Chapter 1: What is Psychology?

Question 1

Define empirical.

Answer 1

relying on or derived from observation, experimentation or measurement.

Question 2

What is critical thinking?

Answer 2

The ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgements on the basis of well supported reasons and evidence, rather than emotion or anecdote.

Question 3

What are the 8 steps of critical thinking?

Answer 3

1.)Ask Questions: Be Willing to wonder 2.)Define your terms 3.) Examine the evidence 4.) Analyze assumptions and biases 5.) Don’t oversimplify 6.) Avoid emotional reasoning 7.) Tolerate uncertainty 8.)Consider other interpretations

Question 4

Define assumptions

Answer 4

Beliefs that are taken for granted

Question 5

Define bias.

Answer 5

When an assumption or belief keep us from considering the evidence fairly, or causes us to ignore the evidence completely

Question 6

Define argument by anecdote.

Answer 6

generalizing to everyone from a personal experience or a few examples. EX: one crime committed by a paroled ex-convict means that parole should be abolished

Question 7

Occam’s Razor

Answer 7

principle of choosing the solution that accounts for the most evidence while making the fewest unverified assumptions

Question 8

Who started psych and when?

Answer 8

Wilhelm Wundt in leipzig, Germany, in 1879

Question 9

What was Wundt’s favorite research method?

Answer 9

to train volunteers to carefully observe, analyze, and describe their own sensations, mental images and emotional reactions.

Question 10

Who was Mark Baldwin?

Answer 10

One of Wundt’s students, brought psych to Canada at the University of Toronto in 1889

Question 11

What is Structuralism?

Answer 11

and early psychological approach that emphasized the analysis of immediate experience into basic elements

Question 12

Who founded structuralism?

Answer 12

E.B. Titchener (1867-1927)

Question 13

What is Functionalism?

Answer 13

An early psychological approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behaviour and conciousness. Asked “how” or “why” an organism does something. (inspired by Charles Darwin)

Question 14

Who founded functionalism?

Answer 14

William James (1842-1910)

Question 15

What is psychoanalysis?

Answer 15

A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy that emphasizes unconcious motives and conflicts

Question 16

Who founded psychoanalysis?

Answer 16

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Question 17

What does the biological perspective focus on?

Answer 17

How bodily events and changes can affect behaviour, feelings and thouhts
-study how bio affects learning and performance, perceptions of reality. the experience of emotion, and vulnerability to emotional disorder.
(evolutionary psych is a popular specialty)

Question 18

What does the learning perspective focus on?

Answer 18

how the environment and experience affect a person's actions.
includes behaviourism (an approach to psych that emphasizes the study of observable behaviour and the role of the environment as a determinant of behaviour)
and Social-cognitive learning theorists (combine elements of behaviourism with research on thoughts, values, expectations, and intentions.

Question 19

What does the cognitive persceptive focus on?

Answer 19

what goes on in people’s heads, how people reason, remember, understand language, solve problems, explain experiences, aquire moral standards, and form beliefs.

Question 20

What does the sociocultural perspective focus on? What do the separate psychologists believe within this perspective?

Answer 20

social and cultural forces outside the individual, forces that shape every aspect of behaviour, from how we kiss to what and where we eat.
Social psychologists focus on social rules and roles, how groups affect attitudes and behaviour, why people obey authority, and how each of us is affected by other people
Cultural psychologists examine how cultural rules and values-both explicit and unspoken- affect people’s development, behaviour, and feelings.

Question 21

What does the psychodynamic perspective focus on?

Answer 21

unconcious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or instinctual energy. differs radically from other approaches.

Question 22

What are the 5 main perspectives of psych(and their subcategories)?

Answer 22

1. )Biological
2. ) Learning (behavioural and social-cognitive)
3. ) Cognitive
4. ) Sociocultural (Social and Cultural)
5. ) Psychodynamic

Question 23

What is humanist psych?

Answer 23

approach that emphasizes personal growth and the achievement of human potential, rather than the scientific understanding and assessment of behaviour.

Question 24

What do humanist believe?

Answer 24

Human behaviour is not completely determined by either unconcious conflicts or the environment. People are capable of free will and therefore have the ability to make more of themselves.

Question 25

What is feminist psych?

Answer 25

started in the early 1970’s, noted that many studies used only men as participants, showed why it was often inappropriate to generalize to everyone else from such a narrow research base (young, white, middle-class men)

Question 26

What are the three categories of professional psychologists?

Answer 26

1. ) teaching and doing research in colleges and universities
2. ) Providing health or mental health services (psychological practice) 3.)conducting research or applying its findings in nonacademic settings.

Question 27

What is basic psych?

Answer 27

study of psychological issues in order to seek knowledge for its own sake rather than for its practical application.

Question 28

What is appiled psych?

Answer 28

study of psychological issues that have direct pratical significance; also, the application of psychological findings.

Question 29

What are experimental psychologists?

Answer 29

conduct lab studies of learning, motivation, emotion, sensation, and perception physiology, and cognition. (other psychologists also do experiments)

Question 30

What are education psychologists?

Answer 30

study psychological principles that explain learning and search for ways to improve educational systems. (interests range from applications of findings on memory and thinking to the use of rewards to encourage achievement)

Question 31

What are developmental psychologists?

Answer 31

study how people change and grow over time- physically, mentally, and socially. in the past, focus was mainly on childhood, but now can cover all age ranges.

Question 32

What are industrial/organizational psychologists?

Answer 32

study behaviour in the workplace, concerned with group decision making, employee morale, work motivation, productivity, job stress, personnel selection, marketing strategies, equipment design, and many other issues.

Question 33

What are psychometric psychologists?

Answer 33

design and evaluate tests of mental abilities, aptitudes, interests, and personality. Most people have had firsthand experience with one or more tests at school/work.

Question 34

What are counselling pschologists?

Answer 34

help people deal with the problems of everyday life, such as test anxiety, family conflicts, or low job motivation

Question 35

What are school psychologists?

Answer 35

work with parents, teachers and students to enhance students’ performance and resolve emotional difficulties.

Question 36

What are clinical psychologists?

Answer 36

diagnose, treat, and study mental or emotional problems (trained to do psychotherapy with severely disturbed people, as well as those who are unhappy or troubled, etc.

Question 37

What is a psychotherapist?

Answer 37

anyone who does any kind of psychology, can call yourself that without any training, legally

Question 38

What is a psychoanalyst?

Answer 38

practices psychoanalysis, must obtain specialized training at a psychoanalytic institute and under extensivepsychoanalysis themself.

Question 39

What is a psychiatrist?

Answer 39

medical doctor who has completed a three year residency in psychiatry to learn how to diagnose and treat mental disorders under the supervision of more experienced physicians.

Question 40

When was the Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) formed?

Answer 40

1939

Question 41

What are the two developments that started the growing trend to cross the borders between the different specialties?

Answer 41

1. )revolution in our understanding of biology’s influence on behaviour
2. ) psychologists are increasingly looking outward to culture as well as inward to biology.

Question 42

Who was the very first to think about psych?

Answer 42

Aristotle, thought the heart was the brain.

Question 43

Who was Rene Descartes, and what questions did he ask?

Answer 43

he was a philosopher who asked “Does perception accurately reflect reality?” and “how is sensation turned into perception?” (no way to answer these questions)

Question 44

What are the parents of psychology (and what did each give)?

Answer 44

Philosophy: gave questions
Natural Sciences: gave methods to answer questions
Result: idea of applying methods of science to the study of human experience

Question 45

What were the three schools of thought?

Answer 45

1. ) Structuralism: break down the contents of mind, what makes up parts of concious experiences, concious experience
2. )Functionalism: strongly influenced by darwin, thought evolution must have a reason or it wouldn’t be there,
3. ) Sigmund Freud: proposes idea of unconcious, thoughts, memories, and desires we aren’t aware of but influence our behaviour.

Question 46

Who was the father of clinical psych?

Answer 46

Sigmund Freud

Question 47

What is Gestalt psych?

Answer 47

Gestalt was a German psychologist, focused on whole, rather than the multiple individual elements, shouldn’t dissect experience into separate elements
ie: phi phenomenon: creates an illusion that lights are going around, rather than focusing on the fact that the lights just flash at different intervals.

Question 48

What is positive psych?

Answer 48

recent addition, focuses on characteristics that make people happy/successful, asserts that psych has, in the past, focused too much on the negative.