Chapter 1 The Evolution of Psychology Flashcards
Psychology
scientific study of behavior and the mind
Behavior
actions and responses. can observe behavior
Mind
internal states and processes. not directly observable
Greeks
socrates
- plato
- aristotle
- debated nativism vs empiricism
nativism
you’re born with it
empiricism
you learned it/environment caused it (ex/ personality)
Descartes
Mind-body dualism. mind body interact via the pineal gland, mind resides in brain but is seperate, studying physical body cannot provide info abt phsyical mind. He was wrong
Monism
elief that the midn and body are one
- the mind is not a seperate spritual entitiy
- mental events are a product of phsycal events (can be used in the oppsoite manner: pshycail events can be a product of a mental event)
- the mind can be studied by measruing pshycal processes
Wundt
very first psychologist
- father of psychology
- formed first research lab in psychology
Structuralism (Wundt & titchener)
study the mind in terms of its basic elemtns
- break concisoiness into strucutal componens
- a,b,c,d
- use introspection
- “look within” to describe experience
functionalism (james)
study the funcitn of consiosuness, not strucure
- ask “what does the mind do?”
- what is the purpose, the funciton?
- stream of consciousness
- a to b to c to d
British Empricisits
all ideas and knwodlege are gained empiricially
- i.e through the senses and experinces
locke
philophsy should focus on the capabilities and extenet of the human mind
tabula rasa
blank state. you are born w a blank state and eveyrthing else is learned by youur enviomrent, learning and experinces
behaviourism
emphasize neivomerntal control of behvaior thrpough learning
- initally led bby john B watson
- opposed “mentalism” from earlier schools
Freud
creator of psychoanalysis
- was a doctor trying to understand psychologiscal problems
- focused on the unconscious
psychanalystic theory
can explain a person’s behaviour based on their unconscious desires
- unconscious desires below their consciousness influence their actions
Skinner
- radical behaviorusm. prodcued the techniqeus knwon collecively as haviour modification
- Skinner Box
- will continue what we like, will stop what we don’t
Humanistic perspective
emphasizes free will, personal growth, and attempting to find meaning in one’s existence
- humans are NOT controlled by unconsous forces, do NOT just react to the enviorment
- has free will and personal choice
Rogers, Maslow
self actualization as a driving force
- reaching your individual potential
- similar ideals to the positive psychology movement
Cognitive perspectve
examines the nature of the mind abd how the mental processes inf;eunece bahviour
- humans are information processors that are goverend by thoughts
- Grew out of structualism and funcionlaism
- gestalt oschology
look at how the mind organuzes elemnts of experience into a unified or “whole” perception
Cogitive revlotion
eriod of growing intereest in mental processes (especiallt language learning)
information processing model of cognition:
the midn is a system that processes, stores, and retrieves information