Doing Psychology 1.2

Question 1

What does Rene Descartes’s principle ‘Cogito ergo sum’ mean? (1 sentence)

Answer 1

I think, therefore I am

Question 2

What is rationalism? (1 sentence)

Answer 2

The approach to knowledge that stresses the reliability of reason over senses

Question 3

What is nativism? (1 sentence)

Answer 3

The position that we are born with innate mental stuff (like ideas)

Question 4

What is dualism? (1 sentence)

Answer 4

The position that the mind is distinct from matter

Question 5

What did the English philosopher John Locke think about nativism? (1 sentence)

Answer 5

He rejected nativism and believed our knowledge was solely the product of experience, sensation, and reflection.

Question 6

What are empiricism and associationism? (1 sentence each)

Answer 6

Empiricism is the approach to knowledge that stresses the role of observation and experience.
Associationism is the idea that we form more complex ideas through the process of association.

Question 7

What did the Scottish philosopher David Hume write about in the laws of association, regarding causality? (1 sentence)

Answer 7

We can observe A then B, but not A causing B, thus ‘constant conjunction’ is based on experience and habit, rather than a certainty

Question 8

What two theories is the German philosopher Immanuel Kant associated with? (1 sentence each)

Answer 8

Nativism - we interpret what we observe in line with our own mental faculties

Idealism - the approach to knowledge that stresses the role of our minds in how we perceive the world

Question 9

What do the terms that Kant distinguished, ‘phenomenal’ and ‘noumenal’ mean? (1 sentence each)

Answer 9

Phenomenal - the world of experience
Noumenal - the world as it really is

Question 10

What did Ernst Weber carry out work on sensory thresholds to calculate? (1 sentence)

Answer 10

The ‘just noticeable difference’ - the smallest detectable difference in sensation

Question 11

How did Gustav Fechner build upon Ernst Weber’s work, and what did he prove? (1 sentence each)

Answer 11

He developed a program of ‘psychophysics’ that manipulated physical stimuli then measured changes in sensation using the j.n.d
This proved the relationship between physical and psychological could be studied in an experimental + quantitative way

Question 12

Why was Darwin’s theory (1859) an important scientific development in the emergence of psychology? (1 sentence)

Answer 12

Darwin’s idea of natural selection provided a natural science framework for psychological questions about the evolution of mind, individual, and society

Question 13

What vision (1869) did Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, create regarding inherited traits? (1 sentence)

Answer 13

Eugenics - selective breeding of individuals with desirable traits

Question 14

What methods did Francis Galton develop? (1 sentence)

Answer 14

Questionnaires, mental tests, and new kinds of statistical analysis such as regression and the correlation coefficient

Question 15

Who is known as the ‘founding father’ of Psychology and why?

Answer 15

Wilhelm Wundt established the first research laboratory in 1979 and the first journal in experimental psychology in 1881, which went on to teach many students who conducted further work

Question 16

What did German researcher Herman Ebbinghaus conduct experiments on? (1 word)

Answer 16

Memory (as a form of recall)

Question 17

How did the work in Germany during the 1800s differ from Galton’s research and Jean-Martin Charcot’s research in Paris? (3 points for each)

Answer 17

Germany - experimental, psychologists used introspection to observe their own thoughts, evidence represented the human mind

Galton - correlational, not focused on human mind, data collected represented individual differences

Charcot - collected evidence using observed behaviour, evidence represented pathological condition, neither human mind/individual differences

Question 18

What does Thomas Kuhn’s notion of ‘paradigm incommensurability’ mean? (1 sentence)

Answer 18

Different paradigms cannot be compared directly because facts can mean different things between different paradigms

Question 19

What did E.B. Titchener believe, and what did he mean by structuralism? (1 sentence each)

Answer 19

Titchener believed psychology should be a pure science based on experimental introspection
Structuralism is the study of the structure of the mind in terms of mental content

Question 20

What is functionalism and what does it believe? (1 sentence each)

Answer 20

Functionalism is the study of what the mind does, rather than what it is
It uses a range of methods and believes psychology is not just a science - it is applicable to the real world

Question 21

What did Freud’s ‘psychoanalysis’ focus on? ( 1 sentence)

Answer 21

The unconscious mind

Question 22

What does physical research focus on? (1 sentence)

Answer 22

The unconscious and paranormal phenomena

Question 23

What approach to Psychology did J.B. Watson argue for in 1912, and what did he believe? (1 sentence each)

Answer 23

Psychology should study behaviour because science must be based on observation, and behaviour, unlike the mind, could be observed

He wanted to reduce all mental phenomena to behaviour (external stimuli and behavioural responses)

Question 24

What does ‘environmentalism’ mean? (1 sentence)

Answer 24

Humans are the product of their environment, not nature

Question 25

What are the differences between Gestalt Psychology and behaviourism? (3-4 points each)

Answer 25

Gestalt - studied experience directly, anti-reductionist, regarded experience in a holistic way, ‘nativist’

Behaviourism - sought to reduce mental phenomena to stimuli + responses, ‘environmentalist’

Question 26

What is humanist psychology? (1 sentence)

Answer 26

The study of individuals as a whole, not how they differ, and concerned with personal meaning with various kinds of treatment

Question 27

What was the ‘cognitive revolution’? (1 sentence)

Answer 27

Psychology increasingly saw the mind as a computer

Question 28

What is the cognitivist perspective? (1 sentence)

Answer 28

Human interaction is seen in terms of individual minds processing information, with little regard for wider social context

Question 29

What has the emergence of new technology (2 examples) led to in psychological research? (1 sentence)

Answer 29

Technology like brain scanning and genetic research has led to growth research of psychological phenomena in terms of neurological processes and genetic make-up

Question 30

What four key things vary between different psychological approaches?

Answer 30

What - is being studied
How - it is studied
Assumptions about what and how
Aims of the research

Question 31

What are the five core areas of Psychology defined by the BPS?

Answer 31

Biological
Cognitive
Developmental
Differential
Social