Chapter 1 - The Science of Psychology Flashcards
What is psychology?
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
What does the term mental process refer to?
All the internal, covert (hidden) activity of our minds, such as thinking, feeling, and remembering.
What is a bias?
Personal judgements based on beliefs rather than facts.
What are the four goals of psychology?
Description, explanation, prediction, and control.
What does description mean?
It is the “what is happening” goal. It involves noting a behavior and noting everything about it: what is happening, where it happens, to whom it happens, and under what circumstances it seems to happen.
What does explanation mean?
This is the “why is it happening” part. It is a very important step in forming theories of behavior
What is a theory?
A theory is a general explanation of a set of observations or facts.
What is prediction?
This is the “when will it happen” part. Determining what will happen in the future.
What is control?
This is the “how can it be controlled” part. The focus is to change a behavior from an undesirable one to a desirable one.
Who were some ancient philosophers that tried to understand or explain the human mind and its connection to the human body?
Plato, Aristotle, and Descartes
Who was Gustav Fechner?
He was a physician and a physicist who is often credited with performing some of the first scientific experiments that would form a basis for experimentation in psychology with his studies of perception.
Who was Hermann Von Helmholtz?
He performed ground breaking experiments in visual and auditory perception.
Who was Wilhelm Wundt?
He was a German physiologist who was credited with starting the worlds first laboratory in Leipzig, Germany in 1879. His students were taught to study the human mind. He created objective introspection.
What is objective introspection?
It is the process of objectively examining and measuring ones own thoughts and mental activities.
What is a philospher?
People who seek wisdom and knowledge through thinking and discussion
What is a physiologist?
Scientists who study the physical workings of the body and its systems.
What is objectivity?
Expressing or dealing with facts or conditions as they really are without allowing the influence of personal feelings, prejudices, or interpretations.
Who is Edward Titchener (1867-1927)?
He was an englishman who was a student of Wundt and an Englishman who took Wundt’s ideas to Cornell University in Ithaca, New Your. He expanded on the original ideas calling it structuralism.
What is Strucuralism?
It is the study of the structure of the mind.
Who is Margaret F. Washburn?
She was a student of Titchener’s who became famous for becoming the first woman to receive a Ph. D in psychology. She published a book that was important in that era called “The Animal Mind”
Which school was the first to offer psychology classes in the late 1870’s?
Harvard University
Who was William James?
He was a proffesor at Harvard. He starting teaching anatomy and phsiology but develpoed an interest in psychology. He wrote the “Principles of Psychology”. He was more interested on how the mind allows people to function in the real world.
What is functionalism?
The focus on how the mind allows people to function in the real world - how pepole work, play, and adapt to their surroundings.
What was William James influenced by?
Charles Darwin’s ideas about natural selection.