1.2 A Brief History of Psychology

Question 1

A philosophical view known as empiricism was important to the development of what?

Answer 1

Scientific psychology

Question 2

What did philosophers John Locke, George Berkeley and David Hume challenge?

Answer 2

The claim that some knowledge is innate (present in an individual from birth).

Question 3

Empiricists argue that the world come to us through __________ and __________ and not through __________ or __________.

Answer 3

1. experience
2. observation
3. imagination
4. intuition

Question 3

At birth our minds are like a _________ __________

Answer 3

Blank slate (tabula rasa in Latin)

Question 4

What is the official birth date of modern psychology?

Answer 4

1879

Question 5

What is consciousness?

Answer 5

The awareness of external stimuli and our own mental activity

Question 6

Gustav Fechner discovered the relationship between changes in the _________ characteristics of stimuli and changes in our _________ __________ of them.

Answer 6

1. physical
2. psychological experience

Question 7

What was Gustav Fechner’s approach to sensation and perception called?

Answer 7

Psychophysics

Question 8

Wilherm Wundt studied sensory-perceptual systems. What was the focus of his work on ?

Answer 8

Consciousness

Question 9

What technique did Wilherm Wundt use to observe conscious experience?

Answer 9

introspection, which means looking forward

Question 10

What are the two essential elements of a sensation?

Answer 10

quality and intensity

Question 11

Wilherm Wundt’s research began psychology’s transformation from the _________ of mental processes to the __________ of mental processes.

Answer 11

1. philosophy
2. science

Question 12

What element of sensation did Edward Titchener add?

Answer 12

Clearness

Question 13

Edward Titchener tried to define the structure of consciousness. What did he call this approach?

Answer 13

Structuralism

Question 14

4 people

In 1912 who made up the Gestalt psychologists?

Answer 14

Wilherm Wundt, Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang Kohler

Question 15

What did the Gestalt psychologists point out?

Answer 15

That the whole shape of the conscious experience is not the same as the sum of its parts.

Question 16

Sigmund Freud developed his ideas into a body of work known as what?

Answer 16

psychoanalysis

Question 17

Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalysis included a theory about what?

Answer 17

Personality and mental disorders, as well as a set of treatment methods.

Question 18

Why are Sigmund Freund’s ideas not universally accepted?

Answer 18

They are based on a small number of medical cases rather than extensive laboratory experiments.

Question 19

William James wanted to understand how images, sensations, memories and other mental events make up our flowing what?

Answer 19

Stream of consciousness function to help us adapt to our environment.

Question 20

An approach to psychology called functionalism focuses on the role of consciousness in guiding people’s ability to do what?

Answer 20

Make decisions and solve problems

Question 21

What was John Watson’s approach called?

Answer 21

Behaviouism

Question 22

What was John Watson famous for?

Answer 22

The most important determinant of behaviour is learning, and it is through learning that animals and humans are able to adapt to their environment.

Question 23

Who were the early advocates for the school of structuralism?

Answer 23

Edward Titchener, trained by Wilhelm Wundt

Question 24

Who was the early advocate for the school of Gastalt?

Answer 24

Max Wertheimer

Question 25

Who was the early advocate for the school of psychanylysis?

Answer 25

Sigmund Freud

Question 26

Who was the early advocate for the school of Functionalism?

Answer 26

William James

Question 27

Who were the early advocates for the school of Behaviourism?

Answer 27

John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner

Question 28

Darwin’s theory of evolution has an especially strong influence on __________ and __________

Answer 28

functionalism and behaviourism

Question 29

Which school of psychological thought was founded by a European medical doctor?

Answer 29

Psychoanalysis by Sigmund Freund

Question 30

In the history of psychology __________ was the first school of thought to appear.

Answer 30

Structuralism (1879)

Question 31

Structuralism is to study what and how?

Answer 31

The conscious experience and its structure through experiments and introspections.

Question 32

Gastalt is to study what and how?

Answer 32

The organisation of mental processes: The whole is different from the sum of its parts. Through observation of sensory-perceptual phenomena.

Question 33

Psychoanalysis is to study what and how?

Answer 33

Personality and behaviour to develop techniques for treating mental disorders. Through studying of individual cases.

Question 34

Functionalism is to study what and how?

Answer 34

How the mind works in allowing an organism to adapt to the environment. Through naturalistic observation of animal and human behaviour.

Question 35

Behaviourism is to study what and how?

Answer 35

Only observable behaviour and explain behaviour through learning principles. By observation of the relationship between environmental stimuli and behavioural responses.