Consciousness

Question 1

What does Chalmers believe about the explanatory gap?

Answer 1

That it will never be bridged as physical theory can be explained without consciousness, and other theories (e.g. dualism) rely on immeasurable “magic” to describe consciousness.

Question 2

What do Crick and Koch suggest though a neuroscientific approach to reductionism?

Answer 2

That certain 35 - 75 Hz neural oscillations in the cerebral cortex correlate with awareness and could provide a basis for consciousness or suggest a binding mechanism.

Question 3

Describe Baars’ global workspace theory.

Answer 3

Contents of consciousness are contained within a global workspace which acts as a ‘communal blackboard’ for the rest of the system and explain contrasts between conscious and non-conscious cognitive functioning.

Question 4

What is the category mistake of the ghost in the machine?

Answer 4

The idea that there must be ah intelligent inner pilot guiding the complex movements of the human body.

Question 5

Give the main positive of Descartes’ legacy.

Answer 5

He allowed medical science o advance more easily without offending church’s dogma.

Question 6

Give the main negative of Descartes’ legacy.

Answer 6

Established the mind-body problem that has become a mental health - vs. medical model, affecting mental disorders.

Question 7

How did William James define psychology?

Answer 7

The science of mental life/the mind.

Question 8

What did William James believe were the most important type of phenomena in psychology?

Answer 8

Feelings, cognition, decisions etc., the condition they occur under, and their purpose.

Question 9

In pragmatism/functionalism, what are the components of Me?

Answer 9

He bodily/material self, the social self and the spiritual self.

Question 10

In pragmatism/functionalism, what differentiates I and Me?

Answer 10

Me is the observed self and is changing and I is the observer which stays constant.

Question 11

In pragmatism/functionalism, how is will defined?

Answer 11

A state of mind which everyone knows of oneself and which no definition can make plainer.

Question 12

Where does logical positivism come into neobehaviourism?

Answer 12

It asserts that primacy of observation in assessing truth, and believes arguments are only meaningful when based on observable data, which is consistent with the behaviourist understanding that rules of behaviour are all we can certain of (e.g. Watson).

Question 13

Give the 2 basic premises of neobehavioralism.

Answer 13

The most effective way to discover basic theoretical principles is to study a phenomenon in it’s simplest form and that understand that behaviour helps us understand human action.

Question 14

What did Tolman believe was molecular behaviour?

Answer 14

Physiological reactions.

Question 15

What did Tolman believe was molar behaviour?

Answer 15

The functional consequences of a given act (and the real psychological explanation of behaviour).

Question 16

What model of animal learning did Tolman believe in?

Answer 16

Hypothesis-testing.

Question 17

What is the key factor of Hull’s goal gradient hypothesis?

Answer 17

The habit: the tendency for a given stimulus to evoke the same response on successive occasions (through aquifer response readiness activated by drive).

Question 18

Who was a radical behaviourist and devout empiricist?

Answer 18

Skinner.

Question 19

What did Skinner believe was key to scientific explanation?

Answer 19

“Demonstration of functional relationships.”

Question 20

How did Skinner believe behaviour was controlled?

Answer 20

The environment controls individual behaviour, which is lawful.

Question 21

What 5 things did Freud believe drives us?

Answer 21

Irrational forces, unconscious motivations, biological drives, instinctual drives, and psychosexual events.

Question 22

What 2 things did Freud believe drives behaviour?

Answer 22

Aggression and sexuality (libido).

Question 23

What did Freud believe “bad dreams” exist to do?

Answer 23

To fulfil wishes we want to conceal by censoring them and showing them in a disfigured state.

Question 24

Give 3 reasons infantile sexuality can be considered a dangerous solution.

Answer 24

1) It distorts our view on relationships, neurotic conflicts and ignores cultural factors.
2) It ignores the interacting of different things.
3) It leads to an analyst assuming there are final (biologically driven) limitations of therapy that do not exist.

Question 25

Give the 5 key aspects of Freudian therapy.

Answer 25

Free association, interpretation, resistance, transference, and dream analysis.

Question 26

Give the first principle that evolutionary psychology has drawn from biology.

Answer 26

That the brain functions as a computer creating behaviours appropriate to the environment.

Question 27

Give the second principle that evolutionary psychology has drawn from biology.

Answer 27

Neural circuits are designed by the nervous system to solve problems that our ancestors faced.

Question 28

Give the third principle that evolutionary psychology has drawn from biology.

Answer 28

Most of our circuitry is unconscious, meaning we think problems we solve are simple when we actually use complex circuitry to do this.

Question 29

Give the fourth principle that evolutionary psychology has drawn from biology.

Answer 29

Different neural circuits are specialised for different adaptive problems.

Question 30

Give the fifth principle that evolutionary psychology has drawn from biology.

Answer 30

Our modern skulls house a Stone Age mind.

Question 31

Define existentialism in humanistic psychology.

Answer 31

Every individual has free will and is a responsible agent determining their own development.

Question 32

Define phenomenology in humanistic psychology.

Answer 32

Knowledge arises through sensed and minds.

Question 33

What is the congruent version of Rogers’ concept of self?

Answer 33

Our self-image and our actions/behaviours are consistent and balanced.

Question 34

How could Rogers’ unconditional positive regard during childhood create incongruence in his concept of self?

Answer 34

People adapt themselves to be loved and accepted and so sacrifice aspects of their ‘true’ selves.

Question 35

What attitudes are necessary in a client-centred therapist?

Answer 35

Genuiness, UPR and empathetic understanding.

Question 36

What does client-centred therapy attempt?

Answer 36

Help people reorganise their subjective world and actuality the self.