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Evolutionary psychology
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A relatively new specialty in psychology that sees behavior and mental processes in terms of their genetic adaptions for survivial and reproduction.
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Psychology
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The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
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Applied psychologists
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Psychologists who use the knowledge developed by experimental psychologists to solve human problems.
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Gestalt psychology
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A historical school of psychology that sought to understand how the brain works by studying perception and perceptual learning. Gestalt psychologists believed that percepts consist of meaningful wholes (in German, Gestalts).
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Humanistic psychology
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A clinical viewpoint emphasizing human ability, growth potential, and free will.
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Behavioral view
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A psychological perspective that finds the source of our actions in environmental stimuli, rather than an inner mental processes.
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Neuroscience
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The field devoted to understanding how the brain creates thoughts, feelings, motives, consciousness, memories, and other mental processes.
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Structuralism
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A historical school of psychology devoted to uncovering the basic structures that make up mind and thought. Structuralists sought the "elements" of conscious experience.
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Cognitive view
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The psychological perspective emphasizing mental processes, such as learning, memory, perception, and thinking, as forms of information processing.
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Functionalism
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A historical school of psychology that believed mental processes could best be understood in terms of their adaptive purpose and function.
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Cognitions
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Mental processes, such as thinking, memory, sensation, and perception.
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Psychiatry
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A medical specialty dealing with the diagnosis and treatment of mental disorders.
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Introspection
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The process of reporting on one's own conscious mental experiences.
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Experimental psychologists
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Psychologists who do research on basic psychological processes-as contrasted with applied psychologists; also called research psychologists.
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Developmental view
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The psychological perspective emphasizing changes that occur across the lifespan.
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Teachers of psychology
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Psychologists whose primary job is teaching typically in high schools, colleges, and universities.
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Trait view
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A psychological perspective that views behavior and personality as the products of enduring psychological characteristics.
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Cognitive neuroscience
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An interdisciplinary field emphasizing brain activity as information processing; involves cognitive psychology, neurology, biology, computer science, linguistics, and specialists from other fields who are interested in the connection between mental processes and the brain.
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Psuedopsychology
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Erroneous assertions or practices set forth as being scientific psychology.
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Empirical approach
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A study conducted via careful observations and scientifically based research.
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Sociocultural view
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A psychological perspective emphasizing the importance of social interaction, social learning, and a culture perspective.
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Biological view
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The psychological perspective that searches for the causes of behavior in the functioning of genes, the brain and nervous system, and the endocrine (hormone) system.
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Behaviorism
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A historical school (as well as a modern perspective) that has sought to make psychology an objective science focused only on behavior--to the exclusion of mental processes.
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Psychoanalysis
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An approach to psychology based on Sigmund Freud's assertions, which emphasize unconscious processes. The term is used to refer broadly both to Freud's psychoanalytic theory and to his psychoanalytic treatment method.
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Culture
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A complex blend of language, beliefs, customs, values, and traditions developed by a group of people and shared with others in the same environment.
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Confirmation bias
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The tendency to attend to evidence that complements and confirms our beliefs or expectations, while ignoring evidence that does not.
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Clinical view
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The psychological perspective emphasizing mental health and mental illness. Psychodynamic and humanistic psychology are variations on the clinical view.
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