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List of terms of the book 'Psychology' by Ronald Comer
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Introduction to Psychology & TechnologyChapter 1 – Psychology: Yesterday and Today
Psychology The systematic study of selves and
others
Mental processes Activities of our brain when it is
engaged in thinking, observing the
environment and using language
Introspect To study one’s own mental states and
feelings, hence introspection
Voluntarism The doctrine that states that all our
mental life is motivated, that our
mental life is not a passive reflection
of the world around us
Unconscious A hypothesizes repository of thoughts,
feelings and sensations outside
human awareness, thought in some
theories to have a strong bearing on
human behaviour
Id According to psychoanalytic theory,
the personality element representing
basic instinctual drives
Ego a personality element that works to
help satisfy the drives of the id while
complying with the constraints of the
environment
Psychoanalysis The theory, developed by Freud,
suggesting our psychological
functioning is the result of the
dynamic interplay of forces of which
we are largely unaware
Superego A personality element in charge of
determining which impulses are
acceptable to express openly
Pragmatism An American philosophical movement
that argued that our theories are
evaluated by examining their practical
consequences
Functionalists Someone who believes that mental
processes have purpose, and that the
focus of study should be on how the
mind adapts those purposes to
changing environments
Psychometrics An approach to the mind that uses
tests to measure differences between
people
Eugenics The controversial approach that
attempts to use scientific principles to
guide human breeding
Gestalt psychology Field of psychology arguing that we
, have inborn tendencies to structure
what we see in particular ways and to
structure our perceptions into broad
perceptual units
Behaviourism A branch of psychological thought
arguing that psychology should study
only directly observable behaviours
rather than abstract mental processes
Stimuli An environmental trigger that changes
our internal or external states
Responses The ways we react to stimuli
Operant conditioning A form of associative learning
whereby behaviour is modified
depending on its consequences
Humanistic psychology A theory of psychology that sought to
give greater prominence to special
and unique features of human
conditioning
Client-centred therapy An approach to therapy founded by
Carl Rogers, based on the notion that
the client is an equal and positive
gains are made by mirroring clients’
thoughts and feelings in an
atmosphere of unconditional positive
regard
Cognitive psychology A field of psychology that studies
mental processes
Information processing The means by which information is
stored and operated internally
Neuroscience The study of psychological functions
by looking at the biological
foundations of those functions;
previously known as psychobiology
Behavioural genetics A subfield of psychology looking at the
influence of genes on human
behaviour
Sociobiologists Theorists who believe humans have a
genetically innate concept of how
social behaviour should be organized
Evolutionary psychology The field of study that applies
evolutionary ideas, including the
importance of adaption over millions
of years, to the explanation of human
behaviour
Cultural universality Those behaviours and practices that
occur across all cultures
Psychological literacy Having the research skills and
vocabulary allowing one to evaluate,
communicate and apply psychological
principles
Cultural psychology The study of how individual behaviour
, can be shaped or affected by societal
processes
Collectivist A culture that focuses more on the
needs of the group and less on
individual desires
Individualistic A culture that places the wants or
desires of the person over the needs
of the group
Cognitive neuroscience The study of mental processes and
how they relate to the biological
functions of the brain
Social neuroscience The study of social functioning and
how it is tied to brain activity
Positive psychology A movement in psychology that
focuses on the positive features of
human functioning and examines how
the might be developed more readily
Chapter 2 – Psychology as a Science
Deductive reasoning The reasoning proceeding from broad
basic principles applied to specific
situations
Biases Distorted beliefs based on a person’s
subjective sense of reality
Empirical Able to be tested in objective ways
Theories Ideas about laws that govern
phenomena
Hypothetico-deductive approach A process of modern science where
scientists begin with an educated
guess about how the world works and
then set about designing small
controlled observations to support or
invalidate that hypothesis
Inductive reasoning The reasoning process proceeding
from small specific situations to more
general terms
Empiricism The view that our knowledge of the
world should come from testing out
what our senses perceive
Variable The condition, event or situation that
is studied in an experiment
Independent variable The condition or event that is thought
to be a factor in changing another
condition or event
Dependent variable The condition or event that you
expect to change as a result of
variations in the independent variable
Operationalize To develop a working definition of a
variable that allows you to test it
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