Evolution of Psychology Flashcards
Applied Psychology
Branch of psychology focused on practical, everyday problems
Behaviour
Any observable activity or response, including personal thoughts. Others may not be able to observe them, but you can.
Behaviourism
School of thought that believes psychology should focus on observable behaviour and stimulus-response relationships. E.g// Pavlovs dog; ring the bell, smell the meat, salivate. Eventually the ring makes the dogs salivate without the smell of the meat
Biological Psychology
School of thought focused on brain chemistry and how it influenced behaviour.
Cell Assembly
Curated by Donald Hebb
Repeated stimulation leads to development, they resemble cognitive units that influence behaviour.
Clinical Psychology
Psychology focused on the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders, but not from a medical perspective.
Cognition
Mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.
Culture
A set of beliefs and values shared by a society.
Critical Thinking
Use of cognitive skills that promote desirable outcomes.
Empiricism
Belief that knowledge should be gained through observation.
Ethnocentrism
The belief that ones own culture is superior to others.
Evolutionary Psychology
Looks at behavioural processes and how they adapt and pass on to future generations
It has been criticized because it’s claims cannot be scientifically tested and they seem to be straight-forward answers to behavioural phenomena.
Humanism
Takes a more positive approach to psychology
Believed humans were unique from animals in the sense of having free will and drive for personal growth
They held the belief that since humans were so unique, animal research had little to no relevance to understanding human behvaiour
Introspection
Self-observation of ones own conscious experience. Commonly used by structuralists
Natural Selection
Species adapting to their environments by passing on favourable genes
Nature
The world as it exists without human influence
Nature vs Nurture : hereditary influence on behaviour and personality
Nurture
Nature vs Nurture : environmental influence on behaviour and personality (those things being taught, not pre-existing)
Personality Psychology
This psychology studies the what shapes personality and consistency of behaviour (personality).
Positive Psychology
Uses research to understand the positive, creative, adaptive and fulfilling aspects to human existence
- positive subjective experience/emotion: happiness, love, hope, contentment and gratitude
- positive individual traits/strengths and virtues: identification and classification of the origins of human strengths and virtues. E.g// courage, perseverance, tolerance, integrity etc.
- positive institutions and communities: focuses on how societies create strong families, healthy work environments and supportive neighborhood communities
Psychiatry
Medical approach to diagnosing and treating psychological disorders
Psychoanalytic Theory
Tries to explain personality, motivation and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious influences on behaviour.
Psychology
Study of the mind
Study of behaviour and the cognitive processes that underlie it. Applies accumulated knowledge to practical problems.
Psychometrics
Uses psychological tasks to assess personality, intelligence and other abilities.
Skepticism
Doubting information to double check facts
Social Psychology
Focus on interpersonal behaviour and the role social groups play in behaviour.
Topics include attitude formation and change, prejudice and conformity
SQ3R
Method of study 1. Survey 2. Question 3. Read 4. Recite 5. Review Effective because it solidifies information in your mind
Stimulus
Outside influence on behaviour such as a smell, sight or sound
Stimulus-Response Psychology
Study of behaviour using stimulus to observe behaviour
“Stream of Consciousness”
Originated by William James.
The constant flow of thoughts and feelings
Testwiseness
Ability to increase your score by using the format of the test to your advantage
Theory
Combination of thoughts used to explain certain events or observations
Unconsciousness
Memories and thoughts that lie beneath conscious awareness, yet still have an effect on behaviour.
Sigmund Freud
Psychologist who treated psychological disorders using psychoanalysis
Mental disturbances all come from the unconscious (thoughts, memories that influence behaviour but are below conscious awareness)
Believed humans are not the master of their own minds
Lots of focus on suppressed sexual urges
Carl Rogers
Founder of humanism
Argued that human behaviour is influenced by our sense of selves, problems stem from oppressing human needs
Donald Hebb
Believed behaviour happens in the brain and pushed developments in neuroscience and cognition.
Created Cell Assembly
- repeated stimulation leads to development of assembly
-resemble cognitive units that facilitate behaviour
G. Stanley Hall
Founded the first experimental psych lab in Baltimore, Maryland
William James
Leader of functionalism.
Wrote ‘Principles of Psychology’ = most influential psychological texts
Used Darwins theories to explain realms of the psychology
Believed psych had many cultural + intellectual influences
Brenda Milner
Made important contributions to the understanding of memory.
One of the founders of neuropsychology in Canada
Martin Seligman
Founder of the positive psychology movement. He realized psychology’s approach to life and the study was unnecessarily negative and could be made better.
B.F Skinner
Studied behaviourism
Redefined internal thoughts as private events and thought they were not integral to the understanding of behaviour
Emphasized on environments influence on behaviour
Learned that behaviour that promotes positive outcomes is repeated, while behaviour that has negative outcomes is avoided
John B. Watson
Founder of behaviourism
Proposed the abandonment of the study of consciousness altogether
Thought it was unscientific and couldn’t be tested
Nature vs Nurture (Nurture). Didn’t believe behaviour was governed by heredity, but by the environment
Wilhelm Wudnt
Wanted psychology to be an independent discipline
Wudnt established the first psychology journal focusing on research
Changed the view on psychology and made it independent from its fathers (philosophy and physiology)
Identify origins of the word psychology
Psyche : soul, spirit, mind
Logos : to study
Psychology: Study of mind
Intellectual parents of psychology
Philosophy and physiology
Which of Descartes ideas advanced the study in naturalistic psychology?
The idea that the mind and body were separate
Functions like perception, memory and emotion are just properties of the body
Define Structuralism
Psychologys main task is to analyze and sort consciousness into basic elements and to learn about how these elements are related (sensations, feelings and images)
Structuralists believed the best way to study psychology was to self-observe ones own conscious experience
Define Functionalism
Psychologys main focus is learning about the purpose and function of consciousness, not the structure.
What part of Darwins theory of evolution have an impact on psychology?
The idea that favourable genes were passed down to assist in surviving or reproducing. This made William James believe that all characteristics of a species has a purpose.
Define Watsonian Behaviourism
Based on stimulus-response psychology
Belief that psychology should only study observable behaviour
Why was the study of consciousness abandoned?
It is unable to be studied via the scientific method and therefore made psychology an illegitimate science
Why did Freuds psychoanalytic theory encounter resistance in the field?
Psychologists believed it was difficult to study the consciousness, let alone unconsciousness which couldn’t even be self observed
When did behaviourism flourish?
1950 and 60
List and explain the six contemporary theoretical perspectives within psychology?
- Behavioural: environment has control over behaviour. only observable behaviour can be studied scientifically
- Psychoanalytic: unconscious thoughts effect behaviour and contribute to mental disorders
- Humanistic: humans are free and unique in the sense of free will and the drive for personal growth
- Cognitive: humans cannot be understood without first understanding how they acquire, store and process information
- Biological: functioning can be explained by body structures and biochemical processes
- Evolutionary: behaviour has evolved to solve problems and promote reproductive success.
Describe the development of psychology in Canada
James Mark Baldwin opened the first psychology lab in Canada
First psych course was offered at Dalhousie
Psych was taught through philosophy and became more common in the 1850s
Why has Western philosophy neglected other cultures?
Cross-cultural research is costly and time consuming. Much more convenient to study students at universities in ones own country
Why has interest in cross-cultural psychology grown?
Communication between cultures and the Western world are more diverse now, providing the need for more diverse research.
Positive Psychology
Uses research to better understand the positive, creative, adaptive and fulfilling aspects to human existence
3 parts to positive psychology
- positive subjective experience (positive emotions)
happiness, love, hope, contentment and gratitude - positive individual traits (personal strengths/virtues)
identification and classification of strengths and virtues such as courage, perseverance, tolerance, creativity and kindness - positive institutions and communities
focuses on how societies form strong families and supportive communities
Define the 7 major research methods in psychology
- developmental psychology
- focuses on how people develop as they mature - social psychology
- focus on interpersonal behaviour and the role social groups have on behaviour - experimental psychology
- traditional topics early psych focused on (learning, conditioning, perception etc) - physiological psychology
- studies how chemicals in the brain influence behaviour - cognitive psychology
- studies “higher” mental processes (memory, language, creativity etc) - personality
- studies consistency in behaviour = personalilty - psychometrics
- involved in psychological tasks to assess personality, intelligence and other abilities
Define 4 areas of specialization within applied psychology
- clinical psychology
- concerned with diagnosing and treating mental disorders from a non medical perspective - counselling psychology
- like clinical psychology, but focuses on everyday problems. (family, marital and career counselling) - educational/school psychology
- educational psychologists work to improve syllabus and testing
- school psychologists work with struggling children and parents - industrial psychology
- works to improve businesses (staff morale, efficiency, running human resource)
Define 3 themes of psychology
- psychology is empirical
- conclusions are based on observation, rather than speculation, beliefs or common sense - psychology is theoretically diverse
- uses theories to link and explain behaviour
- many theories combined often explain behaviour better than one theory alone - psychology evolves in a sociohistorical context
- trends influence psychology and vice versa. eg// Freuds emphasis on sexuality was influenced by his anti sex culture
Define 4 themes related to subject matter
- behaviour is determined by multiple causes
- most aspects of behaviour are determined by multiple causes
- multifactoral causation of behaviour
- -behaviour is complex and cannot be explained using single cause explanations - behaviour is shaped by cultural heritage
- cultural background influences behaviour - heredity and environment jointly influence behaviour
- psychologists used to believe that behaviour/personality was entirely nature or entirely nurture. most now believe it is a combination of both - peoples experience of the world is highly subjective
- people take in and process stimuli uniquely from each other
- motives and expectations influence peoples experience
