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.
What is heredity?
It is the transmission of traits and characteristics from parent to offspring through the actions of genes.
Who was Mary Whiton Calkins?
She was an early student of William James that completed every course and requirement for earning a Ph.D but was denied that degree by Harvard University because she was a woman. She could take those classes as a guest only. She created a psychological laboratory as Wellesley College. Her work was some of the earliest research in the area of human memory and the psychology of the self. In 1905 she became the first female presidnet of the American Psychological Association (APA).
Who was Francis Cecil Sumner?
He was the first African American to earn a Ph.D in psychology at Clark University. He became the chair of the psychology department at Howard University. He is the father of African American Psychology.
What did Kenneth and Mamie Clark do?
The worked to show the negative effects of school segregation on African American children.
Who was George Sanches?
He was a Hispanic psychologist that conducted research in the area of intelligensce testing, focusing on the cultural biases in such tests.
Where can functionalism be found in modern psychology?
Educational psychology and Industrial/ organizezational psychology, as well as other areas in psychology.
Who was Charles Henry Thompson?
He was the first African American to receive a doctorate in educational psychology in 1925 from the University of Chicago. Was the editor of the Journal of Negro Education.
Who was Albert Sidney Beckham?
He received is Ph.D in psychology in 1930 from New York University. He was a senior assistant psycholgist at the National Committee for Mental Hygiene at the Illinois Institute for Juvenile Research in the early 30’s. He had many publications of his research in the areas of intelligence and social concerncs of the African American youth.
Who was Robert Prentiss Daniel?
An educational Psychologiest from Columbia University in 1932. He was the director of the Divisionof Educational Psychology and Philosphy at Virginia Union Univeristy. He became president of Shawn University in North Carolina and finally the presidnet of the Virinia State College.
Who was Inez Beverly Prosser?
She earned her Ph.D in educational psychology form the University of Cincinnati in 1933 and was the first African American woman to earn this degree. Died one year after earning this degree in a car accident.
Who was Howard Hale Long?
He received his Ed.D in educational psychology form Harvard University in 1933. He tought psychology. He became dean of administration at Wilberforce State College in Ohio.
Who was Ruth Howard?
She is known as the first African American woman to earn a Ph.D in psychology (not educational) in 1934 from University of Minnesota. She served with her husband Albert Beckham, as codirector for the Center for Psychologica Services and also maintained a private practice in clinical psychology.
Who was Max Wertheimer?
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.” He devoted his efforts to studying sensation and perception called Gestalt psychology.
What is Gestalt Psychology?
It is a german word meaning “an organized whole” or “configuration”
