Chapter 1: Psychology: Evolution of a Science

Question 1

psychology

Answer 1

the scientific study of mind and behavior

Question 2

mind

Answer 2

the private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings

Question 3

behavior

Answer 3

observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals

Question 4

functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI)

Answer 4

a technique that allows scientists to scan a brain to determine which parts are active when a person reads a word, sees a face, learns a new skill, or remembers a personal experience

Question 5

nativism

Answer 5

the view that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn

Question 6

philosophical empiricism

Answer 6

the view that all knowledge is acquired through experience

Question 7

Rene Descartes

Answer 7

french philosopher who argued that the body and mind and fundamentally different things.. the body is made of material substance and the mind (or soul) is made of an immaterial or spiritual substance

Question 8

dualism

Answer 8

how mental activity can be coordinated with physical behavior

Question 9

Plato

Answer 9

philosopher that believed in nativism

Question 10

Aristotle

Answer 10

philosopher that believed in philosophical empircism

Question 11

Thomas Hobbes

Answer 11

philosopher who argued that the mind and body are not different things- the mind IS what the brain DOES

Question 12

Hermann Von Helmholtz

Answer 12

a physiologist who had developed a method for measuring nerve impulses

Question 13

reaction time

Answer 13

the amount of time taken to respond to a specific stimulus

Question 14

What did Hermann Von Helmholtz discover?

Answer 14

Mental process does not occur instantaneously- he concluded that the farther away a body part is from the brain, the more length of time it takes a nerve impulse to travel to the brain.

Question 15

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 15

• developed structuralism
• believed that psychology should focus on analyzing consciousness
• examined consciousness through introspection
• sought to understand consciousness by breaking it down into its basic parts, including individual sensations and feelings (remember, he was Hermann’s student!)

Question 16

consciousness

Answer 16

a person’s personal experience of the world and the mind

Question 17

structuralism

Answer 17

-the analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind

What are the basic elements of the mind?

Question 18

introspection

Answer 18

a method that asks people to report on the contents of their personal experience

Question 19

William James

Answer 19

• American phycologist
• guided by evolutionary principles: nature selects what features are beneficial, consciousness enhances human survival = liked Charles Darwin’s idea of natural selection
• developed functionalism
• wanted to know more of what consciousness was FOR not what consciousness was made of

Question 20

functionalism

Answer 20

-the study of the purpose that mental processes serve

What purposes do mental processes serve in allowing people to adapt to their environment?

Question 21

natural selection

Answer 21

the features of an organism that help it survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to future generations

Question 22

In the 1800’s Paul Broca conducted research that demonstrated a connection between…

a) animals and humans.
b) the mind and the brain.
c) brain size and mental ability.
d) skull indentations and psychological attributes.

Answer 22

b) the mind and the brain.

Question 23

What was the subject of the famous experiment conducted by Hermann Von Helmholtz?

a) reaction time
b) childhood learning
c) structuralism
d) functions of specific brain areas

Answer 23

a) reaction time

Question 24

Wundt and his students sought to analyze the basic elements that constitute the mind, an approach called…

a) consciousness.
b) introspection.
c) structuralism.
d) objectivity.

Answer 24

c) structuralism.

Question 25

William James developed __________, the study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environments.

a) empiricism
b) nativism
c) structuralism
d) functionalism

Answer 25

d) functionalism

Question 26

What do structuralism, functionalism, and psychoanalysis all have in common?

Answer 26

Each tries to understand the inner workings of the mind by examining what the individual’s mind has to say about them.

Question 27

behaviorism

Answer 27

the idea that psychology should restrict itself to studying observable behavior

-sometimes called stimulus-response psychology

Question 28

John Broadus Watson

Answer 28

• believed that private experience could never be a proper object of scientific inquiry, because science requires replicable measurements of phenomena that are accessible to all observers
• proposed that psychologists should study behavior because behavior can be measured reliably.

Question 29

stimulus

Answer 29

sensory input from the environment

Question 30

response

Answer 30

the reaction to the stimulus

Question 31

Ivan Pavlov

Answer 31

Russian physiologist who studied digestion in dogs. He developed an important theory to explain how the sound of a tone could cause a dog to drool. The tone was the stimulus and the salivation was the response. This helped John Broadus Watson build the main concept of behaviorism.

Question 32

B.F. Skinner’s rat experiment

Answer 32

• wondered if he could develop behaviorist principles that would explain how animals learned to do things
• built a conditioning chamber called a “skinner box” that would receive food to the rat when the rat learned to press the lever…. rat would accidently lean on the bar a couple of times and then catch on to the pattern..
• created the principle of reinforcement

Question 33

principle of reinforcement

Answer 33

states that the consequences of a behavior determine whether it will be more or less likely to occur again

Question 34

B.F. Skinner

Answer 34

• admired Pavolv’s experiments and Watson’s theories
• claimed that we do things in the present that have been rewarding in the past, and our sense of choosing them is nothing more than an illusion

Question 35

Behaviorism involves the study of….

a) observable actions and responses.
b) the potential for human growth.
c) unconscious influences and childhood experiences.
d) human behavior and memory.

Answer 35

a) observable actions and responses.

Question 36

To understand human behavior, Jean-Martin Charcot studied people…

a) who appeared to be completely healthy.
b) with psychological disorders.
c) with damage in particular areas of the brain.
d) who had suffered permanent loss of cognitive and motor functions.

Answer 36

b) with psychological disorders.

Question 37

Building on the work of Charcot and others, Sigmund Freud developed….

a) psychoanalytic theory.
b) the theory of hysteria.
c) humanistic psychology.
d) physiological psychology.

Answer 37

a) psychoanalytic theory.

Question 38

The psychological theory that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings is known as….

a) structuralism.
b) psychoanalytic theory.
c) humanistic psychology.
d) functionalism.

Answer 38

c) humanistic psychology.

Question 39

Jean-Martin Charcot

Answer 39

• French physician
• studied patients that developed hysteria
• discovered that when putting hysteria patients in a trancelike state by using hypnosis, patients symptoms disappeared temporarily. (ex: blind could see, amnesiac could remember, paralyzed could walk)
• developed the psychoanalytic theory

Question 40

hysteria

Answer 40

a temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as a result of emotionally upsetting experiences

ex: blindness, paralyzed, unable to remember experiences

Question 41

unconscious

Answer 41

the part of the mind that operates outside of awareness but that influences thoughts, feelings, and actions

Question 42

psychoanalytic theory

Answer 42

an approach that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors

suggests that the key to curing psychological problems was to help people remember the early experiences that were causing those problems

Question 43

psychoanalysis

Answer 43

a therapeutic approach that focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness to better understand psychological disorders

ex: patients led to recall past experiences