Chapter 1: Foundations of Psychology

Question 1

The three fundamental ideas for Psychology

Answer 1

1. Behaviour and mental experiences have physical causes that can be studied scientifically
2. The way people think, behave and feel is modified over time by their experiences in their environment
3. The body’s machinery, which produces behaviour and mental experiences, is a product of evolution by natural selection

Question 2

Dualism

Answer 2

The philosophical view that human beings consist of a material body and an immaterial soul, therefore mental phenomena are non-physical.

Question 3

Descartes’ version of dualism

Answer 3

To Descartes, even complex behaviours can occur through purely mechanical means, without the involvement of the soul.

• His conception of mechanical control of movement resembles the modern understanding of reflexes
• He suggested that the soul acts on the body at a particular physical location, though it is not physical.

Question 4

Materialism

Answer 4

A philosophy founded by Thomas Hobbes.
It argues that the soul is a meaningless concept and that nothing but matter and energy existed. Thus, all human behaviour, even voluntary choices, can be understood in terms of physical processes in the body, especially the brain.

Question 5

Reflexology

Answer 5

19th-century physiologists suggested that all human behaviour occurs through reflexes (even voluntary actions)

Question 6

Localization of function

Answer 6

The idea that specific parts of the brain serve specific functions in the production of mental experience and behaviour.

Question 7

Empiricism

Answer 7

The idea that human knowledge and thought derive from sensory experience.
- John Locke (Tabula Rasa)

Question 8

Association by Contiguity

Answer 8

An empiricist concept that states that if a person experiences 2 events at the same time or one right after the other, those events will be associated in the person’s mind. This means that the thought of one event will tend to elicit the thought of the other

Question 9

Nativism

Answer 9

The view that the most basic forms of human knowledge and the basic operating characteristics of the mind are native to the human mind, in other words, they are inborn and don’t have to be acquired from experience.

Question 10

Priori knowledge

Answer 10

The knowledge that is already built-in to the human brain and does not have to be learned.
Posteriori knowledge, which is gained from experience in the environment, is argued by the nativist that a human needs priori knowledge as a basis first to acquire the other.

Question 11

The evolutionary basis of mind and behaviour

Answer 11

Darwin’s idea that human behaviour, including basic human emotions, is the product to evolution by natural selection. This means that these characteristics are beneficial for survival.