Chapter 1: Psychology Ideas and More

Question 1

Cognitive psychology

Answer 1

Study of mental (cognitive - thinking) processes.

Question 2

Biological psychology

Answer 2

Study of the biology that creates mental actions and behaviour.

Question 3

Stimulus

Answer 3

Sensory input from the environment

Question 4

Philosophical dualism:

Answer 4

Mind (immaterial) and body (material) are two different things.
Connected by the pineal gland - René Descartes.

Question 5

Philosophical materialism:

Answer 5

Mental activities are the result of physical activities in the brain. - Gilbert Ryle.

Mental activities are due to biological activities in the brain.

Question 6

Philosophical realism:

Answer 6

Perceptions of the physical world are produced by information from the sensory organs.
Series of autographs of exactly what’s going on around us.

Question 7

Philosophical idealism:

Answer 7

Perceptions of the physical world is the brain’s interpretation of the information from the sensory organs. A painting. - Kant

Question 8

Philosophical empiricism (nurture):

Answer 8

All knowledge is acquired through experience. Babies are blank slates learning knowledge from their experiences - Aristotle.

Question 9

Philosophical nativism (nature):

Answer 9

Some knowledge is innate. Babies born with a small amount of pre-programmed knowledge (space, number, causality). - Plato
(more psychologists).

Question 10

Philosophical structuralism:

Answer 10

The study of isolating and analyzing the mind’s basic elements to understand it as a whole.

Every person has a different inner experience, so understanding the parts of the mind through introspection was not effective/ clear.

Question 11

Functionalism:

Answer 11

Understanding the significance of the brain’s processes in relation to human evolution.

Adaptive characteristics shaped the mind.

Mind developed to help humans survive and reproduce.

Question 12

Introspection:

Answer 12

Subjective observation of one’s own experience. Subjective and unreliable.

Question 13

Inference:

Answer 13

The brain’s best guess on what’s out in the world.

Question 14

Psychoanalytic theory:

Answer 14

A theory that emphasizes the influence of the unconscious part of the mind on feelings, thoughts and behaviours. - Freud.

Question 15

Psychoanalysis:

Answer 15

Therapy that aims to give people insight into their unconscious minds. - Freud.

Question 16

Behaviourism:

Answer 16

Studying, understanding psychology only through investing behaviour.

John Watson. (dominated in North America, early 1900s).

Objectively observable behaviour.

That animals can learn to be, do or become anything. (not true, since rats could relate sickness to light and more).

Question 17

Ian Parlov’s experiment:

Answer 17

Experiment with dogs, salivate with the stimulus of a tone (=food).

Question 18

John Watson’s experiment:

Answer 18

Stimulus-Response learning. Rats and little Albert. Associating loud noise with the rat = conditioned fear.

Question 19

B.F. Skinner’s experiment:

Answer 19

Skinner box: Rats pressed down a lever for food - principle of reinforcement & operant conditioning. Repeated action if rewarded (with food here).

Question 20

Principle of reinforcement:

Answer 20

A principle stating that any behaviour that is rewarded will be repeated and any behaviour that isn’t wont.

Question 21

Operant conditioning:

Answer 21

Method of learning that involved rewards and punishment for the behaviour.

Question 22

Geralt psychology:

Answer 22

The mind has theories about how the world works and its uses these theories to make sense of the information from the senses.

Question 23

Memory distortion:

Answer 23

Our minds use its theories on how the world works to construct its memories or past experiences. - Sir Frederick Bartlett.

Question 24

Cognitive psychology:

Answer 24

The study of human information-processing.

Does the brain work like a computer?

Question 25

Evolutionary psychology:

Answer 25

Studying how the human brain has been designed through evolution.

Question 26

Cognitive neuroscience:

Answer 26

The study of the relationship between psychological processes and neural activity (primarily in humans).

Question 27

Behavioural neuroscience:

Answer 27

The study of the relationship between behaviour and neural activity (primarily in animals).

Question 28

Cultural psychology:

Answer 28

The study of how culture influences mental life.

How cultural affects how people think/ shape their perceptions.

Question 29

Phrenology:

Answer 29

The study of how the bums/ shape of one’s skull indicates mental abilities and qualities about a person. - Franz Josef Gall

Question 30

Mass action:

Answer 30

The larger the brain damage, the greater the effect on behaviour. - Karl Lashley.

Question 31

Consciousness:

Answer 31

Person’s subjective experience of the world and of the mind.

Question 32

Structuralism:

Answer 32

The study of isolating and analyzing the mind’s basic elements to understand it as a whole.

Question 33

Perception-based theory:

Answer 33

The “whole is greater than the sum of the parts” as shown by visual allusions.