Doing Psychology 1.2 Flashcards
What does Rene Descartes’s principle ‘Cogito ergo sum’ mean? (1 sentence)
I think, therefore I am
What is rationalism? (1 sentence)
The approach to knowledge that stresses the reliability of reason over senses
What is nativism? (1 sentence)
The position that we are born with innate mental stuff (like ideas)
What is dualism? (1 sentence)
The position that the mind is distinct from matter
What did the English philosopher John Locke think about nativism? (1 sentence)
He rejected nativism and believed our knowledge was solely the product of experience, sensation, and reflection.
What are empiricism and associationism? (1 sentence each)
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.
What did the Scottish philosopher David Hume write about in the laws of association, regarding causality? (1 sentence)
We can observe A then B, but not A causing B, thus ‘constant conjunction’ is based on experience and habit, rather than a certainty
What two theories is the German philosopher Immanuel Kant associated with? (1 sentence each)
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
What do the terms that Kant distinguished, ‘phenomenal’ and ‘noumenal’ mean? (1 sentence each)
Phenomenal - the world of experience
Noumenal - the world as it really is
What did Ernst Weber carry out work on sensory thresholds to calculate? (1 sentence)
The ‘just noticeable difference’ - the smallest detectable difference in sensation
How did Gustav Fechner build upon Ernst Weber’s work, and what did he prove? (1 sentence each)
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
Why was Darwin’s theory (1859) an important scientific development in the emergence of psychology? (1 sentence)
Darwin’s idea of natural selection provided a natural science framework for psychological questions about the evolution of mind, individual, and society
What vision (1869) did Darwin’s cousin, Francis Galton, create regarding inherited traits? (1 sentence)
Eugenics - selective breeding of individuals with desirable traits
What methods did Francis Galton develop? (1 sentence)
Questionnaires, mental tests, and new kinds of statistical analysis such as regression and the correlation coefficient
Who is known as the ‘founding father’ of Psychology and why?
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
What did German researcher Herman Ebbinghaus conduct experiments on? (1 word)
Memory (as a form of recall)
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)
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
What does Thomas Kuhn’s notion of ‘paradigm incommensurability’ mean? (1 sentence)
Different paradigms cannot be compared directly because facts can mean different things between different paradigms
What did E.B. Titchener believe, and what did he mean by structuralism? (1 sentence each)
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
What is functionalism and what does it believe? (1 sentence each)
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
What did Freud’s ‘psychoanalysis’ focus on? ( 1 sentence)
The unconscious mind
What does physical research focus on? (1 sentence)
The unconscious and paranormal phenomena
What approach to Psychology did J.B. Watson argue for in 1912, and what did he believe? (1 sentence each)
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)
What does ‘environmentalism’ mean? (1 sentence)
Humans are the product of their environment, not nature
What are the differences between Gestalt Psychology and behaviourism? (3-4 points each)
Gestalt - studied experience directly, anti-reductionist, regarded experience in a holistic way, ‘nativist’
Behaviourism - sought to reduce mental phenomena to stimuli + responses, ‘environmentalist’
What is humanist psychology? (1 sentence)
The study of individuals as a whole, not how they differ, and concerned with personal meaning with various kinds of treatment
What was the ‘cognitive revolution’? (1 sentence)
Psychology increasingly saw the mind as a computer
What is the cognitivist perspective? (1 sentence)
Human interaction is seen in terms of individual minds processing information, with little regard for wider social context
What has the emergence of new technology (2 examples) led to in psychological research? (1 sentence)
Technology like brain scanning and genetic research has led to growth research of psychological phenomena in terms of neurological processes and genetic make-up
What four key things vary between different psychological approaches?
What - is being studied
How - it is studied
Assumptions about what and how
Aims of the research
What are the five core areas of Psychology defined by the BPS?
Biological
Cognitive
Developmental
Differential
Social
