Chapter 1

Question 1

Karl Lashley

Answer 1

Contributed to the biological perspective by discovering the damage in specific brain regions impaired specific functions such as memory, allowing him to suggest that specific areas are specialized for specific functions.

Question 2

What is Psychology?

Answer 2

The scientific study of behaviour and the mind.

Question 3

How many main types of psychology are there, and what are they?

Answer 3

8: Bio-psychology, developmental psychology, experimental psychology, cognitive psychology, industrial-organizational psychology, personality psychology, social psychology, clinical psychology.

Question 4

Bio-psychology

Answer 4

Focuses on the biological aspects of psychology, such as brain processes, genetics, hormones, and how they contribute to our actions, thoughts, and feelings.

Question 5

What are the two types of bio-psychology? Explain them.

Answer 5

1) Evolutionary psychology, studies how evolution may have contributed to the shaping of our minds and our behaviours. Examples would be mating choices, and problem solving.
2) Neuroscience, focuses on the biological processes in the brain, and the regions involved.

Question 6

Developmental Psychology

Answer 6

Asks the question: How does the brain change with age? Examines human physical, psychological, and social development across the entire life span. Approximately 80% of studies focuses on childhood development, though it involves teens, adults, and elders as well.

Question 7

Experimental Psychology

Answer 7

Focuses on the most basic processes of the brain such as learning, sensation, perception, and motivations. Typically, research is done on non-human animals, such as dogs, rats, and pigeons.

Question 8

Cognitive Psychology

Answer 8

Examines ‘higher’ mental processes such as memory, judgement, decision making, problem solving, mental imagery, attention, and creativity.

Question 9

Psycholinguistics

Answer 9

An area of cognitive psychology that examples language processes in the brain.

Question 10

Industrial-Organizational Psychology

Answer 10

Workplace psychology. Asks: How can we use psychology, and what we know about human behaviour to create a more efficient workplace environment?

Question 11

Personality Psychology

Answer 11

Psychology that focuses on the personality traits.

Question 12

Social Psychology

Answer 12

Studies how people think about, feel about, and behave towards other people. Focuses on how people influence one another, behave in groups, and form impressions and attitudes.

Question 13

Clinical Psychology

Answer 13

Examine mental disorders and help people to overcome these disorders.

Question 14

Abnormal Psychology

Answer 14

A subgroup of clinical psychology that studies unusual patterns of behaviour, emotion and thought, which may or may not link to mental disorders.

Question 15

Confirmation Bias

Answer 15

Ignoring contradicting evidence as it does not confirm our pre-existing beliefs.

Question 16

The Scientific Approach

Answer 16

1) Systematic observation, form research/design a study or test.
2) Gather empirical evidence, see if results can be generalized by duplicating tests/ testing multiple individuals or the same individuals over the course of several years.
3) Use statistics, determine what differences are significant and legitimate by creating a statistic. (No one gives two shits about a 0.02% gpa difference in guys versus girls. 20% on the other hand? Zoo wee mama!)

Question 17

Critical Thinking

Answer 17

Involves taking an ‘active role’ and being skeptical rather than simply ‘receiving facts’. It is about falsification! Meaning that it is about trying to disprove claims/beliefs (which may include your own!) We may never be able to prove hypothesis, but we can always try to disprove (that one motherfucking black swan is a disproving motherfucker).

Question 18

What are the four main goals of psychology?

Answer 18

Numba 1: Describe how humans and animals behave.
Numba 2: Explain and understand the causes of these behaviours.
Numba 3: Predict how people and animals will behave under certain conditions.
Numba 4: Influence or control behaviour through knowledge and controlling the causes in order to enhance human well-fare.

Question 19

Basic Science vs. Applied Science

Answer 19

Basic science: A quest for knowledge purely for its own sake.
Applied science: Designed to solve specific practical problems. Places more emphasis on the 4th goal of psychology.
(Basic science is like Wah Shi Tong telling the Avatar gang that they can come into his library and enjoy a book or two, and applied is like when team Avatar lied their asses off and actually wanted to use the library’s knowledge to take down the fire nation, a.k.a. a specific situation. A is for Applied AND Team Avatar!!)

Question 20

What are the three levels of Analysis? Explain them.

Answer 20

1) Biological Level: Analyzes aspects of the body such as brain processes, hormone levels, genetic influences, and basic needs.
2) Psychological Level: Analyzes the individual’s personal thoughts, feelings, and motives.
3) Environmental Level: Analyzes how the environment of the subject may affect their behaviour.

Question 21

What are the two types of philosophy that were study?

Answer 21

1) Mind-Body Dualism

2) Monism

Question 22

Mind-Body Dualism

Answer 22

Introduced by Rene Descartes, who argued that the mind and the body were distinct from one another, and had to be viewed separately. Descartes believed that the mind was a center for spirituality, while the body (including the brain) was physical, and so spirituality and physicality should have remained separate. (It’s like, in the Legend of Korra, book 2, everyone was like, spirit world and our world? Keep that shit separate. And Descartes was just one of those non-woke ass folks, and that’s the tea :/ also just think of the word dualism, and how dueling usually means conflict and things should be kept separate).

Question 23

Monism

Answer 23

These folks realized that the mind and body (the brain) go hand in hand and work as one. This woke ass folk is named Christian von Wolff, although it was also Thomas Hobbes, John Locke, and just a ton of British Empiricists that just vibed with this shit. (‘Mono’ means one. But also, relating it to my girl Korra, again, she became this badass woke bitch who told Republic City to suck her 10 inch dick and understand that the spirit world, and our world should not be separated. And I think that’s beautiful.)

Question 24

Who/when did the first Psychology lab open?

Answer 24

Wilhelm Wundt, in 1879.

Question 25

Structuralism

Answer 25

Founded by Wilhelm Wundt, and brought to the United States by his student, Edward Titchener. Believed that the mind could be studied by breaking it down into its tiniest components. Like, ya can’t really know how an atom works without knowing what the fuck an electron is. It’s STRUCTURE.

Question 26

Functionalism

Answer 26

Founded by William James, and was influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution. It wanted to describe the adaptive/evolutionary function of the mind. Whom’st the fuck cares what makes an atom, what’s cooler is what the fuck an atom can do. It’s FUNCTION.

Question 27

Introspection

Answer 27

A method used in structuralism, meaning “looking within”. It attempted to train people to reflect on their own sensations, and thoughts,

Question 28

Naturalistic Observation

Answer 28

A method used in functionalism. Involves observing subjects in their natural environment.

Question 29

Which two modern areas of psychology have roots in functionalism?

Answer 29

Industrial-Organizational, and Educational.

Question 30

What are the six ‘modern’ perspectives in psychology?

Answer 30

1. Psycho-dynamic, 2. Behaviorist, 3. Humanistic, 4. Cognitive, 5. Sociocultural, 6. Biological

Question 31

Psycho-dynamic Perspective

Answer 31

Examines causes of behaviours at an unconscious level. Methods for psycho-dynamics would be psychoanalysis, and individual interviews. Special terms are ‘unconscious’, or ‘subconscious’.

Question 32

Neo-Freudian Perspective

Answer 32

Modern Psycho-dynamic Theory. Less emphasis on childhood sexuality and aggression.

Question 33

Sigmund Freud

Answer 33

Granddaddy of psycho-dynamics, published in 1895 to early 1900s.

Question 34

Behavioral Perspective

Answer 34

Emphasizes the study of overt, observable behaviors, and was basically a huge ‘fuck you’ to “mentalism” of structuralism, functionalism, and psycho-dynamics, saying that shit ain’t science. The mind can’t be empirically studied, so we gotta focus on the behaviour only. Special words are ‘blank slate’, ‘reinforcement’, ‘punishment’, ‘free-will is an illusion controlled by environment’.

Question 35

John B. Watson

Answer 35

Big bad daddy of Behaviorism (1913)

Question 36

B.F. Skinner

Answer 36

Radical ass behaviorist, thinking we should NEVER resort to internal events like thinking or feeling. Very biological fella. B stands for Bio, F stands for Fella ;) Also believed positive reinforcement could be used to form a utopia.

Question 37

Behavior Modification

Answer 37

A technique developed by radical behaviorism, where we manipulate the environment to increase positive behaviours and decrease negative ones.

Question 38

Cognitive Behaviorism

Answer 38

More moderate, modern version of behaviorism that continues today that suggested cognitive processes such as thought are not completely off-limits. Learning experiences and the environment govern our behaviour because they affect our thoughts/expectations.
Albert Bandura.

Question 39

What perspective is Abraham Maslow associated with?

Answer 39

Humanistic.

Question 40

What perspective is Carl Rogers associated with?

Answer 40

Humanistic.

Question 41

Humanistic Perspective

Answer 41

Emphasizes on FREE WILL personal growth, self-actualization. Still seen in positive psychology as it focuses on human strengths rather than what’s wrong in the world. Key terms: Self-‘anything’ (self-image, self-evaluation, self-esteem, etc.)

Question 42

What perspective is Jean Piaget associated with?

Answer 42

Cognitive.

Question 43

What perspectives is Noam Chomsky associated with?

Answer 43

Cognitive.

Question 44

Cognitive Perspective.

Answer 44

Influenced by structuralism and functionalism, and directly opposes radical behaviorism, focuses on thinking and mental processes. Views the brain like an information processors.

Question 45

Gestalt Psychology

Answer 45

Wanted to know how the mind organized elements into a unified whole. The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

Question 46

When was the cognitive revolution? What was it?

Answer 46

1960s to 1970s, when cognitive psychology began to really take off and surpass behaviorism.

Question 47

Socio-Cultural Perspective

Answer 47

Examines how social environment and culture influences thoughts, feelings, and behaviour, while other perspectives usually assume behaviours are more or less universal.

Question 48

What are the three different types of presences found in socio-cultural perspective? Explain them.

Answer 48

1) Physical presence, the individual is physically there with you.
2) Implied presence, the individual is not there with you, but is expected to appear soon.
3) Imagined presence, the individual is not there with you, but you are mentally bringing their presence.

Question 49

Cross-Cultural Psychology

Answer 49

Examines how culture is passed on, and looks at the similarities and differences between peoples from different cultural backgrounds, especially to respect of behaviour and the mind.

Question 50

What did Kenneth and Mamie Clark do?

Answer 50

Contributed to socio-cultural perspective by examining how discrimination and prejudice influenced the personality development of African-American children.

Question 51

Biological Perspective

Answer 51

Examines how brain processes, genes, bodily functions, and evolution regulate behaviour.

Question 52

What perspective is Karl Lashley associated with?

Answer 52

Biological perspective. He’s the wack ass rat-brain-cutter.

Question 53

What are the three subgroups of biological perspective? Explain them.

Answer 53

1) Behavioural Neuroscience, Examines the brain processes that are involved with behaviour, thoughts, feelings, etc.
2) Behavioural Genetics, examines how genetics can influence behaviour. Suggests a genetic basis for psychological traits.
3) Evolutionary Psychology, applies the theory of natural selection to behaviour. Believes that humans evolved physically, but also mentally and evolved behaviour wise.