Gray, Psychology 8e LaunchPad - Chapter 1

Question 1

What are the three Fundamental Ideas for Psychology?

Answer 1

1. Behavior and mental experiences have physical causes that can be studied scientifically.
2. The way people behave, think, and feel is modified over time by their experiences in their environment.
3. The body’s machinery, which produces behavior and mental experiences, is a product of evolution by natural selection.

Question 2

What is known as dualism?

Answer 2

The philosophical theory proposing that two distinct systems—the material body and the immaterial soul—are involved in the control of behavior. The contrast is materialism.

Question 3

What is known as materialism?

Answer 3

Hobbes’s theory proposing that nothing exists but matter and energy. The contrast is dualism.

Question 4

What is known as empiricism?

Answer 4

The idea that all human knowledge and thought ultimately come from sensory experience; the philosophical approach to understanding the mind that is based on that idea. The contrast is nativism.

Question 5

What is known as nativism?

Answer 5

The idea that certain elementary ideas are innate to the human mind and do not need to be gained through experience; the philosophical approach to understanding the mind that is based on that idea. The contrast is empiricism.

Question 6

What is the law of association by contiguity?

Answer 6

Aristotle’s principle that if two environmental events (stimuli) occur at the same time or one right after the other (contiguously), those events will be linked together in the mind?

Question 7

behavior

Answer 7

The observable actions of an individual person or animal.

Question 8

mind

Answer 8

The entire set of an individual’s subjective experiences; the set of hypothesized information-processing steps that analyze stimulus information and organize behavioral responses.

Question 9

psychology

Answer 9

the science of behavior and mental processes (mind)

Question 10

science

Answer 10

An approach to answering questions that is based on the systematic collection and logical analysis of objectively observable data.

Question 11

ARISTOTLE

Answer 11

Greek philosopher from the 4th century BCE who wrote broadly about many topics and argued that knowledge comes through our sensory experiences

Question 12

EMPIRICIST

Answer 12

a person who believes that knowledge comes from experiences with the environment

Question 13

NATIVIST

Answer 13

a person who believes that certain ideas or personal characteristics are innate or inborn

Question 14

PLATO

Answer 14

Greek philosopher from the 5th and 4th centuries BCE; he was a student of Socrates, built the first school for advanced learning, and argued that ideas are from innate sources

Question 15

JOHN LOCKE

Answer 15

an English empiricist who argued that the mind is a blank slate at birth and developed rules for how ideas are learned by association

Question 16

RENE DESCARTES

Answer 16

a French nativist philosopher; he was a proponent of dualism and developed the first ideas about reflexes and some original (but incorrect) ideas for how the brain controls behavior

Question 17

FRANCIS BACON

Answer 17

English scientist who popularized the scientific method; called the “father of empiricism”