  Method followed by such that neither the participants nor the researcher are aware of who is in the experimental or control groups while the experiment is going on. This controls experimenter bias and participant bias.
• Participant Bias

  Tendency for subjects to behave in certain ways based on their perception of an experiment.
• Hawthorne Effect

  Being selected to be in a group of people to participate in an experiment will affect the performance of that group, regardless of what is done to those individuals. Just selecting a sample of people and including them in an experiment will affect performance of the sample, as the chosen participants will try to please the researcher. Control groups help to control for the Hawthorne effect.
• Correlation

  A statistical measure of a relationship between two variables. Does not mean causation.
• Scatter Plot

  A graph of correlated data. The closer the points come to failing on a straight line, the stronger the correlation.
• Survey Method

  Often used to gather opinions or attitudes and for correlation research. Involves asking people to fill out a questionnaire.