A set of theoretical ideas that are used to frame psychological explanations and research.
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Introspection
Examining your own sensations, thoughts and feelings.
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Structuralism
An early approach in psychology that used introspection to try to identify the basic mental structures underpinning conscious experience.
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Functionalism
An early approach in psychology that focused on understanding mental states and behaviour in terms of the function that they serve ( e.g. how they help humans adapt to their environment ).
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Psychodynamic approach
An approach that seeks to understand the unconscious motives underlying human behaviour.
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Behaviourist approach
An approach in psychology which argues that only observable behaviour should form the object of study.
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Classical conditioning
The process by which a stimulus ( e.g. a bell ) acquires the capacity to trigger a response ( e.g. salivation ) by virtue of its repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus ( e.g. food ).
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Positive reinforcement
Something that is received as a consequence of a particular behaviour, which increases the frequency of that behaviour.
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Operant conditioning
A form of conditioning in which the outcome depends upon the action of the animal, such as obtaining food by turning a latch or negotiating a maze.
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Cognitive psychology
The study of internal mental processes such as perception, attention, memory, thinking and learning.
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Cognitive neuropsychology
A subdivision of cognitive psychology that studies how brain injury affects mental processes and uses this as evidence to develop and test models of typical cognitive processes.
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Cognitive Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience is a combination of cognitive psychology and neuroscience. This subdiscipline explores how the structure and activity of the brain influences cognitive processes.
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Biological psychology
An approach in psychology which seeks to understand and explain behaviour in terms of biological, physiological and evolutionary influences.
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Social constructionism
A broad framework that explores how human knowledge and meaning-making is built through jointly constructed understandings of our world.
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Theory
A set of propositions about a phenomenon which forms the basis of an explanation.
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Qualitative data
Descriptive data which consists of observations which cannot be easily counted, measured or expressed in numerical form.
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Quantitative data
Data which can be measured, counted expressed in numerical terms for examples scores, ratings and percentages.
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Mixed method studies
A mixed methods study combines quantitative and qualitative analysis in a single study.
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Other cards in this set
Card 2
Front
Examining your own sensations, thoughts and feelings.
Back
Introspection
Card 3
Front
An early approach in psychology that used introspection to try to identify the basic mental structures underpinning conscious experience.
Back
Card 4
Front
An early approach in psychology that focused on understanding mental states and behaviour in terms of the function that they serve ( e.g. how they help humans adapt to their environment ).
Back
Card 5
Front
An approach that seeks to understand the unconscious motives underlying human behaviour.
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