Chapter 1 Flashcards
Psychology is the study of
mental processes and behaviour
What are mental processes?
activities of our brain when engaged in thinking, observing the environment and using language
What is behaviour?
observable activities of an organism
what are the four goals of psychology?
description, explanation, prediction, control
when studying why a certain behaviour or mental process occurs, one can study the influences of:
the brain, the individual and the group
What is analyzed in the brain?
how brain structure and brain activity differ from person to person and situation to situation
What is analyzed in the person
How the content of the individual’s mental processes form and influence behaviour
What is analyzed in the group?
how behaviour is shaped by the social and cultural environments
Philosophy is the study of
knowledge and the reality
How did philosophy lead to modern day scientific theory?
philosophers posed questions and then discussed proposed solutions
who used direct observation to test his theory of medicine?
hippocrates
Hippocrates developed one of the first psychological theories:
physical and psychological health are influenced by the four humours: blood, phlegm, yellow bile and black bile. This identified a persons character and he identified the brain as organ of mental life
socrates believed truth lies in mind and is
highly dependent upon subjective states
plato believed certain areas are…
pure and represent an ultimate reality
aristotle wrote about
sensations, dreams, sleep and learning
spiritual view was replaced by world based on mathematics and mechanics between centuries
1400 and 1600
Wilhelm Wundt was considered to be the
father of psychology
Wilhelm Wundt established the first..
psychology lab in 1879
Wilhelm Wundt started a branch of psychology called …. where he studied…
voluntarism, consciousness
What is structuralism
an attempt to try to identify all of the basic elements of consciousness.
What method does structuralism use?
introspection
Edward Thitchener was a student of Wundt who formed the school of
structuralism in the US
What is functionalism?
the belief that mental processes were fluid (stream of consciousness) instead of fixed elements as structuralists thought
Functionalism emphasized the functions of the mind in
adapting to a changing environment
William James set up the first…
psychology lab in the US at Harvard
William James wrote the first…
psychology textbook, Principles of psychology
… psychology says consciousness cannot be broken down into small elements
Gestalt
According to Gestalt we perceive things as…
whole perceptual units
where does “the whole is greater than the sum of its parts” come from?
Gestalt Psychology
According to Gestalt Psychology, problem solving…
involves insight
What is psychoanalysis?
the belief that people’s behaviours are based on their unconscious desires and conflicts
Sigmund Freud developed…
a form of therapy that aimed to resolve unconscious conflicts
What is behaviourism?
the belief that the scientific investigation of psychology should be focused only on behaviour you can observe
What did Ivan Pavlov discover?
found that dogs could learn to associate a bell with an automatic behaviour such as salivating for food. This is called Classical conditioning.
What did Edward Thorndike propose?
animal research could help explain human behaviour
Behaviourism is involved with which five people?
Ivan Pavlov, Edward Thorndike, John B. Watson, B.F. skinner, Alberta Bandura
What did John B Watson experiment?
The little albert experiment and solidified classical conditioning
B.F. Skinner developed…
operant conditioning which uses reinforcement and punishment to shape behaviours
Albert Bandura demonstrated that children…
also learn by social observation or modelling
What is humanistic psychology?
stresses a persons capacity for personal growth, freedom to choose his or her destiny and positive qualities.
Humanists say that our subjective perceptions of the world are…
unique and are more important than behaviour itself
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow are researchers of…
Humanistic Psychology
Carl Rogers developed…
client centred therapy, which said that people are innately good
Abraham Maslow developed
a theory of motivation that consists of a hierarchy
Self-actualization is developed from who’s theory?
Abraham Maslow
…. is focused on the important role of mental processes in how people
cognitive psychology
Cognitive psychologist compared…
the human mind to a computer
Cognitive scientists developed…
rigorous experimental standards
Ulric Neisser is a scientist of what kind of psychology?
cognitive
Ulric Neisser coined the term….as the study of information
cognitive psychology as the study of information processing
What is cultural psychology?
the study of how cognitive processes vary across different populations
What is cross-cultural psychology?
the study of the cognitive processes that are universal regardless of culture
What is neuroscience?
The study of the brain structure and activity as they are related to individual behaviours and group dynamics
Who is Karl Lashley
He used surgical techniques to attempt to locate all areas of the brain responsible for memory, learning, and other functions
Who is Roger Sperry
He conducted split brain research on animals
2 subfields influenced by neuroscience
behavioural genetics and evolutionary psychology
What is behavioural genetics
examines the influence of genes on human behaviour
What is evolutionary psychology?
evolution and genetic inheritance are important in shaping our thoughts and behaviours
Sociobiology proposes what?
that our social behaviour is the result of biological and cultural influences
What are the three main branches of psychology?
Clinical and counselling psychology, academic, applied
What branch of psychology is working as therapists?
clinical and counselling
What branch of psychology is work as professors, both teaching and doing research?
academic
What kind of psychology is work in schools, marketing firms, research institutions, etc
applied
Four shared values of all psychologists
Theory driven, empirical, multilevel, contextual
3 current trends in psychology
growing diversity, advances in technology, new schools of thought such as psychotherapy focus on happiness and other positive emotions
