Historical Background Flashcards
History
The study of past events, people, and places to learn from successes and avoid past mistakes.
Philosophy
The pursuit of knowledge about reality, existence, and ethics; psychology evolved from it.
Mechanism
The idea that the universe operates like a machine and all natural processes follow physical laws.
Reductionism
A concept that breaking complex phenomena into simpler components leads to better understanding.
Determinism
The belief that all events, including human behavior, are caused by preceding events.
Materialism
The idea that everything, including mental processes, can be explained in physical terms.
Empiricism
The view that knowledge comes from sensory experience and observation rather than innate ideas.
Associationism
The idea that learning occurs by linking together ideas or experiences through repeated exposure.
Structuralism
An early psychological approach focusing on breaking consciousness into its basic elements.
Functionalism
A psychological school that focused on how mental processes help individuals adapt to their environment.
Gestalt Psychology
A psychological perspective emphasizing whole experiences rather than breaking them into components.
Behaviorism
A school of psychology that focused solely on observable behavior and dismissed mental processes.
Descartes’ Dualism
The idea that the mind and body are separate but interact through the brain. The body operates mechanistically (reflexes). The mind is immaterial and governs voluntary behavior.
Reflex Action Theory
Descartes’ theory that external stimuli trigger automatic, mechanical bodily responses.
Positivism
A philosophy advocating that only observable, measurable facts should be studied in science.
Evolution
The theory that species change over time due to inherited traits and environmental adaptation.
Natural Selection
Darwin’s principle that organisms with traits beneficial for survival reproduce more successfully.
Wilhelm Wundt
Established the first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany in 1879; emphasized scientific study of behavior.
Hermann Ebbinghaus
Pioneered experimental research on memory, including the forgetting curve and nonsense syllables.
Edward Titchener
Developed structuralism and promoted introspection to analyze the structure of the mind.
Introspection
The process of looking inward to examine one’s own thoughts and emotions; used in early psychology.
Insight Learning
A sudden realization of how to solve a problem, rather than learning through trial and error.
John B. Watson
Founder of behaviorism; emphasized the study of observable behaviors and conducted the Little Albert experiment.
Tabula Rasa
The concept that the human mind starts as a blank slate and is shaped by experience and learning.
Ivan Pavlov
A Russian physiologist known for discovering classical conditioning through his work with dogs.
Classical Conditioning
A learning process where a neutral stimulus becomes associated with an unconditioned stimulus to produce a response.
Edward Thorndike
A psychologist who studied learning through trial-and-error in animals, leading to the Law of Effect.
Law of Effect
The principle that behaviors followed by rewards are strengthened, while those followed by punishment are weakened.
Little Albert Study
A famous experiment where a child was conditioned to fear a white rat, demonstrating classical conditioning in humans.
B.F. Skinner
A leading behaviorist who developed the concept of operant conditioning and studied reinforcement and punishment.
Operant Conditioning
A type of learning in which behavior is strengthened if followed by reinforcement or diminished if followed by punishment.
Skinner Box (Operant Chamber)
A device used by B.F. Skinner to study operant conditioning in animals, typically using food rewards.
The Cognitive Revolution
A shift in psychology during the mid-20th century that emphasized the study of mental processes over behaviorism.
Noam Chomsky
A linguist and cognitive scientist who challenged behaviorist views of language acquisition, advocating for innate structures.
