History Flashcards
Epistemology
Impact of literacy on knowledge is studied by comparing preliterate and literate societies
Preliterate: knowledge is practical, fluid and shared through myths and stories
Literate: written record allows science to exist as knowledge can be accumulates, preserved and analysed (China, Egypt and America = first)
Reading
Easier if there is a transparent relationship between spelling and sound e.g. German, English is more opaque and people often have reading difficulties later in life
Numbers
Knowledge demands in counting and measuring
Timeline to studying the mind
Philosophy Philosophy and medicine Evolution Everyday psychological experience Produced Prenology and physiognomy lead to psychology
Philosophical approach
Descartes and Locke
Descartes
‘I think therefore I am’ suggested the soul (reasoning and divine influence) and body are separate (mechanical and material)
Locke
Focuses on human experience allowing us to gather knowledge (focus on mind rather than soul)
Philosophy and medicine
Focuses on man as part of nature and exploring the functions of the body and brain
Action is voluntary (rational) and physical (mechanical)
Harvey, Whytt, Cullen, Gall and Flourens
Harvey
Describes movement of blood as related to heart
Whytt
Mind responds to stimuli detected by the body - connected, often unconscious
Principle of sentience: preserves life and unity or organism
Stimulated motion: continuum between voluntary and automatic
Cullen
Mental and physical events both have Functions
Sentience produces energy which is measurable e.g. excitation
Suggested nervous system is related to mind
Gall
Suggests brain is an organ of the mind
Birth of prenology (reading bumps on head to determine mental abilities)
Flourens
Removed bits of animal brain to see which functions would be imparted
Darwin
Evolutionary perspective, sees humans as part of nature
Subject to natural selection of attributes and behaviour
The principle of continuity of life is controversial as some behaviours don’t have evolutionary advantage
Studied children
Everyday psychological experience
Sense of self
Commercial society
Family life
Industrial revolution
Emergence of sense of self
Based on management of internal relationship with God - created a sense of inwardness, impacts everyday practices
New technologies increases daily devotion, personal diaries, self help books and mirrors
Commercial society
People and relationships are defined by what they bought, sold or produced e.g. labour, capital and land
Sense of obligation between people and moral sentiment (importance of conscience)
Changes in family life
Greater intamacy and affection within families
Class divide between families
Industrial revolution
Move from agricultural to industrialised society = increasingly competitive and urban (higher living standards)
Focus on importance of making sense of life and understanding self
Industrial revolution
Move from agricultural to industrialised society = increasingly competitive and urban (higher living standards)
Focus on importance of making sense of life and understanding self
Psychological approaches.
Behaviourism Cognitive Psychodynamic Evolutionary Biological Humanists Social constructionism
Behaviourism
- Objective focus on how environmental stimuli impacts response (frequency of behaviour)
- Suggests against introspection and studying private events as they are inaccessible
- Human behaviour can be operationally defined, predicted and controlled in the same way as non-human animals
- Limit: not creative
Cognitive
- Developed by Mathematics, Electrical engineers and Logicians, but uses metaphors and analogy so is less scientific
- Human brain is complex, high plasticity and similar to computers
- Tendency to focus on individuals and their environment
- Cognitive capacities can be partitioned and are relatively autonomous, more complex cognitions are likely influenced by individual differences
Psychodynamic
- Behaviour determined by unconscious (repressed) thoughts, wishes, memories etc.
- Preconscious (momentarily inaccessible) and preconscious (totally inaccessible)
- Theory of infantile sexuality: sexual instinct active from birth
- Psychosexual stages suggests early experience impacts later personality
- One of the first theories of human nature, considers sex drive
- Neuropsychoanalysis
- Links psychodynamic concepts and neuroscientific mechanisms
- Amnesia patient and pin suggests there is unconscious motivation and memory
Evolutionary
- Humans descended from primates, so development is impacted by evolution e.g. hunter/gatherer past not adaptive in modern industrialized society
- Allows integration of wide range of sub-disciplines when seeking explanations of behaviour but timescale may be inaccurate
Biological
- Can provide immediate determinants of behaviour e.g. genes determine structure of body and nervous system (ontogenesis) and behaviour
- Understanding evolution gives insight into behaviour (phylogenesis)
- Purpose of nervous system is to produce and control behaviour
- Nervous system and body determines the behaviours and learning a species is capable of
- Process approach: variability in a trait due to heritability (genetic differences), non-shared environments (between family variation) and shared environments (within family variation
- Reductionist: removes the person from social context
- Deterministic: challenges free will
- Takes into account individual differences, social and cultural factors etc.
Humanistic
- Maslow & Rogers: stressed health, self-actualization and the psychology of being and becoming, renamed client centered therapy - person centered therapy
- Rogers developed research methods that enable measurement of self-concept and ideal self, therapists’ personal qualities are emphasized. With focus on emphasizing therapists’ personal qualities, genuineness, authenticity, congruence, unconditional positive regard and empathetic understanding
- Focuses on free will and individuals subjective experience while studying behaviour which helped bring the person back into psychology
- limited empirical evidence
Social constructionism
- o Mind is not a mental machine and is skilled at using symbols and language
- Mind is not a mental machine and is skilled at using symbols and language
- Critical psychology - looks at structure of discourse in cultural context
- Questions ‘natural’ categories e.g., woman, man, individual, parent etc.
