Chapitre 1

Question 1

Behavior

Answer 1

Activity of an organism that can be observed or somewhat measured.
Activity could be internal or external and may or may not be visible to others.

Question 2

Learning

Answer 2

Relatively permanent change in behavior that results from some type of experience.
The change in behavior does not have to be immediate, and the change might not become evident until long after the experience occured.

Question 3

Classical conditioning

Answer 3

Process by which a certain inborn behavior come to be elicited in new circumstances.
Behavior involved is reflexive or invonlutary.
Emotional responses which contributes to the development of our likes and dislikes.

Question 4

Operant conditioning

Answer 4

Streightening or weakening of a behavior as a result of its consequences. Behaviors involved are often those that are goal-directed or voluntary

Question 5

Observational learning

Answer 5

Act of observing someone else’s behavior facilitates the occurence of similar behavior in oneself

Question 6

Plato and Aristotle

Answer 6

Nativist (nature) vs Empiricist (nurture)
Nativist: abilities and tendencies are largely inborn
Empiricist : assumes that the person’s abilities and tendencies are mostly learned

Question 7

Laws of association: Law of similarity

Answer 7

Events that are similar to each other are readily associated with each other. Similar in appearance, function, etc.

Question 8

Laws of association: Law of contrast

Answer 8

Events that are opposite from each other are readily associated.

Question 9

Laws of association: Law of contiguity

Answer 9

Events that occure in close proximity to each other are readily associated.

Question 10

Laws of association: Law of frequency

Answer 10

The more frequently two items occur together, the more strongly they are associated.

Question 11

Descartes and mind-body dualism

Answer 11

Mind-Body dualism: Body that functions like a machine and produces involuntary, reflexive behaviors in response to external stimulation. Mind that has free will and produces behaviors that we regard as voluntary.

Important to science, because it suggested that at least some behaviors (namely, reflexive behaviors) are mechanistic and could therefore be scientifically investigated.

Question 12

British empricists

Answer 12

All knowledge is a function of experience.

John Locke, proposed that a newborn’s mind is a blank mind (tabula rasa) upon which environmental experiences are written

A conscious mind is composed of a finite set of basic elements that are combined through the principles of association into complexe sensations and thought patterns

Question 13

Structuralism

Answer 13

Problem: No experiment were conducted to test the notions that the mind is composed of basic elements; the conclusion were based upon logical reasoning and the subjective examination of their own conscious experience.

Solution: Using scientific methods to investigate the issues. Structuralism assumes that it is possible to determine the structure of the mind by identifying the basic elements that compose it.

Question 14

Structuralism: Introspection

Answer 14

The subject in an experiment attempts to accurately describe his conscious thoughts, emotions and sensations.

Downside: Difficult to execute

What it brought to psychology: the emphasis on systematic observation helped establish psychology as a scientific discipline.

Question 15

Functionalism

Answer 15

Assumes that the mind evolved to help us adapt to the world around us and that the focus of psychology should be the study of those adaptive processes. Derived from Darwin’s theory of evolution: adaptive characteristics that enable a species to survive and reproduce tend to increase the frequency across generations

Question 16

Functionalism part 2

Answer 16

Study the adaptive significance of the mind. Learning as an adaptive process. Use of introspection, but emphasized the analysis of conscious experience.

Question 17

Darwin

Answer 17

Species change across generations in response to environmental pressures. Nartural selection is the concept that individuals or species that are capable of adapting to environmental pressures are more likely to reproduce and pass along their adaptive characteristics than those that cannot adapt.

Question 18

Three main components to natural selection

Answer 18

Traits vary, both within a species and between species.

Many traits are heritable.

Organisms must compete for limited ressources

Question 19

Evolutionary adaptation

Answer 19

Adaptive trait that evolves as a result of natural selection

Question 20

Learning as an evolutionary adaptation

Answer 20

The ability to learn evolved because it conferred significant survival advantages on those who had this ability. Thus, the distinction between nature and nurture can be seen as highly simplistic, since the ability to learn (nurture) is itself inherited (nature).