Chapter 2 Flashcards
Introduction to Major Perspectives
William James’s elements of psych
- why - deals with things like evolution, env, and culture
- how - deals with things like cognition, behaviour, and subconscious
- what - deals with sensations, emotions, thoughts, perceptions, and actions
integrative psychology
introduced by Evan Thompson to combine the nature and actions of mind, body, and spirit
biological psychology
- interested in measuring biological, physiological, or genetic variables in an attempt to relate them to psychological or behavioural variables
- seeks to understand how the brain functions to understand behaviour
- rooted in structuralist and functionalist studies
autoethnography
a narrative approach to introspective analysis
James Angells
one of James’s students, captured functionalist perspectives that consider mental life and behaviour in terms of active adaptation to the person’s env
reductionist
the simple is the source of the complex; to explain a complex phenomenon, a person needs to reduce it to its elements
holist
the whole is more than the sum of its parts
the 4 lobes of the brain
- frontal lobe (motor cortex)
- occipital lobe (visual cortex)
- parietal lobe (somatosensory cortex)
- temporal lobe (auditory cortex)
frontal lobe
involved in motor skills, higher-level cognition, and expressive language
occipital lobe
involved in interpreting visual stimuli and info
parietal lobe
involved in the processing of other tactile sensory info such as pressure, touch, and pain
temporal lobe
involved in the interpretation of sounds and language
2 parts of the peripheral nervous system
- somatic nervous system
- autonomic nervous system
somatic nervous system
controls the actions of skeletal muscles
autonomic nervous system
regulates automatic processes like heart rate, breathing, blood pressure, has two parts
2 parts of the ANS
- sympathetic NS
- parasympathetic NS
sympathetic NS
controls fight-or-flight response
parasympathetic NS
works to bring the body back to its normal state after a fight-or-flight response
fight-or-flight
a reflex that prepares the body to respond to danger in the env
visual attention
brain’s ability to selectively filter unattended or unwanted info from reaching awareness
consciousness
awareness of the self in space and time
2 types of conscious experiences
- phenomenal - in the moment
- access - recalls experiences from memory
Freud’s 3 levels of human consciousness / parts of personality
- conscious (ego)
- preconscious (superego)
- unconscious (id)
conscious (ego)
consists of all the things we’re aware of, including things we know about ourselves and our surroundings
preconscious (superego)
consists of those things we could pay conscious attention to if we desired and where many memories are stored
unconscious (id)
consists of the things that are outside of conscious awareness, including many memories, thoughts, and urges
active imagination (Jung)
refers to activating our imaginal processes in waking life in order to tap into the unconscious meanings of our symbols
archetypes (Jung)
primordial images reflect basic patterns or universal themes common to us and are present in the unconscious, images existing outside space and time
anima (Jung)
archetype symbolizing the unconscious female component of the male psyche (tendencies or qualities often thought of as feminine)
animus (Jung)
archetype symbolizing the unconscious male component of the female psyche (tendencies or qualities often thought of as masculine)
self (Jung)
archetype symbolizing the totality of the personality (represents the strive for unity, wholeness, and integration)
persona (Jung)
mask or image a person presents to the world (designed to make a particular impression on others while concealing true nature)
shadow (Jung)
side of a personality that a person doesn’t consciously display in public (may have positive or negative qualities)
dreams (Jung)
specific expressions of the unconscious that have a definite, purposeful structure indicating an underlying idea or intention (general function being to restore a person’s total psychic equilibrium)
complexes (Jung)
usually unconscious and repressed emotionally toned symbolic material that’s incompatible with consciousness (can cause constant psychological disturbances and symptoms of neurosis)
individuation (Jung)
goal of life is this process of integrating the conscious with the unconscious, synergizing the many components of the psyche
mystery (Jung)
life is a great mystery and humans understand little of it
mandala (Jung)
symbol of wholeness, completeness, and perfection, symbolizing the self
neurosis (Jung)
what passed for normality is often the force that shattered the personality, trying to be ‘normal’ violates a person’s inner nature and is a form of pathology
story (Jung)
every person has a story and when derangement occurs, it’s bc the personal story was denied or rejected, healing and integration come when a person rediscovers their story
symbol (Jung)
name, term, or picture that’s familiar in daily life but has other connotations by implying smth vague and partially unknown, dream symbols carry messages from the unconscious to the rational mind
unconscious (Jung)
states that all products of the unconscious are symbolic and can be taken as guiding messages
personal unconsciousness (Jung)
aspect of the psyche that doesn’t usually enter an individual’s awareness but appears in overt behaviour or in dreams
collective unconsciousness (Jung)
aspect of the unconscious that manifests in universal themes that run thru all human life
word association test (Jung)
research technique used to explore the complexes in the personal unconscious by having a person respond quickly with a word to the reading of a word
two general attitudes of ppl (Jung)
- introvert (inner-directed, needs privacy and space, chooses solitude to recover energy, reflective)
- extrovert (outer-directed, needs sociability, chooses ppl as a source of energy, action-oriented)
four functions of ppl (Jung)
- thinking function - logical, sees cause and effect relations, cool, distant, frank, and questioning
- feeling function - creative, warm, intimate, has a sense of valuing positive or negatively
- sensing function - sensory, oriented towards the body and senses, detailed, concrete, and present
- intuitive function - sees many possibilities in situations, goes with hunches, impatient with earthly details, impractical, sometimes not present
Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI)
questionnaire designed to measure psychological preferences in how ppl perceive the world and make decisions, developed by Katharine Cook Briggs and Isabel Briggs-Myers
Black box model
captures interaction of stimuli, consumer characteristics, decision processes, and consumer responses
latent content (Freud)
relates to deep unconscious wishes or fantasies
manifest content (Freud)
superficial and meaningless, often masks or obscures latent content
threat-simulation theory
suggests that dreaming should be seen as an ancient biological defence mechanism
expectation fulfillment theory
posits that dreaming serves to discharge emotional arousals that haven’t been expressed during the day
activation-synthesis theory
states that dreams don’t actually mean anything, as they are electrical brain impulses that pull random thoughts and imagery from our memories
continual activation theory
proposes that dreaming is a result of brain activation and synthesis
consolidation
the function of sleep is to process, encode, and transfer data from short-term to long-term memory
non-rapid eye movement (NREM) sleep
processes the conscious-related memory (declarative memory)
rapid eye movement (REM) sleep
processes the unconscious-related memory (procedural memory)
continual-activation
during REM sleep, the unconscious part of the brain processes procedural memory, so the level of activation in the conscious part descends to a low level to the point that the senses are basically disconnected
incubation
sleeping on a problem or disengaging from actively trying to solve a problem to allow the unconscious processes to work on the problem
spreading activation
when problem solvers disengage from the task, they expose themselves to more info that can serve to inform the problem-solving
selective forgetting
once disengaged from the process, solvers can let go of certain ideas that may be inhibiting the process
problem restructuring
when solvers disengage, they are free to restructure or reorganize their representation of the task and capitalize on relevant info not previously noticed, switch strategies, or rearrange info
study of neural correlates of consciousness (NCC)
seeks to link activity within the brain to subjective human experiences in the physical world
neurophilosophy
progress comes from focusing on the body rather than the mind
behaviourism
focuses on observable behaviour as a means to studying the human psyche
classical conditioning
we develop responses to certain stimuli that aren’t naturally occurring known as reflexes, and that we make associations that cause us to generalize our response to one stimuli onto one neutral stimuli it’s paired with, developed by Ivan Pavlov
variables of classical conditioning
- unconditioned stimulus
- unconditioned response
- conditioned stimulus
- conditioned response
operant conditioning
refers to how an organism operates on the env and how it responds to what’s presented to it in the env, developed by Edward Lee Thorndike
concepts of operant conditioning
- reinforcement
- positive reinforcement
- negative reinforcement
- punishment
- extinction
reinforcement
refers to any stimulus which strengthens or increases the probability of a specific response
positive reinforcement
involves adding smth to increase a response
negative reinforcement
involves taking smth negative away to increase a response
punishment
refers to adding smth aversive to decrease a behaviour
extinction
involves removing smth in order to decrease a behaviour
radical behaviourism
introduced by B.F. Skinner, philosophy of the science of behaviour that seeks to understand behaviour as a function of environmental histories of reinforcing consequences
Skinner box
used to measure responses of organisms and their orderly interactions with the env
humanistic psych
holds a hopeful, constructive view of human beings and their capacity to be self-determining, guided by a conviction that intentionality and ethical values are key psychological forces determining human behaviour
Carl Rogers
humanistic psych that introduced person- or client-centred therapy, which relies on clients’ capacity for self-reflection, empathy, and acceptance to promote their development
Abraham Maslow
humanistic psych that developed a hierarchy of motivation or needs culminating in self-actualization
Rollo May
humanistic psych that brought existential psychotherapy and phenomenology into the field by acknowledging human choice and tragic aspects of human existence
Fritz Perls
humanistic psych that developed gestalt therapy
client-centred therapy
provides a supportive env in which clients can re-establish their true identity
existential therapy
focuses on how, by accepting limitations and mortality, a client can overcome anxieties and view life as moments in which they’re free
gestalt therapy
focuses on the skills and techniques that permit an individual to be more aware of their feelings
Rogers’s five characteristics of the fully functioning person
- open to experience
- existential living
- trust feelings
- creativity
- fulfilled life
motivation theory
developed by Frederick Taylor, holds that all work consists largely of simple, uninteresting tasks, and that the only viable method to get ppl to undertake these tasks was to provide incentives and monitor them carefully
two main drives powering human behaviour
- biological drive
- reward-punishment
Harry F Harlow
argued for a third drive that powers human behaviour called intrinsic motivation (the joy of the task itself)
Edward Deci and Richard Ryan
concluded that the conditions supporting the individual’s experience of autonomy, competence, and relatedness foster the greatest motivation for and engagement in activities
Dan Pink’s results of carrot-and-stick
- diminished intrinsic motivation
- lower performance
- less creativity
- crowding out of good behaviour
- unethical behaviour
- addictions
- short-term thinking
positive psychology movement
combines emotion and intuition with research and reason
Martin Seligman
urged to turn towards understanding and building the human strengths to complement our emphasis on healing damage (focusing on ppl’s strengths and virtues)
learned optimism ABCDE model
A = adversity
B = belief
C = consequence
D = disputation
E = energization
Mihalyi Csikszentimihályi
developed the theory of flow (a state of optimal performance that can be entered while performing any activity)
6 factors of flow experience
- intense and focused concentration on the present moment
- merging action and awareness
- loss of reflective self-consciousness
- sense of personal control over the activity
- distortion of temporal experience
- experience of the activity being intrinsically rewarding (an autotelic experience)
3 conditions to achieve flow state
- must be involved in an activity with clear goals and progress to add direction and structure
- task must have immediate feedback to help the person negotiate changing demands and allows them to adjust performance
- must have a good balance between the perceived challenges of the task and their skills and confidence in their ability
cognitive psychology
study of mental processes such as attention, memory, perception, language use, problem-solving, creativity, and thinking
Ulric Neisser
coined the term “cognitive psych” and defining it as all ‘processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used’
cognitive-behavioural therapy (CBT)
used to treat certain pathologies like simple phobias, PTSD, and addiction
cognitive distortions
patterns and beliefs that constitute erroneous thinking
attention
state of focused awareness on a subset of available perceptual info
3 main subclasses of memory
- procedural (memory of the performance of particular types of action, often activated on a subconscious level)
- semantic (encyclopedic knowledge)
- episodic (memory of autobiographical events that can be explicitly stated)
perception
involves both physical senses and cognitive processes involved in selecting and interpreting senses
language use
refers to how language is processed and acquired
metacognition
involves conscious thought about thought processes
divided attention
refers to a person’s ability to focus on 2 or more things at a time
evolutionary psychology
seeks to develop and understand ways of expanding the emotional connection between individuals and the natural world
adaptations
products of natural selection
core premises of evolutionary psych
- brain is an info-processor and produces behaviour in response to internal and external inputs
- brain’s adaptive mechanisms were shaped by natural selection
- diff neural mechanisms are specialized for solving problems in humanity’s evolutionary past
- brain has evolved specialized neural mechanisms designed to solve recurring problems
- most contents and processes of the brain are unconscious, so most mental problems that seem easy are actually difficult problems solved unconsciously by these mechanisms
- human psych consists of many specialized mechanisms that are sensitive to diff classes of info or inputs
