Ch.1 Flashcards
who is William James?
an experimental psychologist
one of the founders of the discipline of psychology.
influential book: The Principles of Psychology”
psychology
the study of behaviour + mental process
- the mind (invisible: perceptions, thoughts, feelings) and behaviours (visible: outward expressions/actions)
who most notably defend/embraces philosophical dualism?
Rene Decartes
= we are “a physical container of nonphysical things”
philosophical dualism
the stance that the mind and body are separate/different things.
the mind exists in a separate spiritual/metaphysical world
**favoured in religions
who most notably defend/embraces philosophical materialism?
Thomas Hobbes
philosophical materialism
the mind and body are inextricably related.
THE MIND IS WHAT THE BRAIN DOES
The physical object is the brain and it’s actions result in emotions, thoughts, sight, sound (the mind).
mental phenomena (thought, feelings, etc) are results of physical phenomena done by the brain
**favoured by psychologists
was john Locke an idealist or a realist?
realist
philosophical realism
perceptions of the world are produced only by the info from sensory organs
how we perceive the world is independent of our mind’s interpretation.
it is just known, not open for individual interpretation (is that right?)
philosophical idealism
our brain’s interpretation of sensory information results in how we perceive the world
is Immanuel Kant an idealist or realist?
idealist
does modern psychology favour idealism or realism?
idealism
philosophical empiricism
we learn through experience
- therefore, a baby is a blank slate
- john Locke favoured
philosophical nativism
we are born with some knowledge and gain more over time
- ie: space, time, causality and number
- Immanuel Kant favoured
do modern psychologists favour nativism or empiricism?
version of nativism
Hermann von Hemholtz
- calculated speed at which nerves transmit info
wilhem wundt
- published first psyc textbook
- taught first scientific/”experimental” psyc course
- opened first psyc lab
structuralism
understanding psychology by breaking down the mind into separate elements and analyzing each of them.
- studying parts of the brain to understand the mind
- approach Wundt used to understand the mind
introspection
the technique of examining and reporting one’s own present personal emotions and/or mental state
- raw experience> interpretation of it
who created introspection/ “systemic self-observation”
Edward Titchener.
- analyzing the reports of people’s introspection would allow him to uncover the mind’s building blocks of subjective experience
**buiding blocks/breaking down compenets = structuralism
problems with using introspection for research
- no way to know if the person’s description of their experience was accurate or similar/different to someone else’s
functionalism
Focuses on the utility/function/purpose of mental processes (the way we think).
- stated that our psychological function/characteristics have adapted over time.
- natural selection should have also shaped the mind
who developed the approach to psychology called functionalism?
William James, John Dewey, James Angell
natural selection
the process by which favourable traits (aid in an organism survival and reproduction) are passed down over generations
reaction time
the amount of time between the onset of a stimulus and a person’s response to that stimulus,
who and when did psychology start
150 years ago; some German scientists began wondering what scientific methods should be used to study the mind
problem with the structuralist approach?
the human brain and mind is too complex
- ie: stimulate a part of the brain and correlate that to change in cognition or behaviour = but can’t pin down where a specific function exists because the brain is so interconnected
hysteria
a loss of function without obvious physical origin/cause
what is the unconscious
a part of the mind that stores information people are not aware of/can consciously remember
what is the psychoanalytic theory and who developed it?
Sigmund Freud, in order to explain hysteria
a theory that emphasizes the influence of the unconscious on behaviour, thoughts and feelings
aka psychodynamic perspective
how did Freud view structuralism?
examing the surface of the mind, trying to interpret and understand the conscious, not the unconscious as well
what is psychoanalysis and who developed it?
Sigmund Freud
a form of therapy that aims to allow people to see the contents of their unconscious mind
what is behaviourism and who developed it?
John Watson
- behaviour is shaped by rewards and punishment (reinforcement)
- an approach to psychology that studies what people do rather than what they think/feel
- psychology should be the study between stimulus and response and NOTHING MORE
Skinner’s Box
a box that contained a lever that when pressed by the hungry rat, would deliver food through a tube. when the rate learned what the lever does (first by accident) then they would press the lever more often and frequently to get food (which Skinner then tracked)
- focuses on how animals ACT in their environment
developed by behaviourist Burrhus Fredrick Skinner
what did skinner conclude from his experiment (Skinner’s Box)?
established the principle of reinforcment: any behaviour that has been rewarded will be rewarded and any behaviour that isn’t won’t
gestalt psychology
an approach to psychology that emphasizes how the mind perceives experiences (as a whole rather than the sum of its parts)
the mind has theories about how the world works and uses these theories to understand interpret sensory data
developmental psychology
studies the way psychological phenomena/processes change (physically, cognitively, socially, and emotionally ) over time
social psychology
subfield of psychology
- studies the causes and consequences of interpersonal behaviour (how people interact; persuasion, stereotypes, etc)
- consider how immediate social contexts influence thoughts, feelings, and behaviours, independent of personality.
developed by Kurt Lewin
how does sociology differ from behaviourism
sociologists would consider behaviours not to be responses to stimuli, but how someone perceives the stimuli
the primary effect
a cognitive bias
the first piece of information someone is told is used by the mind to create a theory and interpret the later information (according to their theory/perception of the individual)
developed by Solomon Asch
cognitive psychology
the scientific study of mental processes
evolutionary psychology
- a new area of experimental psychology
- studies how the human mind was shaped/designed by natural selection and how that influences behaviours
- explains mind and behaviour in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time (or by evolution)
what are the phases of the human life cycle, as described by the developmental perspective, in chronological order
conception, birth, infancy, toddlerhood, childhood, adolescence, young adulthood, middle age, and old age
what are some things studied in cognitive psychology?
thought, perception, memory, reasoning, motion, motivation, language, learning, attention
Paul Broca
discovered ta\hat damage to a specific part of the brain impaired a specific mental function => meaning that the brain and mind are closely linked
cognitive neuroscience
studies the relationship between the brain and mind
behavioural neuroscience
studies the relationship between the brain and behaviour (especially in non-human animals)
cultural psychology
studies how culture is reflected in and shapes the psychological processes of its members
