CH 1

Question 1

Define Psychology.

Answer 1

The scientific study of behaviour (observable actions and responses) and mind (internal states or processes such as thoughts and feelings, that can be inferred not observed from observable measurable responses)

Question 2

What is Empirical Evidence?

Answer 2

Evidence gained through experience and observation, including results from manipulating things and observing the outcome (experimentation)

Question 3

Why do scientific studies need to be systematic?

Answer 3

Scientific observations must be performed according to a system of rules or conditions as to be as objective and precise as possible.

Question 4

What are some pitfalls of everyday approaches to understanding human behaviour?

Answer 4

Our sources can promote misconceptions. Via conversation, books, internet, and other media, people may provide us with believable but inaccurate information. Without a systematic scientific approach, we may not realize our experiences could be atypical and not representative of the general population.

Question 5

What is Critical Thinking?

Answer 5

Critical thinking involves taking an active role in understanding the world around you rather than absorbing information without question, reflecting on what information means, how it fits with your experience, and on its practical implications for life and society.

Question 6

Someone makes a claim or asserts a new “fact”. What (scientific) questions should you ask yourself?

Answer 6

What exactly is the claim or assertion?
Who is making the claim? Is the source credible and trustworthy?
What’s the evidence and how strong?
Are other explanations possible? Can I evaluate them?
What is the most appropriate conclusion?

Question 7

What are the four central goals of psychology?

Answer 7

1. To DESCRIBE how people and animals behave.
2. To EXPLAIN and UNDERSTAND the causes of these behaviours.
3. To PREDICT behaviour under certain conditions.
4. To INFLUENCE or CONTROL behaviour through knowledge and control of its causes, in order to enhance human welfare.

Question 8

Compare the goals of Basic and Applied research?

Answer 8

Basic Research pursues knowledge for its own sake. In psychology, it’s goals are to describe how people behave and to identify the factors that influence or cause a particular type of behaviour.
Applied Research is designed to solve specific practical problems, often using principles discovered through BR.

Question 9

What are the levels of analysis?

Answer 9

Biological level
Psychological level
Environmental level

Question 10

What are mind-body interactions?

Answer 10

The relations between mental processes in the brain and the functioning of other bodily systems. They focus our attention on the interplay between psychological and biological levels of analysis.

Question 11

What is the position of mind-body dualism?

Answer 11

The belief that the mind is a spiritual entity, not subject to physical laws that govern the body. No amount of research on the physical body/brain could ever unravel the mysteries of the non-physical mind.

Question 12

What is the position of mind-body monism?

Answer 12

The mind and body are one; the mind is not a separate spiritual entity. Mental events, correspond to physical events in the brain.

Question 13

In 1879 who established the first experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany?

Answer 13

Wilhelm Wundt. There he trained the first generation of scientific psychologists.

Question 14

What is structuralism?

Answer 14

The analysis of the mind in terms of its basic elements. They use the method of “introspection” to study sensations.

Question 15

What are the beliefs of the school of functionalism?

Answer 15

Psychology should study the functions of consciousness rather than its structure. Influenced by Darwins evolutionary theory, stressing the importance of adaptation to survival and reproduction.

Question 16

What causal factors are the focus of the psychodynamic perspective?

Answer 16

Behaviours are the result of unconscious psychological conflicts between (1) powerful and unacceptable innate sexual/aggressive inclinations, which are then repressed and become traumas, and 2) the defence mechanisms developed to cope and fight the impulses.

Question 17

Describe the modern psychodynamic theories.

Answer 17

Explores how unconscious and conscious aspects of personality influence behaviour, with less emphasis on sexual and aggressive motives, but more on how early relationships with family members and other caregivers shape peoples views of themselves and others.

Question 18

What is the focus of the behavioural perspective?

Answer 18

The role of the external environment on governing or actions. Our behaviour is determined both by habits learned from previous life experiences, and by stimuli in our immediate environment.

Question 19

Who led the behaviourism movement?

Answer 19

John B Watson, opposing mentalism, emphasizing environmental control of behaviour through learning. Proper subject matter of psychology was observable behaviour not unobservable consciousness.

Question 20

Who said “no account of what is happening inside the human body no matter how complete will explain the origins of human behavior”?

Answer 20

B. F. Skinner believed that the real causes of behaviour reside in the outside world “a person does not act upon the world, the world acts upon him”. Lab studies examined how behaviour is influenced the rewarding and punishing consequences that it produced.

Question 21

What is the view of cognitive behaviorism?

Answer 21

Learning experiences and the environment affect our behaviour by giving us the information we need to behave effectively.

Question 22

What is the humanistic perspective?

Answer 22

Emphasizes free will, personal growth the attempt to find meaning in one’s existence. Each of us has an inborn force towards self actualization, the reaching of one’s individual potential.

When humans develop in a supportive environment, the positive inner nature of a person emerges. Misery and pathology occur when environments frustrate our innate tendency towards self actualization.

Question 23

What is human nature by the cognitive perspective?

Answer 23

This perspective examines the nature of the mind, and how mental processes influence behaviour. Humans are information processors, whose actions are governed by thought.

Question 24

What is gestalt psychology?

Answer 24

Examines how the mind organizes elements of experience into a unified or “whole” perception. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”

Question 25

What metaphor developed in the 1950s when interest in studying cognitive processes increased from psychologist involvement in World War II info displays, and the infancy of computer technology?

Answer 25

The mind as a system that processes, stores, and retrieve information.

Question 26

What are the goals of cognitive neuroscience?

Answer 26

Seeks to determine how the brain goes about its business of learning language, acquiring knowledge, forming memories and performing other cognitive abilities, using sophisticated electrical, recording and brain imaging techniques to examine brain activity will people engage in cognitive tasks.

Intersection of cognitive psychology, and the biological.

Question 27

What are causes of behaviour from the sociocultural perspective?

Answer 27

Social environment and cultural learning influence, our behavior, thoughts and feelings. Humans are social creatures. Within a culture, each of us encounters ever-changing social settings that affect our actions, values, sense of identity, and our conception of reality.

Question 28

What is culture?

Answer 28

Refers to the enduring values, beliefs, behaviours and traditions that are shared by a large group of people and passed on from one generation to the next.

Question 29

What are norms?

Answer 29

Unwritten rules, that specify what behaviour is acceptable, and expected for members of a cultural group, such as how to dress how to respond to people of higher status, or how to act as a woman or man.

New generations must internalize norms and values for culture to endure: process of socialization.

Question 30

What is the goal of cultural psychology?

Answer 30

Explores how culture is transmitted to its members and examines psychological similarities and differences among people from diverse cultures.

Question 31

Contrast individualistic and collectivistic societies.

Answer 31

Individualism is an emphasis on personal goals and self identity based primarily on one’s own attributes and achievements. In Collectivism individual goals are subordinated to those of the group and personal identity is defined largely by the ties that bind one to the extended family and other social groups.

Question 32

What is the biological perspective?

Answer 32

Examines how brain processes and other bodily functions regulate behaviour.

Question 33

What is behavioural neuroscience?

Answer 33

Examines, brain processes and other physiological functions that underlie our behaviour, sensory experiences, emotions and thoughts.

Question 34

What three classes of causal factors does the biological respective focus on?

Answer 34

Brain regions, neural circuits, and bodily chemicals.

Question 35

What studies were done by biological psychologists that helped map out brain regions and their associated functions?

Answer 35

American Karl Lashley trained rats to run mazes and measured how damage to various brain areas affected learning and memory.
Montreal James Olds and Peter Milner discovered pleasure centres in the brains of animals.
W.B. Scoville and Brenda Milner found damaged human brain areas associated with severe memory loss via the patient H.M. with epilepsy.
Canadian Donald O Hebb proposed the theory (changes in connections between neural cell provide the biological basis for learning, memory, and perception) that lead to discovering neurotransmitters.

Question 36

What is behaviour genetics?

Answer 36

The study of how behavioural tendencies are influenced by genetic factors. Animals can be selectively bred for physical and behavioural traits. (E.g. Siamese fighting fish)

Question 37

What do studies of identical, twins reveal about behavioural genetics?

Answer 37

Identical human twins are more similar to each other on many behavioural traits than are fraternal twins, even if reared in dissimilar environments.

Question 38

What is natural selection?

Answer 38

Darwins theory that inherited advantageous traits increase the likelihood of survival and reproduction, therefore species evolve as the presence of these traits increase within the population over generations.