COMTEMP PSYCHOLOGY WEEK 1

Question 1

what is psychology?

Answer 1

• psyche-soul and or mind
• ology - study
• scientific study of behaviour and mental processes

Question 2

what are the difference between behaviour and mental processes?

Answer 2

behaviour

• objective
• observable
• measurable

mental processes

• subjective
• unobservable
• not directly measurable

Question 3

what were plato’s views?

Answer 3

• rationalism
• data obtained from senses is unreliable
• the allegory of the cave
• reason as the chief source and test of knowledge
• the soul is born with knowledge
• the soul is incorporeal and immortal

Question 4

what were Aritotles views?

Answer 4

• empiricism
• perceptions can be used to arrive at general truths
• humans have a cognitive capacity to register experiences
• the soul is born without knowledge and learns
• the soul cannot exist apart from the body

Question 5

what were Descartes views?

Answer 5

• revised rationlism
• how can we be sure of anything
• cogito ergo sum- I think therefore I am

Question 6

what was psychology for most of history?

Answer 6

• was branch of philosophy
• was based on ‘armchair speculation’ ‘introspection’ and uncontrolled observation.
  e. g. Galen and the four temperaments of personality

Question 7

what was the first psychology lab opened and where?

Answer 7

• experimental psychology laboratory opened in Leipzig,Germany (1879)

Question 8

who is Wilhelm wundt and who what is his importance in psychology?

Answer 8

• founded modern science of psychology combining ; methods of natural sciences and the sciences of higher mental activity
• studied contents of consciousness
• used systematic and observation of standardised and reproducible stimuli ; external and internal observation( Introspection)
• distinguished between sensation and perception

Question 9

what is an AXIOM?

Answer 9

• a statement that is assumed to be true
• cannot be proven or falsified
• used as a starting point for further reasoning and arguments.

Question 10

what are the core assumptions in psychology?

Answer 10

• nature vs nurture
• internal vs external factors
• atomism vs holism
• free will vs Determinism
• Materialism vs Dualism
• structuralism vs Functionalism

Question 11

Nature vs Nurture

Answer 11

nature

• nativism; the view that certain skills or behaviours are native or hardwired into the brain at birth
• hereditary - behaviour determined by genetic make up

nurture

• empiricism ; brain has little innate knowledge and almost everything is learned through interaction with the environment
• environment; environmental factors determine persons behavioural characteristics

Question 12

internal vs external

Answer 12

internal
- driven by biological drives , inner mental states
external
- behaviour driven by external events
- behaviour can be researched scientifically without recourse to inner mental states

Question 13

atomism vs holism

Answer 13

atomism
- reductionism; human behaviour can be resolved into bio componenets

holism
- non reductionism ; as a whole consider the bigger picture

Question 14

free will vs determinism

Answer 14

free will
- human beings have control over their on behaviour

determinism
- every human cognition and action is casually determined by prior occurrences

Question 15

materialism vs dualism

Answer 15

materilaism
- only thing that can be said to truly exist is matter

Dualism
- both mind and body exist

Question 16

structuralism vs Functionalism

Answer 16

structuralism
- focus is on analysis
how mind is organised and structured
what is conciousness?

Functionalism
- focus is on how the mind serves to adapt the individual to the enviro
- behaviour increase survival and reproductive success?
what is consciousness for?