fundamentals exam 2

Question 1

The mind body problem

Answer 1

issue of how the mind is related to the brain; three main views : dualism, materialism and functionalism

Question 2

dualism

Answer 2

view of th emind-body relation according to which the mind is immaterial and completely independent of the body; central within religions and also in descartes’ philosophy

Question 3

consciousness

Answer 3

word referring to th eprivate, first person experiences an individual lvies through; contians all the mental states a peson is aware of; part of the mind that an be examiend with introsprection

Question 4

free will

Answer 4

situation in whch individuals can choose their course of action; choice is the outcome of an informed deliberation

Question 5

phlogiston

Answer 5

substance that was beleived to make materials flammable before the chemical processes of combustion were understood

Question 6

vital force

Answer 6

animistic substance thought ot be present in living matter before the chemical and biological differences between living and non-living matter were understood

Question 7

materialism

Answer 7

view about the relaitonship between the mind and brain that considers the mind as the brain in operation

Question 8

folk psychology

Answer 8

collection of beliefs lay people have about psychological functioning; efforts made to verify them empirically or to check them for their internal coherence

Question 9

identity problem

Answer 9

th edifficulty the materialistic theory of the mind-brain relationship has to explain how two events can be experienced as the same despite the fact tht their realisation in the brain differs

Question 10

functionalism

Answer 10

the theory that the design of an object should be determined by its function rather than by aesthetic considerations, and that anything practically designed will be inherently beautifu//// turing machine; predicts that the mind can be copied onto another turing machine

Question 11

thought experiment

Answer 11

hypothetical scenario that helps with theunderstanding of a philosophical argument

Question 12

memes

Answer 12

information unit proposed by Dawkins that reproduces itself acordin to the principles of the evaluationary theory (variation, selection and replication

Question 13

symbol grounding problem

Answer 13

the finding that representations (symbols) used in computations require a reference to some external reality in order to get meaning

Question 14

embodied cognition

Answer 14

the conviction that the interactions between the human body and the environment form the grounding (meaning) of human cognition

Question 15

access consciousness

Answer 15

access consciousness information can be reported by the patient, used for reasoning and acted upon intentionally

Question 16

phenomenological consciousness

Answer 16

refers to the fact that human experiences possess subjective qualities that seem to defy description; experiences have a meaning that goes beyond formal report (semantics instead of syntax)

Question 17

masked priming

Answer 17

experimental technique to investigate unconscious information processing, consisting of briefly presenting a prime between a forward meaningless mask and a subsequent target, and examining the effect of the prime on the processing of the target

Question 18

global workspace model

Answer 18

model that explains the role of consciousness by analogy to a theatre: unconsciousness is meant to make some information available to the whole brain, so that the various background processes can align their functioning to what is going on centrally

Question 19

chinese room

Answer 19

thought experiment proposed by searle to illustrate the difference between informaton processing in humans and infomration processing in computers

Question 20

qualia

Answer 20

qualities of conscious thoughts that vie the thoughts a rich and vivid meaning, grounded in interactions with the world

Question 21

zombie thought experiment

Answer 21

thought experiment proposed by chalmers to illustrate that consiousness is more than the owrking of the brain or the implementation of information on a turing machine because it involves a subjective component with qualia

Question 22

hard problem

Answer 22

name given by chalmers to refer to the difficulty of explaining in waht respects consciousness is more than accounted for on the basis of functionalism///
he says research only deals with which brain rprocesses are at the basis of which experiences, but the real mystery is why do we have qualia at all?

Question 23

associative learning

Answer 23

learning of simple associations (correlations) between all types of events; thought to be the basis of automatic, type 1 thinking

Question 24

heuristic based thinkers

Answer 24

those who think based on heuristics, rules of thumb that do not require as much effort as the scientific method and that most of the time result in good decisions, but that are subject to a number of biases

Question 25

correspondence theory of truth

Answer 25

a statement is true when it corresponds with reality. assumes that there is a physical realty which has priority and which the human mind tries to understand. first formulated by aristotle

Question 26

scepticism

Answer 26

philosophical view that does not deny the existence of a physical reality, but denies that humans can have reliable knowledge of it; first formulated by pyrrho of ellis

Question 27

deductive reasoning

Answer 27

form of reasoning in which one starts from known statements and deduces new conclusions. type of reasoning stressed in rationalism. used in science to formulate hypotheses on the basis of existing theories so that the theories can be tested

Question 28

inductive reasoning

Answer 28

first observations then conclusion or theory///form of reasoning in whcih likely conclusions are drawn on the basis of a series of convergent observations. the conclusion is not necessarily true.

Question 29

demarcation

Answer 29

setting and marking the boundaries of a concept; used, for instance in the philosophy of science to denote attempts to define the specificity of science

Question 30

philosophy of science

Answer 30

branch of philosophy that studies the foundations of scientific research, to better understand the position of scientific research relative to other forms of information acquisition and generation

Question 31

logical positivism

Answer 31

philosophical movement in the fist half of the 20th century, claiming that philosophy should stop thinking about metaphysics, and instead try to understnd the essence of the scientific approach, central tenet was the verification principle

Question 32

verificationism

Answer 32

adherence to the principle that a proposition is meaningful only if it can be verified as true or false; with resepct to science states that a proposition is scientific only if it can be verified through objective, value-free observationx

Question 33

falsificationism

Answer 33

view within the philosophy of science that statements are scientific only if they can be falsified empirically

Question 34

hypothetico deductive method

Answer 34

model introduced by popper to understand the scientific method; on the basis of observation, induction and educated guess work, a theory of a phenomenon is formulated; the correctness of the theory is evaluated by the formullation of a testable prediction (hypothesis) on the basis of deductive reasoningl the prediction is subsequently put to a falsification test, which provides new observational data for further theorising

Question 35

confirmation bias

Answer 35

tendency people have to search for evidence that confirms their opinion: goes against falsificationism

Question 36

ad hoc modifications

Answer 36

modifications to a theory that according to popper make the theory less falsifiable; decrease the scientific value of the theory

Question 37

paradigm

Answer 37

notion introducced by kuhn to refer to the fact tha tscientists share a set of common views of what the discipline is about and how problems must be investigated

Question 38

degenerative research programme

Answer 38

notion introduced by lagatos to indicate a paradigm that does not allow researchers to make new predictions and that requires an increasing number of ad hoc modifications to account for the empirical findings

Question 39

progressive research programme

Answer 39

notion introduced by lakatos to indicate a paradigm that allows researchers to make new, hitherto unexpected predictions that can be tested empirically

Question 40

realism

Answer 40

view withn philosophy that human knowledge tries to reveal real things in the world; the truth of knowledge is determined by the correspondence of the knowledge with the real world

Question 41

idealism

Answer 41

view within philosophy that human knowledge is a construction of the mind and does not necessarily correspond to an outside world; the truth of knowledge depends on coherence with the rest of the knowledge in the social group

Question 42

postmodernists

Answer 42

in the philosophy of sience, someone who questions the special status of science and sees scientific explanations as stories told by oarticular group of scientists

Question 43

social construction

Answer 43

notion used by postmodernists to indicate that scientific knowledge is not objective knowledge discovering the workings of an external reality, but a story told by a particular scientific comunity on the basis of its language and culture§

Question 44

science wars

Answer 44

notion used by the postmodernists to refer to their attacks against the special status of science and their unmasking of scientific knowledge as a social cosntruction

Question 45

pragmatism

Answer 45

view within philosophy that human knowledge is information about how to cope with the world; the truth of knowledge depends on the success one has in engaging with the world, on what works

Question 46

shell-shock

Answer 46

anxiety response on battlefield that prevents soldiers from functioning properly; was one of the first topics addressed by applied psychology

Question 47

efficacy of therapies

Answer 47

measure to indicate how much improvement a therapy brings to patients

Question 48

social management

Answer 48

managament and control of deviant individuals and individuals in need by official social services

Question 49

welfare state

Answer 49

socio-political system in which individuals insure themselves against setbacks via taxes, which are used by th state to provide welfare services

Question 50

authenticity test

Answer 50

test to determine whether a personis who he/she pretends to be and to ascertain guilt or innocence

Question 51

qualifying test

Answer 51

test to find the best person for a task

Question 52

diagnostic test

Answer 52

test to determine which condition a person has

Question 53

reliability

Answer 53

the degree to which the iutcome of a test is the same if the test is repeated under unchanged circumstnces or if an equivalent test is used

Question 54

validity

Answer 54

the degree to whcih a test measures what it claims to measure; determined by correlating the test results with an external criterion

Question 55

implicit personality theory

Answer 55

mixture of stereotypes and individuating information about the associations of personal charactristics that people use to make predictions about how others will behave in social relations

Question 56

standardised psych test

Answer 56

testthat psychologists have examined for reliability and validity, for which they have information about the expected performance, and which is administered in a uniform way

Question 57

achievement test

Answer 57

standardised test which measures the knowledge of a particular topic or set of topics

Question 58

personality traits

Answer 58

basic dimension used to describe differences in personality vetween people, is often bipolar with opposites at the extremes (introvert vs extrovert

Question 59

industrial psychology

Answer 59

first theory about how work should be organised; strongly influenced by taylor's scientific management: employees were the hands of the company that would accept any work if remunerated enough; tasks that had to be made simple so that everyone could do the without much practice

Question 60

human relations movement

Answer 60

second main theory of how work should be organised; stressed the humanity of the employees and the importance of social relations

Question 61

human resource management

Answer 61

third main theory of how work should be organised: stressed the desire for self actualisation in employees; employees will perform best if given autonomy and authority

Question 62

pseudohistory of science

Answer 62

text that looks like a history of science, but that contains systematic errors because of a desire to present the research as more impressive and important than it was and to depict the scientist as a genius who has to battle against the lack of understanding and appreciation by peers

Question 63

metaphor

Answer 63

in science, stands for an analogy from another area that helps to map a new, complex problem by making reference to a better understood phenomenon

Question 64

hidden racism

Answer 64

advancing one's own race by non-conspicuous biases against other groups (usually by ignoring their contribution)

Question 65

psychologisation

Answer 65

word used with 2 different meanings reffering to : 1 the fact that emotional ties and personal well being have become important in primary social relations, or 2 the growing impact of psychoogy on the way people see themelves and interact with others

Question 66

naturalization

Answer 66

they see mental disorders as a part of the natural world that can be systematically studied and understod

Question 67

the looping effect of social kinds

Answer 67

social kinds can start out as artbirtrary, but acquire causal power in our social system

Question 68

logical atomism

Answer 68

elementary facts are indivisible and independent of each other

Question 69

constituents

Answer 69

complex facts are a combination of elementary facts

Question 70

methodolatry/methodologism

Answer 70

tendency to see methodological rigour as the only requirement for scientific research, at 1the expense of theory formation

Question 71

pseudoscience

Answer 71

branch of knowledgee that pretends to be scientific but that violates the scientific method on essential. aspects, such as lack of openness to testing by others and reliance. on confirmation rather than falsification

Question 72

hermeneutics

Answer 72

approach in psychology to which the task of the psychologist is to. interpret and understand persons on the basis of their personal and socio-cultural history

Question 73

humanistic psychology

Answer 73

psychological movement promoted by rogers and Maslow as a reaction against psychoanalysis and behaviourism; stressed that people are human, inherently positive, endowed with free will and living. within. a socio-cultural context

Question 74

feminist psychology

Answer 74

movement in psychology aimed at understanding women; is particularly concerned with the way in which women are treated in mainstream psych

Question 75

postcolonial psychology

Answer 75

movement in psychology addressing the issues of racism and the ways in which dominant groups treat other groups

Question 76

critical psychology

Answer 76

movement in psychology that criticises mainstream. psychology for failing to understand that knowledge does not. refer to an outside reality (idealism) that scientific knowledge is not cumulative but consists of. social constructions and that psychological theories and claims have an impact on the world din which people live

Question 77

context of discovery

Answer 77

there is no logic for theory development

Question 78

context of justificaiton

Answer 78

strict rules for the logic of testing :modus tollens

Question 79

quine-duhem thesis

Answer 79

whenever u take a statement or theory that you test you never test only that theory or statement///a theory is never tested in isolation. if a. prediction doesn't come true it could be because of the theory, but it could also be because something else. is wrong

Question 80

unconscious plagiarism

Answer 80

term used by Bernstein to indicate how the scientific and the hermeneutic approach in psychology have influenced each other without the proponents being aware of it

Question 81

quantitative research methods

Answer 81

based on quantifiable data; are associated with the natural science approach. based on the hypothetico deductive model

Question 82

quantitative imperative

Answer 82

a bias only to find measurable topics interesting because quantitative research methods require numerical data

Question 83

qualitative research methods

Answer 83

research methods based on understanding phenomena in. their historical an socio-cultural context; are associated with the hermeneutic approach based on understanding the meaning of a situation

Question 84

ideographic approach

Answer 84

the conclusions of a study lay limited to the phenomenon under study//tendency to specify, and is typical for the humanities. It describes the effort to understand the meaning of contingent, unique, and often cultural or subjective phenomena.

Question 85

nomothetic approach

Answer 85

a study is run in search of universal principles that exceed the confines of the study// a tendency to generalize, and is typical for the natural sciences. It describes the effort to derive laws that explain types or categories of objective phenomena, in general.

Question 86

bracketing

Answer 86

requirement in qualitative research to lok at the phenomena with an open mind and to free oneself from misconceptions

Question 87

focus groups

Answer 87

technique in which a group of participants freely discuss a limited set. of questions

Question 88

grounded theory

Answer 88

qualitative research method that tries to understand what is going on in a particular situation and which, ont eh absis of qualitative analysis and induction, tries to come to a theoretical insight grounded in data

Question 89

interpretative phenomenological analysis

Answer 89

qualitative research method in psychology that tries to understand how a phenomenon is experiences by the people involved

Question 90

discourse analysis

Answer 90

qualitative research method the aims to discover how social relations between people are determined by the language they use

Question 91

monism

Answer 91

there is only one kind of things

Question 92

materialism

Answer 92

ultimately everything is material

Question 93

idealism

Answer 93

ultimaetly everything is mental

Question 94

dualism

Answer 94

there are two kind of things

Question 95

substance dualism

Answer 95

mind body are kinds. of distinct entities

Question 96

rene descartes

Answer 96

views the body but n to the mind as a machine, and they must be different entities. this produces the mind body problem

Question 97

interaction probelm

Answer 97

how can nonmaterial entity cause physical events

Question 98

causal closure problem

Answer 98

if every physical event has a physical cause, where does the mind enter? how about the law of conservation of energy?

Question 99

brain damage problem

Answer 99

why would a nonmaterial entity react to brain damage?

Question 100

eliminative materialism

Answer 100

deny the existence of mental states. they aren't real and will not appear in the ultimate description of the universe.

Question 101

reductive materialism

Answer 101

mental states are reducible to brain states

Question 102

non eliminative materialism

Answer 102

one can deny that the mind exists as a substance, but still make room for mental states. one must produce an account of how. mental states are rooted in brain states . identity theory and functionalism are related attempts to do this

Question 103

identity theory

Answer 103

maintains that mental states are brain states. "to want an ice cream'= 'brain state X'

Question 104

type type identity

Answer 104

types of mental states 'wanting an ice cream' are identical of types of brain states (brain state x) across individuals and time points. this implies a one to one mapping of mental states to brain states

Question 105

reductionism

Answer 105

the practice of analysing and describing a complex phenomenon in terms of its simple or fundamental constituents, especially when this is said to provide a sufficient explanation.

Question 106

neural plasticity

Answer 106

implies that the same mental functions can be performed in different ways

Question 107

identity theory criticism

Answer 107

neural plasticity, individual differences, mental states are often defined by their content is very likely to be encoded in different ways

Question 108

non reductive materialism

Answer 108

mind is a program that runs on the brain. just like variables in computer program, mental states. are characterizedby their function not their realisation

Question 109

multiple realizability

Answer 109

is the thesis that the same mental property, state, or event can be implemented by different physical properties, states, or events.

Question 110

token-token identitiy

Answer 110

different brain states from people can have the same explanation

Question 111

bridge laws

Answer 111

statements linking concepts of the reduced theory to concepts of the reducing theory. required for reduction

Question 112

determinism

Answer 112

many people have the following intuition: the physical state of the world at fully determines the physical state at t+1. seems to imply that there is no space left for free will

Question 113

logical atomism

Answer 113

elementary facts are indivisible and independent of each other

Question 114

constituents

Answer 114

complex facts are.a combination. of elementary facts

Question 115

the 'sayable'

Answer 115

all facts (the world) and meaningful propositions

Question 116

realization versus causation

Answer 116

the ten euro bill is not caused. by the paper, because it does not exist independently of that paper. instead the paper realises the ten euro bill. Functionalist think that mental states exist in precisely this way

Question 117

silicon brain/fading qualia thought experiment

Answer 117

what if you would replace neurons one by one with silicon chips. you would stil have mental states and cosciousness, right?

Question 118

overdetermination

Answer 118

occurs when a single-observed effect is determined by multiple causes, any one of which alone would be sufficient to account for ("determine") the effect.

Question 119

Tractatus logico-philosophicus

Answer 119

a thought or experiment expresses a possible state of affairs in this world. the state of affairs is the meaning of the thought. if the state of affairs 'depicted' by the thought does occur, then the thought is true (picture theory of truth)

Question 120

verifiability criterion

Answer 120

if you cannot find out the truth of a (factual) sentence by looking at reality, then the sentence is meaningless

Question 121

induction problem

Answer 121

general statements are not verifiable

Question 122

unobservable entities

Answer 122

elementary particles photons etc. but also working memory. statements about unobservable entities are neither verifiable nor reducible to observations

Question 123

quantitative imperative

Answer 123

the conviction that you cannot know what you cannot measure