Psychology

Psychology studies the mind and behavior by turning questions into testable claims and checking them against observation. The most useful habit to build first is separating correlation (A measured relationship between two variables. On its own it does not show that one causes the other.) from cause, and asking what kind of study could tell them apart.

Common mix-up: “If two things go together, one caused the other.” Correlation alone doesn't show cause.

• Psychology 2e, ch. 1–2

  Shorter overview of what psychology is and how research works.

• Learning Statistics with R

  For when you want to run the numbers yourself. Some background helps.

Hypothesis

a tentative explanation proposed to answer a question.

Theory

a broad explanation supported by evidence over time.

Replication

running a study again to see whether the result holds.

Dunning Kruger Effect

Behavior has a biological side: neurons, brain areas that work together, and a nervous system that keeps changing with experience. The aim is to understand that link without reducing a person to one brain region.

Common mix-up: “Left-brained and right-brained people.” Some functions are specialized, but the hemispheres work together.

• Biological Psychology, revised edition

  Goes deeper once the basics are in place.

• Introduction to Biological Psychology

  An alternative, with research methods included.

Neuron

a basic cell of the nervous system.

Neuroplasticity

the nervous system's capacity to change and adapt.

Corpus callosum

the connection that lets the two hemispheres communicate.

Sensation is detecting what reaches the senses; perception is making sense of it. Keeping the two apart explains illusions, and why two people can experience the same scene differently.

• Psychology 2e, chapter 5

  The longer textbook chapter: the major senses and Gestalt principles.

• Noba: Vision

  Goes deeper on how the brain turns light into what we see.

• MIT 9.35 Perception

  Advanced. Assumes intro neuroscience.

Transduction

converting one form of energy (light, sound) into neural signals.

Absolute threshold

the weakest stimulus detected 50% of the time.

How experience changes behavior (conditioning), how memory works and fails (encoding, storage, retrieval), and how people reason and decide.

Common mix-up: “Memory is a recording.” Memories are rebuilt each time and can change.

• Noba: Memory (Encoding, Storage, Retrieval)

  The follow-on for memory, by researchers who study remembering.

• Noba: Attention

  How attention selects some things and ignores others.

• MIT 9.03 Neural Basis of Learning and Memory

  Advanced, older course (2007).

Classical conditioning

learning that one event predicts another (Pavlov).

Operant conditioning

learning from the consequences of behavior.

Working memory

holding and using information briefly.

Retrieval

getting information back when you need it.

How people change across the lifespan, how situations and other people shape behavior, and what stays stable in a person.

Common mix-up: “Behavior comes from personality or the situation.” It's both.

• Psychology 2e, Lifespan Development and Personality chapters

  The broad survey for both.

• MIT 9.85 Infant and Early Childhood Cognition

  How babies' and children's thinking is studied. Some background helps.

• MIT 9.70 Social Psychology

  Older course (2013). Pair it with what holds up.

Big Five

openness, conscientiousness, extraversion, agreeableness, neuroticism.

Social psychology

how people affect one another and how situations matter.

Cognitive DissonanceStanford Prison Experiment

Clinical psychology studies and treats psychological disorders. This page explains what that field is, but it doesn't diagnose or give treatment advice. Being unusual isn't the same as having a disorder; that judgment takes a qualified professional.