Psychology 2035A/B Study Guide - Comprehensive Final Exam Guide - Anxiety, Arousal, Narcissism

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 2035A/B
• Professor: Matthew Maxwell-Smith

Document Summary

Psychology: the science studying human behaviour, physiological and mental processes that underlie it: psychologists apply this accumulated knowledge to practical problems. Adjustment: the psychological processes through which people manage or cope with the demands and challenges of everyday life. How does our "search for meaning" impact our psychological health and our behaviour towards others: does having incoherent self-identity negatively impact our self-esteem or make us more susceptible. Empiricism: knowledge acquired through careful observation and testing rather than speculation. Hindsight bias: tendency to exaggerate one"s ability to have foreseen how something turned out. Variable: symbol/concept that can assume any one of a set of values. Naturalistic observation: careful observation of behaviour without directly intervening. Case studies: in-depth investigation of an individual participant. Experiment: investigators manipulate one (independent/predictor) variable under carefully controlled conditions and observe what changes occur in a second (dependent/outcome) variable. Inferences must be made about mental processes that cannot be directly observed.