1. Introduction Flashcards
Which psychologist was responsible for the structuralism theory?
Edward Titchener
Who was responsible for the functionalism theory?
William James
Who was responsible for the psychodynamic theory?
Sigmund Freud
Which model is the humanistic theory based off?
Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
What were the two first theories of psychology?
Structuralism and functionalism
Who was responsible for the behaviourist perspective?
John b Watson
Within the behaviourist perspective, what are the two forms of conditioning? And who was responsible for each of them?
Classical conditioning = Pavlov
Operant conditioning = BF Skinner
What is the definition of psychology?
The scientific investigation of mental processes (thinking, remembering and feeling), behaviour and the interaction between then
Who designed the first psychological laboratory and in what year?
Wilhelm Wundt 1879
What are the three premises of the psychodynamic perspective?
- behaviour is an interplay between thoughts, feelings and wishes.
- Some mental events are unconscious
- Mental processes can conflict and cause anxiety
What are the stages designed by Freud that include the anal, genital and oral stages?
Psychosexual stages
What was the belief surrounding structuralism?
The task of psychology was to analyse the consciousness into its basic elements (e.g. Sensations related to vision and hearing) and investigate how these are related
What was the belief surrounding the functionalism perspective?
Believed that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness rather than it’s structure
Which theorist did functionalism borrow from?
Darwinism - consciousness can be liked to evolutionary psychology
What was the belief surrounding the psychodynamic perspective?
The unconscious contains thoughts, memories and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but exert a significant influence on behaviour.
Behaviourism was the belief that…?
Scientific psychology should study only observable behaviour and that behaviour refers to any overt response it activity. The behaviour of humans and animals can be understood without reference to internal states such as thoughts or feelings. The aim was to seek to understand the relationship between stimuli and behaviour through the experimental method
What was the little Albert experiment and who ran it?
John Watson ran an experiment on a boy and made loud noises when the boy was exposed to a rat. The boy then became scared of the rat and anything else that was fluffy
What is radical behaviourism? And who was responsible for it?
B.F Skinner
Returned the strict focus on observable behaviour established by Watson.
Organisms tend to repeat responses that lead to a positive outcome and tent not to repeat responses that lead to negative outcomes
What is humanism?
Takes an optimistic view of human nature.
Emphasise the unique qualities of humans (so swing away from animal experiments)
People are innately good and so will almost always choose adaptive self actualising behaviours
What was the humanistic perspective?
Focuses on the uniqueness of the individual and that people are motivated to reach their full potential (self-acquisition)
This is person cantered
Who was responsible for the humanistic perspective?
Abraham Maslow and Carl rogers
What is cognition n?
Thought
What is the Cognitive perspective?
Behaviours cannot be understood without understanding how we acquire, store and process information.
Focuses on the way people perceive, process and retrieve information
WhAt method does the cognitive perspective apply and what does it study?
The scientific method to study internal mental events
What is the evolutionary perspective?
Human behaviours evolve because they helped out ancestors survive and reproduce. Some behaviours are biologically determined (impulse to eat and sexual impulses). Therefore personality traits are genetic
What debate does the evolutionary perspective rise?
Nature - nurture debate
