Chapter 1: psych evo Flashcards
What is the branch of psychology concerned with everyday, practical problems?
Applied Psychology
What contributed to the rise of applied psychology?
Functionalism and Binet’s intelligence test
What was the branch of psychology that emerged first- applied or clinical psychology?
Clinical Psychology
What is the branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders?
Clinical psychology
When did clinical psychology shift away from research to clinical work and why?
During WWII, they were needed to screen recruits and treat soldiers for trauma
What is any overt/observable response or activity by an organism?
Behaviour
When and why did behaviour become the primary focus of psychology?
In the early 1900s, following Watson’s foundation of behaviourism. The scientific method could be applied because behaviour is observable
What is the theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should only study observable behaviour?
Behaviourism
Who founded behaviourism?
John B Watson
Why is the scientific method so highly valued?
Because objectively observed behaviour can be replicated and verified
Why was consciousness deemed not to be a proper subject for scientific study?
Because it could not be observed; it is subjective and relies on self-reporting
What is the behaviourist interpretation of the nature vs nurture debate?
That behaviour is governed primarily by the environment and heredity is of low importance
Who believed that psychology’s mission was to relate overt behaviours to observable events in the environment?
The behaviourists
What is considered to be any detectable input from the environment?
A stimulus
What is the behavioural approach often referred to as and why?
Stimulus-response psychology (S-R) because behaviourists studied stimulus response relationships
Who discovered the S-R relationship and how?
Ivan Pavlov discovered the relationship while studying digestion in dogs when the dog began to salivate when it heard the mechanism for the meat powder dispenser.
Who was Ivan Pavlov?
A Russian physician who discovered the stimulus-response relationship in 1904
Which theory challenged behaviourism and why?
Gestalt theory because psychology should study conscious experience
What is the basic principle of Gestalt theory?
That the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Who championed Gestalt theory?
Max Wertheimer
Who established the first psychology lab, when and where?
Wilhelm Wundt, 1879, Leipzig
Who started the first psychological journal and when?
Wilhelm Wundt in 1881
What was psychology first established to study?
Concious experience
What school of thought did Wundt establish?
Structuralism
What is the basis of structuralism?
That psychology should analyze consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how they relate, particularly sensations, feelings and images
What research method did structuralism apply?
Introspection and self-reporting
What is introspection?
Self-observation of one’s own conscious experience
What were Wundt’s rules for the study of introspection?
1- the observer/introspectionist must be in a state of ‘strained attention’
2- the observation must be able to repeat several times
3- the stimuli must be manipulable
What limits did Edward Titchner apply to structuralist research?
Would not allow common everyday words in subject self-reporting for description which he called stimulus error
Who was Edward Titchner?
One of the fathers of structuralism
Who is William James?
The founder of Functionalism who wrote the Principles of Psychology, a standard text at the time
What is Functionalism?
The belief that psychology should investigate the function of consciousness, not the structure
What were the main limitations of structuralism?
There could be no independent evaluation and training was required to make subjects more objective and aware
What/who influenced William James?
Darwin and the theory of natural selection
What is the theory that heritable characteristics that provide a survival or reproductive advantage are more likely to be passed on to subsequent generations?
Natural selection
What did William James feel needed to be understood?
The flow of thoughts
What did James call the flow of thoughts?
The stream of consciousness
What is the stream of consciousness?
The flow of thoughts that can’t be analyzed at only static points
What about behaviour was James interested in?
How people adapted behaviour to the real world
What other psychology features did functionalism give rise to?
Behaviourism and applied psychology