1 Central Problem of Psychology Flashcards
What are Aristotle’s 4 causes?
Material CauseFormal Cause (mathematical, parts and their interactions)Efficient (proximal) Cause (events in sequence, Behavioural approach)Final (distal) Cause (function of system and psychological phenomena)
The material cause: “that out of which”, e.g., the bronze of a statue.
The formal cause: “the form”, “the account of what-it-is-to-be”, e.g., the shape of a statue.
The efficient cause: “the primary source of the change or rest”, e.g., the artisan, the art of bronze-casting the statue, the man who gives advice, the father of the child.
The final cause: “the end, that for the sake of which a thing is done”, e.g., health is the end of walking, losing weight, purging, drugs, and surgical tools.
What is materialism?
Psychological phenomena = CNSTherefore, measuring CNS is a good way to measure mental states, and manipulating CNS would manipulate mental states
What is objectivism?
A rejection of introspection. Psychology should focus on physical stimuli and overt behaviour, as opposed to mental states, which cannot be measured.
What is the central problem in psychology?
Measurability of psychological phenomena
What is behaviourism?
The study of psychology based on observable behaviours. Behaviour can be predicted and controlled from understanding or manipulating discriminative stimuli and consequences of behaviour.
What is psychophysics?
Investigates the relationship between physical stimuli and the perceptions they affect. Involves measuring detection and discrimination thresholds of conscious perception.BUT: poor relationship between nervous activity and perception, as well as physical stimuli and perception.
What is an operant?
The response ‘emitted’, controlled by consequences.
What is the different between Classical Conditioning and Instrumental-Operant Conditioning?
CC: stimulus learning (S-S* learning)Thondike/Pavlov - response is elicited, non-voluntary, controlled by antecedents.IC: response learning (S*-R learning)Skinner - response is emitted, voluntary, controlled by consequences.
