Savants
a small percentage of individuals with autism who have incredible talents or skills, with Math, Music etc.
Autism
is marked by especially abnormal or impaired development in social interactions, such as hiding to avoid people, not making eye contact, not wanting to be touched. Autism is marked by difficulties in communicating, such as grave problems in developing spoken language or in initiating conversations. Invdividuals with autism are characterized by having very ew activiites and interests, spending long periods repeating the same behaviors, or following the same rituals. Signs of autism usually appear around 2-3 years old.
Test Anxiety
refers to combination of physiological, emotional, and cognitive components that are caused by the stress of taking exams and may interfere with one's concentration, planning, and academic performance.
Psychology
the systematic, scientific study of behaviors and mental processes.
behaviors
observable actions or responses in both humans and animals
Mental Processes
not directly observable, refer to a widerange of complex mental processes, such as thinking, imagining, studying, and dreaming.
Goals of Psychology
Describe, Explain, Predict and Control
Describe
first goal, describe the different ways that organisms behave
Explain
2nd goal, explain the causes of the behavior
Predict
3rd goal, predict how organisms will behave in certain situations
Control
4th goal, for some psych.ists to ocntrol an organism's behavior
Approach
a focus or perspective, which may use a particular research method or technique. (Biological, Congitive, Behavioral, Psychoanalytic, Humanistic, Cross-cultural, and recently Evolutionary)
Biological approach
looks at how our genes, hormones, and nervous system interact with our environments to influence learning, personality, memory, motivation, emotions, and coping techniques.
Cognitive approach
examines how we process, store, and use information an how this information influences what we attend to, perceive, learn remember, believe, and feel
Behavioral approach
studies how organisms learn new beahviors or modify existing ones, depending on whether events in their environments reward or punish these behaviors.
Psychoanalytic approach
stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires, and motivations on thoughts, behaviors, and the development of personality traits and psychological problems later in life.
Humanistic approach
emphasizes that each individual has great freedom in directing his or her future, a large capacity for personal growth, a considerable amount of intrinsic worth, and enormous potential for self-fulfillment.
Cross-Cultural approach
examines the influence of culture and ethnic similarities and differences on the psychological and social functioning of a culture's members.
Evolutionary approach
studies how evolutionary ideas, such as adaptation and natural selection, explain human behaviors and mental processes.
Wilhelm Wundt
(1832-1920) Founder of the first psychology laboratory in 1879 (Germany), he did experiments that had people explain their sensations and then anaylize them. He was founder of Structuralism and the method of introspection. Many People disagreed with his approach because it was to narrow and subjective.
Structuralism
the study of the most basic elements, primarily sensations and perceptions, that make up our conscious mental experiences.
Introspection
a method of exploring conscious mental processes by asking subjects to look inward and report their sensations and perceptions.
William James
(1842-1910) Wrote The Principles of Psychology, a book which includes almost every topic that is in modern psych. textbooks including Learning, sensation, memory, reasoning, attention, feelings, consciousness, and emotions. He said emotions were caused by physiological changes; running produced fear. He was interested in the goals, purposes, and functions of the mind (Functionalism). "Father of Modern Psychology
Functionalism
the study of the function rather than the structure of consciousness, was interested in how our minds adapt to our changing environment.
Mex Wertheimer
(1883-1943) He said that perceptual experiences, such as perceiving moving lights, resulted from analyzing a "whole Pattern" or Gestalt, Used this to point out the flaws in the structuralists who said movement was adding together the sensations from the lights.
Gestalt Approach
emphasized that perception is more than the sum of its parts and studied how sensations are assembled into meaningful perceptual experiences.
John B. Watson
(1878-1958) Rejected Wundt's theories because they could not be be verified by other psychologists and came up with Behavioral approach.
Behavioral approach
an objective, experimental science, whose goal should be the analysis of observable behaviors and the prediction and control of those behaviors.
Clinical and Counseling psychology
includes the assessment and treatment of people with psychological problems, such as grief, anxiety or stress
Social Psychology
the study of social interactions, stereotypes, prejudices, attitudes, conformity, group behaviors, aggression, and attraction
Developmental psychology
examines moral, social emotional, and cognitive development throughout a person's entire life.
Experimental psychology
the areas of sensation, perception, learning, human performance, motivation, and emotion
Biological psychology
research on the physical and chemical changes that occur during stress, learning, and emotions, as well as how our genetic makeup, brain, and nervous system interact with our environments and influence our behaviors.
Cognitive psychology
how we process, store and retrieve information and how cognitive processes influence our behaviors
Psychometrics
focuses on the measurement of people's abilities, skills, intelligence, personality, and abnormal behaviors.
Industrial/organizational psychology
examines the relationships of people and their work environments.