CH1 Flashcards
Psychology Is a Science (part 1)
- Psychology
- Employs empirical approach
- Attempts to explore and understand without misleading or
being mislead - Requires a scientific attitude: curiosity, skepticism, and humility
Psychology Is a Science (part 2)
*Critical thinking
* Examines assumptions
* Appraises the source
* Discerns hidden biases
* Evaluates evidence
* Assesses conclusions
Psychological Science
Is Born (part 1)
- Psychology’s first laboratory (1879)
- Wundt:
- Sought to measure “atoms of the mind”
- Psychology’s first schools of thought
- Titchener:
- Structuralism
- Technique of introspection
Psychological Science
Is Born (part 2)
- Psychology’s first schools of thought
- James (influenced by Darwin):
- Functionalism
- Adaptive thinking and stream of
consciousness - Principles of Psychology (1890)
Psychological Science Is Born (part 3)
- Psychology’s first women
- Calkins:
- Pioneering memory researcher
- First female APA president
- Washburn:
- First woman to receive a Ph.D.
- Synthesized animal behavior; The Animal Mind (1908
Psychology’s Increasing
Diversity
a. 1964 meeting of the
Society of Experimental
Psychologists
b. Women are now 61% of
APS members, including
75% of its psychology
student affiliates
Psychological Science
Matures (part 1)
- Major forces from the 1920s to the 1960s
- Behaviorism
- Introspection and psychology now viewed as scientific study
- Behavior scientifically defined, conditioned, observed, and
measured - Watson, Rayner, Skinner: Championed scientific study of behavior;
fear can be learned
Psychological Science
Matures (part 2)
- Major forces from the 1920s to the 1960s
- Freudian (psychoanalytic) psychology
- Emphasized ways that the unconscious mind and childhood
experiences affect behavior - Personality theorist and psychiatrist
Psychological Science
Matures (part 3)
- Major forces from the 1960s
- Humanistic psychology
- Found behaviorism and Freudian psychology too limiting
- Emphasized human growth potential
- Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow: Focus on need for
love, acceptance, and an environment that nurtures or
limits personal growth
Contemporary Psychology
*Psychology:
*Science of behavior and
mental processes
*Roots in many disciplines
and countries
*Growing and globalize
Contemporary
Psychology (part 2)
- The cognitive revolution begins in the 1960s (simultaneous with
humanistic psychology). - Cognitive psychology: Study of mental processes, such as those that
occur when we perceive, learn, remember, think, communicate, and
solve problems - Cognitive neuroscience: Interdisciplinary study of the brain activity
linked with cognition, including perception, thinking, memory, and
language
Contemporary Psychology (part 3)
- Evolutionary psychology
- Study of the evolution of behavior and the mind, using natural
selection principles - Nature–nurture issue
- Natural selection
- Behavior genetics
- Study of relative power and limits of genetic and
environmental influences on behavior
Contemporary
Psychology (part 4)
- Cross-cultural and gender
psychology - Culture: Shared ideas and
behaviors passed from one
generation to the next; shapes
behaviors - Gender identity: Sense of being
male, female, neither, or some
combination of male and female - Socially and biologically defined
Contemporary
Psychology (part 5)
- Positive psychology
- Centers on happiness as by-product of a
pleasant, engaged, and meaningful life - Uses scientific methods to support development
of a good life - Seligman and others: Focus research on
human flourishing
Biopsychosocial approach integrates 3 levels of analysis:
Biological
social-cultural
psychological
