AP Psychology Unit 1: Psychology's History and Approaches Flashcards
How is psychology a science?
Psychology uses the tools of science to describe, explain, predict, and control behavior and mental processes
“The rat is always right”
Facts speak for themselves. Researchers have to accept the results of the study even if the hypothesis has been proven wrong.
Socrates and Plato
The mind is separable from the body and continues after the body dies. Knowledge is innate.
Aristotle
Knowledge comes from experience/observation and is not innate. We need information to learn
Greek philosophers
Aristotle, Plato, Socrates
René Descartes
Agreed with Socrates and Plato. Dissected animals and discovered that fluid in brain flows through nerves to muscles, causing movement
Francis Bacon
Father of modern science and empiricism
John Locke
We are a blank slate at birth and it is our experiences that define us (called tabula rasa)
Empiricism
The idea that knowledge is the result of experience and that scientific knowledge is developed through observation and experimentation.
Wilhelm Wundt
Established the first psychology lab and wanted to measure the fastest mental processes (“atoms of the mind”)
Physics (remember for test)
Edward Bradford Titchener
Used introspection to search for the mind’s structural elements (structuralism)
Structuralism
The early school promoted by Wundt and Titchener focused on identifying the elements of thought and mind (structures) the way early chemists developed the periodic table to classify elements.
Introspection
The process of looking inward to directly observe one’s own psychological processes.
Charles Darwin
Natural selection of physical and mental traits and adaptive evolution. Influenced William James
William James
Wrote “Principles of Psychology” and introduced functionalism
Functionalism
An early school of thought promoted by James and influenced by Darwin; explored how mental ad behavioral processes function - how they enable an organism to adapt, survive, and flourish
Mary Whiton Calkins
A student of William James who was denied her Ph.D. due to her gender. Memory researcher and the first female president of the APA
Margaret Floy Washburn
Student of Edward Titchener and the first female to earn a Ph.D. in psychology. Wrote “The Animal Mind.” The second female president of the APA
Behaviorists
John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner
Behaviorism
States that psychology should be an objective science. Observable behavior is important to study, not unseen mental processes. We can be conditioned (Baby Albert). Classical conditioning (reflexes) and operant conditioning (behavior)
Sigmund Freud
Founder of psychoanalysis (treatment process) and personality theory
Fruedian Psychology
Called psychoanalysis: Unconscious forces and childhood experiences affect our behavior and mental processes.
Humanists
Abraham Moslow and Carl Rogers
Humanism
States that humans strive to reach their full potential. Emphasizes unconditional love and personal growth. The “third force in psychology” that rejected behaviorism and psychoanalysis. Study of potential and personal growth.
Cognitive Psychology
The study of mental processes: Thinking, perceiving, learning, remembering, communicating, and solving problems.
Cognitive Neuroscience
The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language).
Psychology
Psychology is the scientific study of humans and other animals’ behavior and mental processes.
Behavior
Any observable and measurable action taken by a person or other animal (anything a person or animal DOES)
Mental processes
The internal, subjective experiences inferred from behavior (sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings.)
Nature-Nurture Issue
Is it genes or is it experience? Contemporary psychology recognizes the importance of both nature and nurture as well as how they interact
Nature
Behaviors and mental process occur because they are inborn or innate: Socrates, Plato, Rene Descartes, Charles Darwin
Nurture
Behaviors and mental processes occur as a result of experience or the environment: Aristotle, John Locke’s “blank slate”
Charles Darwin and Nature vs. Nurture
Argued for nature in his book “On the Origin of the Species”
Traits and behaviors that provide a survival or reproductive advantage are naturally selected
Evolutionary Psychology
The study of how behaviors and mental processes present in the species today exist because they were naturally selected
Behavior Genetics
The study of the relative influence and limits of genetic (nature) and environmental (nurture) influences on behaviors and mental processes
Twin studies
Identical (monozygotic) twins share 100% of the same genes
Fraternal (dizygotic) twins share 50% of the same genes
Twin studies provide evidence for the relative influence of nature and nurture and are used in behavior genetics