Famous People in Psychology

Question 1

Rene Descartes

Answer 1

DUALISM: He believed that knowledge is innate and that the mind was the pineal gland.

Question 2

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 2

STRUCTURALISM: He is known as the father of psychology. In 1879, he created the first psychology laboratory which had the purpose of measuring consciousness. It was located at the University of Leipzig.

He also wrote the first psychology textbook called Principles of Physiological Psychology in 1874. The book defended psychology as a unique subject worthy of study, defining psychology as the study of consciousness.

Question 3

Margaret Floy Washburn

Answer 3

The first woman to receive her P.h.D in Psychology

Question 4

Mary Whiton Calkins

Answer 4

The first female president of the American Psychological Association (APA).

Question 5

John Watson

Answer 5

BEHAVIORAL: He believed that psychology should only study behavior and not spend time on mental processes.

Question 6

B.F. Skinner

Answer 6

BEHAVIORAL: He invented the concept of operant conditioning using rats and pigeons.

Question 7

Max Wertheimer
Wolfgang Kohler
Kurt Koffka

Answer 7

GESTALT: Believed that the whole process should be studied and that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. It was a reaction to structuralism.

Question 8

William James (Founder)
James Cattell
John Dewey

Answer 8

FUNCTIONALISM: Studied how the mind adapts to the environment. It was a reaction to structuralism.

Question 9

Aristotle
Thomas Hobbes
John Locke

Answer 9

MONISM: Believed that the mind and brain were one entity. Fought for the nurture side of the argument

Question 10

Sigmund Freud (Father)
Carl Jung
Alfred Adler
Karen Horney
Heinz Kohut

Answer 10

PSYCHOANALYTICS: studying unconscious motives

Question 11

Abraham Maslow

Carl Rogers

Answer 11

HUMANISM: free will guides behavior and leads to personal growth.

Question 12

John Locke

Answer 12

MONISM: He believed that we are all born as blank slates (tabula rasa) and that nurture is what develops our personalities.

Question 13

Thomas Hobbes

Answer 13

MONISM: He was one of the first to think about and study our perceptions.

Question 14

Immanuel Kant

Answer 14

Enlightenment-era thinker who believed that we actively shape our worlds with inborn traits that skew perception

Question 15

Anton Mesmer

Answer 15

A Viennese psychologist that was the first to use hypnotism to cure mental illness using the term mesmerize. Others that used hypnotism were Braid, Charcot, and Freud.

Question 16

Franz Joseph Gall

Answer 16

He was the creator of Phrenology, which was the belief that our personalities were determined by the shape of our skulls.

Question 17

Sir Francis Galton

Answer 17

The first to use statistics in his research and also the person that invented the correlation coefficient.

Question 18

Gustav Fechner

Answer 18

The founder of experimental psychology. He used empirical technology to study psychological phenomenons.

Question 19

Johannes Muller

Answer 19

SENSORY-PHYSIO: He suggested that nerves fire the same way every time, despite the stimulus applied. He also wrote the book Elements of Physiology that spoke to the existence of special nerve energies

Question 20

Herbert Spencer

Answer 20

His work was based on the discredited evolutionary work of Lamarck and he suggested that different races pass intelligence to difference generations.

Question 21

Hermann von Helmholtz

Answer 21

SENSORY-PHYSIO: He was the founder of the psychology of perception.

Question 22

Stanley Hall

Answer 22

He held the first P.h.D in the United states, was the found of the American Psychological Association, and founded the modern concept of adolescence.

Question 23

John Dewey

Answer 23

He studied the reflex arc and held the belief that animals adapt rather than respond with concrete responses.

Question 24

Edward Titchner

Answer 24

STRUCTURALISM: The inventor of structuralism. He used individuals trained in introspection to examine consciousness.

Question 25

James Cattell

Answer 25

FUNCTIONALISM: One of the forefathers of experimental psychology, he founded labs at the University of Pennsylvania and at Columbia University.

Question 26

Dorthea Lynde Dix

Answer 26

One of the first people in America to make an effort to provide better care for those with mental illnesses.

Question 27

Edward Thorndike

Answer 27

FUNCTIONALISM: He created the law of effect which eventually led to operant conditioning.

Question 28

Alfred Adler

Answer 28

A student of Freud’s, he created independent psychology, the inferiority complex, and 4-type personality structures.

Question 29

Carl Gustav Jung

Answer 29

He split from Freud and created analytic psychology

Question 30

Clark Hull

Answer 30

BEHAVIORAL: He is associated with the Mechanistic Behavioral Equation which is: Performance = Drive x Habit

Question 31

Edward Tolman

Answer 31

BEHAVIORAL: He believed that learning is acquired through purposeful behavior by using rats and mazes.

Question 32

Konrad Lorenz

Answer 32

The founder of ethology he also spent a lot of time researching the imprinting of ducklings.

Question 33

Carl Rogers

Answer 33

HUMANIST: He created client-centered therapy, employing unconditional positive regard.

Question 34

Abraham Maslow

Answer 34

HUMANIST: He was seen as the leader of humanists and created a hierarchy of needs.

Question 35

Erik Erikson

Answer 35

He developed an 8-stage model of development that included the necessity of a crisis in order to move on to the next step.

Question 36

Aaron Beck

Answer 36

He believed that mental illness came from bad thinking processes and could be treated with cognitive therapy.``

Question 37

Jean Piaget

Answer 37

1. Child’s interaction with the physical world leads to logical cognition
2. Stage theory; going through these stages leads to qualitative changes in reason
3. Universal; we all develop the same, culture only plays a small role
4. The mind is active
5. The functional part of his theory has assimilation and accomodation
6. The structural part of his theory has schemas and operations

Question 38

Richard LaPiere (Study)

Answer 38

He did a study in the 1930s about behavior toward Asians. He found that an overwhelming majority of store owners said that they would refuse service to asian customers, but in actuality a very small percentage actually did refuse that service. He found that attitude does not necessarily dictate behavior.

Question 39

Festinger and Carlsmith (Study)

Answer 39

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: They performed a study where participants were given either $1 or $20 to tell the next “participant “ that the task was exciting even though it wasn’t. They found the more the participant was paid the less they believed they enjoyed the task.

Question 40

Harold Kelly (Theory)

Answer 40

ATTRIBUTION THEORY: This theory addresses how we understand the cause of events and behaviors. We make attributions using three kinds of information:

1. Consistency: How well the information holds up over time
2. Distinctiveness: How different the information is from other sources of information
3. Consensus: How someone else would respond in the same situation

Question 41

Rosenthal and Jacobson (Study)

Answer 41

SELF-FULFILLING PROPHECY: This study was called Pygmalion in the Classroom. At a school they prepared to give students a standard IQ test, but told teachers that it was meant to determine how well they would do in future schooling. They also told the teachers which of the students (randomly selected) were likely to do well on the exam. Those students were treated as more capable and their scores improved more.

Question 42

M. J. Lerner (Theory)

Answer 42

JUST-WORLD BIAS: A belief that says that good things happen to good people and bad things happen to bad people. It helps us to make sense of the world as fundamentally fair. It also can lead to us blaming victims, saying that if they had made better decisions it wouldn’t have happened to them.

Question 43

Darley and Latane (Study)

Answer 43

BYSTANDER EFFECT and DIFFUSION OF RESPONSIBILITY: They decided to study these two phenomenons after the murder of Kitty Genovese. They were interested in how there were do many witnesses and yet no one did anything.

Question 44

Solomon Asch (Study)

Answer 44

CONFORMITY: He had participants come in to participate in a group vision test where they had to estimate the lengths of lines. All were confederates except the participant. Even if the group gave an obviously wrong answer, a significant number of the participants conformed to the groups answer.

Question 45

Milgram (Study)

Answer 45

OBEDIENCE: Participants were told to shock another participant (secretly a confederate) whenever they answered a question incorrectly, with voltage increasing with each wrong answer. More than half eventually administered the highest level of shock because the experimenter said to, even when the confederate begged them to stop.

Question 46

Zimbardo (Study #1)

Answer 46

DEINDIVIDUATION: A group of participants was randomly assigned to be either a prisoner or a guard. Both conformed to their roles quickly with guards acting powerful and sadistic and prisoners acting passive and dependent. They study had to be ended early because it became too dangerous to continue forward.

It was learned that people adapt to given roles and context deindividuates making people act in ways they never thought they would.

Question 47

Norman Triplett

Answer 47

In 1897, he performed the first social psychology experiment. He found that cyclists bike slower by themselves than they do with a group of other cyclists.

Question 48

Kurt Lewin

Answer 48

FIELD THEORY: He is credited as the father of social psychology and derived field theory. Field theory states that our personalities are dynamic and formed by many interacting influences such as valence, vector, and barrier. These forces act on people’s field or lifespace.

Question 49

Fritz Heider

Answer 49

ATTRIBUTION THEORY: He was the first to think of attribution theory and others such as Kelley took it and developed it from there. In attribution theory, we attempt to understand events and behaviors by attributing to others.

BALANCE THEORY: People want to maintain psychological stasis, which creates an urge to preserve attitudes.

Question 50

Lee Ross

Answer 50

He found that if a person has the time to rationalize an incorrect answer before they are told it is wrong, that they will persist and argue that the belief is true.

Question 51

Richard Nisbitt

Answer 51

His studies showed that mental processes shape preferences subconsciously and that we are unaware of why we do what we do.

Question 52

Ellen Langer

Answer 52

ILLUSION OF CONTROL: Thinking you can control the outcome of something that is chance-based.

Question 53

Leon Festinger (Theory)

Answer 53

COGNITIVE DISSONANCE: He believed that actions were born from beliefs.

Question 54

Daryl Bem (Theory)

Answer 54

SELF-PERCEPTION THEORY: He believed that people that are uncertain of their beliefs may consider their actions and behavior to understand.

Question 55

Robert Zajonc (Theory)

Answer 55

SOCIAL FACILITATION and SOCIAL IMPAIRMENT: Observers present for an easy or mundane task improve productivity, but observers for a difficult task decrease productivity.

Question 56

Morton Deutsch (Studies)

Answer 56

PRISONER’S DILEMMA AND TRUCKING COMPANY GAMES: Both of these studies involved 1) Cooperation, 2) Competition, and 3) Trust. The prisoners had to trust that their fellow prisoners would cooperate with the decided plan. The trucking company had to trust the other trucking companies that they would honor their deal and not try create competition for business.

Question 57

R. E. Petty and J. T. Cacioppo (Theory)

Answer 57

ELABORATION LIKELIHOOD: They argued that people who are deeply invested are only persuaded by the strength of an argument and are not swayed by insignificant factors. Those that are not invested are more likely to be swayed by someone attractive or famous.

Question 58

McGuire (Theory)

Answer 58

INOCULATION THEORY: Beliefs that have not been challenged are weak and vulnerable, but those that have been tested and defended persevere. A small challenge acts as a vaccine and makes a belief stronger and immune to other challenges.

Question 59

Zimbardo (Study #2)

Answer 59

Antisocial behavior increases in densely populated areas

Question 60

James Stoner

Answer 60

Dominant views are strengthened and gain unanimity in a group (group polarization). Because of this strength, groups are more likely to engage in risky behavior than individuals (risky shift).

Question 61

Kenneth and Mamie Clark

Answer 61

DOLL STUDIES: Showed African-American children in segregated schools thought white dolls superior to black dolls. Children in integrated schools didn’t exhibit this belief. They fought for integration on the premise that segregation caused low self-esteem.

Question 62

Richard Lazarus

Answer 62

COPING DIFFERENTIATIONS:

1. Problem-focused coping: changing the stressor
2. Emotion-focused coping: changing how you feel about the stressor using emotional control

Question 63

Stuart Valins

Answer 63

He studies stress levels in differently shaped rooms and supported the idea that environment affects behavior.

Question 64

Leonard Berkowitz (Hypothesis)

Answer 64

FRUSTRATION-AGGRESSION HYPOTHESIS: Whenever you try to complete a task there is going to be interference which will cause frustration and then eventually aggression. If that aggression cannot be taken out on the source of stress, it will be taken out on someone or something else (scapegoat).

Question 65

M. Rokeach

Answer 65

He found that people like people with similar beliefs and attitudes, not necessarily the same skin color.

Question 66

Fischbein and Ajzen

Answer 66

THEORY OF REASONED ACTION: Behavioral Intention = Attitude Toward Behavior + Subjective Norms

Question 67

Elaine Hatfield

Answer 67

TWO TYPES OF LOVE:

1. Passionate Love: Usually accompanied by physical arousal and longing for another
2. Companionate Love: Love for people whose lives are deeply connected with ours.

Often, relationships start early with passionate love and then later develop companionate love.

Question 68

Paul Ekman

Answer 68

6 BASIC HUMAN EMOTIONS:

1. Happy
2. Sad
3. Disgust
4. Anger
5. Fear
6. Surprise

Question 69

Walter Dill Scott

Answer 69

He became one of the first people in industrial-organizational psychology when he used psychology in advertising and targeting consumers, and when he heped the military use psych testing for personnel purposes.

Question 70

Sherif (Study)

Answer 70

ROBBERS CAVE EXPERIMENT: The three stages are as follows:

1. In-group phase: Groups are selected and these groups bond over similarities
2. Friction phase: The in-groups compete and begin to show prejudice toward the other groups
3. Integration phase: Through superordinate goals, groups work together and reduce intergroup tension

Question 71

Henry Landsberger

Answer 71

HAWTHORNE EFFECT: phenomenon where people in the work place tend to be more productive when they believe they are being watched.

Question 72

Bindle (Theory)

Answer 72

ROLE THEORY: People understand they have a role to play and will often change their behavior to fit that role.

Question 73

Heider (Theory)

Answer 73

BALANCE THEORY: Three elements interact and stress occurs if they are not harmonious. If they lack balance, effort is made to increase balance and reduce stress. The enemy of my enemy is my friend. If you disagree with your friend or agree with your enemy, harmony is lost.

Question 74

Batson (Theory)

Answer 74

EMPATHY-ALTRUISM HYPOTHESIS: If we see someone suffering, we feel empathetic toward them and are more likely to help them even if our only reason for doing so is selfish.

Question 75

Bandura (Theory)

Answer 75

SOCIAL LEARNING THEORY (Bobo Doll Study): We learn aggression by observing directly (modeling) or reinforcement (we think there is a reward).