C1 - Study of Mental Processes Flashcards
What are the boundaries and borders of psychology?
Biopsychology - examines the physical basis of psychological phenomena such as motivation, emotion, and stress
Cross-cultural psychology - tries to distinguish universal psychological processes from those that are specific to particular cultures
Difference between free-will and determinism
Free-will: we are able to freely choose our actions
Determinism: our actions are determined by things outside of our control
Who is Sigmund Freud?
He is a Viennese physician, who developed a theory of mental life and behavior and an approach to treating psychological disorder known as psychoanalysis
Who is Wilhem Wundt?
A German scientist who used the method of introspection to uncover the basic of consciousness
Who is William James?
An American psychologist who proposed functionalism. He emphasized the role or function of psychological processes in helping individuals adapt to their environment
What is Functionalism?
Functionalism argued that consciousness is functional and serves a purpose
Who is Edward Titchener?
He initiated the school of thought known as structuralism
What is Structuralism?
It suggests that the goal of psychology is to study the structure of the mind and consciousness,
What are the 5 Different Perspectives in Psychology? (School of Thoughts)
- Psychodynamic perspectives
- Behaviorist perspectives
- Humanistic perspectives
- Cognitive perspectives
- Evolutionary perspectives
Explain Psychodynamic Perspectives
Our thoughts and behaviour are driven by conscious forces, unconscious forces, and the interaction between conscious and unconscious forces.
Some mental events are unconscious
What are the 3 structures that determine what we do? Describe each of them.
ID: reflects your instincts “This is what I want now”
Ego: realistic - mediate between the desires of the ID and the constraints imposed by the super-ego
Super-ego: reflects your moral conscience - receives information about societal norms, law, etc. to form an understanding of what you can or cannot do
What are the strengths of Psychodynamic Theory?
- Freud ‘rehumanised’ the distressed, making their sufferings more comprehensible to the rest of the society
- Many people with psychological disturbances do recollect childhood traumas
What are the weaknesses of Psychodynamic Theory?
- It is criticized by non-empirical approach, violation of falsifiability criteria and use of unreliable measures
- Psychoanalysis depends on the therapist’s subjective interpretation
- falsifiability: the capacity for a statement, theory, or hypothesis to be contradicted by evidence
What is Behaviorist Perspective?
The behaviorist view is that environmental stimuli control behavior through learning.
Individuals will be conditioned to a certain behaviors without the need to understand the reason behind it
Describe Classical Conditioning
A type of learning in which one learns to link two/more stimuli and anticipate event
