Margaret Floy Washburn was an important early psychologist who is notable for being Edward B. Titchener’s very first graduate student. Like other women psychologists of her time, she faced considerable discrimination in the pursuit of her studies and career, yet she managed to leave an important mark on the field as a respected teacher, writer,…
Christine Ladd-Franklin was a pioneering American woman psychologist and mathematician. Though she completed a dissertation at John Hopkins University, the school would not grant women doctorate degrees at that time. Among her accomplishments, she was known for developing her own theory of color vision. Christine Ladd-Franklin’s Early Life Christine Ladd was born in Connecticut on…
Do you enjoy psychoanalyzing the people around you? Does interpreting dreams sound like fun? Are you inspired by the work and theories of Sigmund Freud? Here is a tongue-in-cheek list of a few signs that you might be the next great psychoanalyst. (Disclosure: I am neither a psychoanalyst nor a comedian.) The Bottom Line Analyzing…
The bias blind spot is a cognitive bias that involves not being able to recognize your own biases. You probably realize that there are subtle cognitive biases that influence your perceptions and decisions. Yet, if you are like most people, you also tend to notice those biases more in other people than in yourself. This…
All of us make bad decisions from time to time. The judgments and choices you make each day, no matter how big or how small, are all influenced by a wide variety of biases, prejudices, emotions, errors, mental short-cuts, and oversimplifications. With so many factors, it is important to learn how to make better decisions….
There have been a lot of articles making the rounds on social media about how to tell if you are an extrovert or an introvert. A lot of these are fun and interesting, but to be honest I find many of them rife with cliches, stereotypes, and sweeping generalizations. Not All Extroverts and Introverts Are…
If you are learning all about Erik Erikson’s stages of development, it can be really helpful to have a psychosocial summary chart. We have a free, printable chart available that briefly summarizes each stage, the approximate ages at which each stage takes place, as well as the possible outcomes that can take place at each…
Both classical conditioning and operant are central to behaviorism, but students often get confused about the differences between the two. Classical and operant conditioning are both types of learning that involve learning by association. However, there are important differences between the two. The main difference between classical conditioning and operant conditioning is that classical conditioning…
Some of the most well-known psychologists in history have played a key role in shaping our understanding of the human mind and behavior. Many of them were also philosophers, educators, and therapists, contributing to multiple areas of study. Some introduced theories that are considered controversial, but their ideas have had a lasting influence on the…
Intrinsic motivation involves a driving force behind behavior that emerges from within rather than as a result of external reward. In other words, it is a type of motivation that involves doing things because you find them naturally satisfying or doing things for their own sake because you find them enjoyable. Intrinsic motivation is usually contrasted…
Structuralism, an early school of thought in psychology, aimed to decompose the human mind into its most basic components. By analyzing individual elements of consciousness, it sought to understand the structure of mental processes. Key Takeaways What Is Structuralism in Psychology? Structuralism is an early school of psychology founded by Wilhelm Wundt and popularized by…
Why do some people choose to give up their time, money, or even safety to help other people? According to the U.S. Department of Labor, 30% of adults in the United States spend some time volunteering to help others each year. According to many psychologists, it is compassion that drives people to reach out and…
A mindset is a set of beliefs about yourself that shape how you interpret and interact with the world around you. These belief systems not only impact your behavior but also influence your ability to reach your goals. These results support the previous findings of psychologist Carol Dweck. Dweck’s work suggests that praising children for…
Child development theories are focused on understanding and explaining how kids change throughout childhood. Some of these theories focus on the developmental milestones, or specific achievements children reach by a certain age. Others focus on aspects of child development, such as personality, cognition, and moral growth. Psychologists and development researchers have proposed several theories to…
Self-actualization involves reaching your full potential as an individual. Learn more about how you can become a more self-actualized person.
Cognitive psychology is defined as the study of internal mental processes. Such processes include thinking, decision-making, problem-solving, language, attention, and memory. The cognitive approach in psychology is often considered part of the larger field of cognitive science. This branch of psychology is also related to several other disciplines, including neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics. To define…
Random assignment means that every participant has the same chance of being chosen for the experimental or control group. It involves using procedures that rely on chance to assign participants to groups. Doing this means that every participant in a study has an equal opportunity to be assigned to any group. For example, in a…
All parents have their own approach to child-rearing, but psychologists have also identified distinctive parenting styles that can impact child development. Today, psychologists suggest that there are four major parenting styles: As you might imagine, these different parenting styles are marked by distinctive behavior and communication patterns. These parenting styles can play an important role…
In psychology, stimulus generalization refers to the tendency for a conditioned response to be elicited by stimuli similar to the original conditioned stimulus. This phenomenon occurs when an organism responds to new stimuli that are similar but not identical to the stimulus that was originally conditioned. Stimulus generalization occurs when an organism responds to a…
Acquisition in classical conditioning is the phase where a neutral stimulus starts triggering a response through repeated pairing with an unconditioned stimulus, marking the beginning of new learning. Key Takeaways What Is Acquisition in Classical Conditioning? Acquisition is the process in classical conditioning where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to trigger…
