Chapter 1 Flashcards
Applied psychology
The branch of psychology concerned with everyday, practical problems.
Behaviour
Any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism.
Behaviourism
A theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behaviour. Watson, Pavlov, Skinner.
Clinical psychology
The branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders.
Cognition
The mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.
Critical thinking
The use of cognitive skills and strategies that increase the probability of a desired outcome.
Culture
The widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations
Empiricism
The premise that knowledge should be acquired through observation.
Ethnocentrism
The tendency to view one’s own group as superior to others and as the standard for judging the worth of foreign ways
Evolutionary psychology
Theoretical perspective that examines behavioural processes in terms of their adaptive value for a species over the course of many generations. Buss, Daly, Wilson, Cosmides, Tooby.
Functionalism
A school of psychology based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure.
Humanism
A theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth. Rogers, Maslow.
Introspection
Careful, systematic observation of one’s own conscious experience.
Natural selection
Principle stating that heritable characteristics that provide a survival reproductive advantage are more likely than alternative characteristics to be passed on to subsequent generations and thus come to be “selected” over time.
Psychiatry
A branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders.
Psychoanalytic theory
A theory developed by Freud that attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behaviour. Freud, Jung, Adler
Psychology
The science that studies behaviour and the physiological and cognitive processes that underlie it, and the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems.
SQ3R
A study system designed to promote effective reading by means of five steps: survey, question, read, recite, and review.
Stimulus
Any detectable input from the environment.
Structuralism
A school of psychology based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and to investigate how these elements are related.
Testwiseness
The ability to use the characteristics and format of a cognitive test to maximize one’s score.
Theory
A system of interrelated ideas that is used to explain a set of observations.
Unconscious
According to Freud, thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behaviour.
Sigmund Freud
psychoanalytic theory - emphasized unconcious determinants of behavior and the importance of sexuality. Controversial, and met with resistance.
G. Stanley Hall
studied briefly with Wundt, contributed to rapid growth of psychology in America. Established first research lab at John’s Hopkins in 1183. First journal and driving force behind APA.
Donald Hebb
Canadian, highlighted physiological and neurological perspectives. Paved the way for recent cognitive revolution, neural networks, cell assemblies. ‘ Organization of Behaviour: A Neuropsychological Theory’
William James
‘It is just free water of consciousness that psychologists overlook’… FUNCTIONALISM. ‘Principles of Psychology’. Based on Darwin, psychology should investigate the functions rather than the structure of consciousness - flow of thoughts, ‘stream of consciousness’.
WOMEN
Mary Washburn - first PhD
Leta Hollingworth - women not inferior to men
Mary Whiton Calkins - first APA president
Mary Salter Ainsworth - attachment/dev psyc
Mary Wright - first CPA president
Doreen Kimura - neuromotor mech. and sex differences in cognition
Brenda Milner
one of founders of neuropsychology, understanding memory.
Carl Rogers
HUMANISM - with Abraham Maslow, argues that human behaviour is governed primarily by each individual’s sense of self, of self-concept (fundamental drive towards human growth).
B.F. Skinner
‘free will is an illusion’. BEHAVIORISM. Environmental factors mold behavior. Organisms tend to repeat responses that lead to positive outcomes, and not to repeat responses that lead to neutral or negative ones. ‘Beyond Freedom and Dignity’.
John B. Watson
wanted to abandon study of consciousness altogether and focus on behaviors that could be observed directly - ‘scientific approach’. Each is made, not born (nature vs. nurture). Stimulus-Response behavioural approach.
Willhelm Wundt
made psychology an independent discipline - established first lab at Leipzig (1879). Primary focus was consciousness - awareness of immediate experience.
Cognitive Perspective
human behaviour cannot be understood without examining how people acquire, store and process information. Chomsky, Piaget, Simon
Biological Perspective
organisms functioning can be explained in terms of the bodily structures and biochemical processes that underlie behaviour. Olds, Sperry, Hubel, Wiesel.
Professional Specialties
Clinical - evaluation, diagnosis, treatment
Counselling - family, marital, career
Education and School
Industrial/Org
Research Areas
Developmental - human dev across lifespan
Social - social forces governing behaviour (attitude formation, change, prejudice, etc)
Experimental - sensation, perception, learning, conditioning, motivation, emotion
Physiological - genetic factors on behaviour and roles of CNS and endocrine.
Cognitive - higher mental processes
Personality - consistency in behaviour
Psychometrics - measurement of behavior and capabilities.
THEMES
- P is EMPIRICAL (obs made through research)
- P is THEORETICALY DIVERSE (variety of perspectives needed)
- P evolves in sociohistorical content
- B is determined by mult. causes
- B is shaped by cultural heritage
- Heredity and environment jointly influence B
- People’s experience of the world is highly subjective.
