Chap 1 Flashcards
Psychological science is the study of:
o Mind (mental activity = perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings) o Brain (mental activity results from biological processes within the brain) o Behavior (observable actions)
nature vs. nurture debate has a long history
o Began with ancient Greek philosophers
o Consists of this question – are psychological characteristics innate (nature) or acquired through experience (nurture)?
mind body problem also has ancient roots (what is the quesiton, and who answered it?)
o Consists of this question – are mind and body separate, or is the mind the physical brain’s subjective experience?
o For Descartes, this question is answered by dualism (mind and body are separate but intertwined)
Who is the father of experimental psych? When did he have lab and where?
o Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory (in Germany, in 1879)
Who created introspection?
Wundt
What concept did Wundt come up with and what did it influence? Who was his student?
Introspection - systematic expression of subjective mental experiences, led to structuralism, student was Titchener
Structuralism
based on the concept that conscious experience can be broken down into basic components (influenced by introspection)
Functionalism (def, influenced by what?)
study how the mind functions to adapt organisms to their environment. - addressed the purpose of behavior,
o Evolutionary theory (natural selection, adaptive value of mental activity and behavior) was a major influence on functionalism
stream of consciousness
each person’s continuous series of ever-changing thoughts
adaptation
evolutionary process through which organisms become better able to live in their environment
Gestalt Psychology (def, how it came to be, influenced by what?)
emphasized patterns and context in learning; o Arose in opposition to structuralism
o Says the whole of personal experience is more than the sum of perceptions (constituent elements)
o Influenced many areas of psychology, including vision and personality
Women have shaped the field - what barriers did they face?
o Despite sexism, and other barriers (Calkins was denied her doctorate from Harvard because president did not believe in coeducation, societal forces - other women were basically confined to developmental and school psychology, but not other areas)
Sigmund Freud (what did he find and develop?)
emphasized the power of the unconscious; o Was a neurologist and found that patients had physical symptoms caused by psychological factors
o Proposed that much of human behavior is determined by unconscious mental processes
o Developed psychoanalysis (A method developed by Sigmund Freud that attempts to bring the contents of the unconscious into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed), as an early psychotherapy
behaviorism (what it studies, pioneered by whom, focuses on what?)
studied environmental factors;
o Emphasizes environmental forces in producing behavior
o Pioneered by John B. Watson and further developed by B.F. Skinner
o Focuses on changing and modifying behaviors
social psychology
o Social psychology focuses on situations and how interactions shape people
