History and Perspectives of Psychology Flashcards
-Development of Psychology as a Science -Modern Perspectives in Psychology -Fields in Psychology
What type of question is this?
Is there a soul separate from the body, or are you the result of nerves firing and nothing else?
Dualism vs. monism
What type of question is this?
What’s more important, your genes (what you were born with) or how your parents raised you?
nature vs. nurture
What type of question is this?
How much are you really responsible for your actions, and how much of your actions can you blame on your parents, your genes, or other things beyond your control?
free will vs. determinism
What type of question is this?
How much are people basically the same wherever you go, and how much are they different. For instance, how much do you have in common with a farm worker in China in 1900?
universality vs. cultural specificity
What is the difference between philosophy and science?
Philosophy is a search for understanding using thought, while science relies on observation to inform thought. To put it another way, science uses the scientific method of testing hypotheses through observation, while philosophy does not. The two are closely linked and philosophy forms the basis of science, but science has the distinct difference of focusing only on what you can test using observation.
When is philosophy used?
Philosophy is often reserved for larger questions that are more a matter of values, ethics, or the direction of society.M Philosophy often guides science by determining what questions should be studied in more detail.
What is science used?
Science is often applied to more focused questions, such as developing ways to help cure a particular disease.
What is Rene Descartes significance in the history of science?
He convinced many people of the power of doubt and the strength of the scientific method. To truly know something, you have to be able to prove it. And although his scientific theories quickly passed into obscurity, he left a foundation for a psychological science. This theoretical construct established an initial psychological benchmark that later influenced the quest for self-understanding and uncovering the roots of human behavior.
Rene Descartes was considered a ________.
Rationalist and empiricist
What is a rationalist?
They believed that our senses could be deceived; instead we must rely on reasoning to understand the world.
What did Descartes study? What were his findings?
He set about examining the very essence of reality, starting with the mind and body. He went on to hypothesize about the causation of perceptions, emotions, and physical pain.
What is a empiricist?
Someone who believed that the source of knowledge is observation. Also believed that observation could lead to understanding how one thing causes another.
Using what you know about Descartes’ beliefs, do you think he was a dualist, or a monist?
Descartes argued that the universe is composed of separate parts that act on each other. It is not surprising, then, to know that he thought the mind and body were two separate things, and that a spirit (a soul) could exist that is separate from the body.
How did Descartes leave a mark for psychology?
He posited that a person is like anything else in the universe. Humans are composed of parts that affect each other. He asserted that what people feel, think, and do come largely from what’s happening in the machinery of the body.
This eventually led to psychology becoming a science. Thoughts, feelings, and actions are all mechanisms understandable through observation.
Descartes or not Descartes?
-The universe is a mechanism with different parts
-I think, therefore I am
-The universe can be understood
Descartes
Descartes or not Descartes?
-The universe cannot be understood
-Everything is one unified whole
Not Descartes
What is empirical science?
Science based on observations
What did Wilhelm Wundt believe?
that the mind must similarly be composed of elements (think of Inside Out)
Who established the first scientific laboratory to study psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt
Why do many people consider Wundt to be the founder of psychology?
He was the first person to attempt using the scientific method to understand consciousness.
What did Wundt use to observe the brain?
Introspection
What was Wundt’s goal in using introspection?
His main focus was on sensation and perception, and how they formed the experience of existing, thinking, and feeling — in other words, consciousness.
What did structuralists interested in?
The basic structures of the mind (think of Inside Out)
Edward Titchener was whose student?
Wundt’s
What idea did Titchener bring to America?
Brought Wundt’s ideas to the U.S. and named them structuralism.
What did William James believe in?
Functionalism
What is functionalism?
what someone does — is more important than the structure of the brain.
True or false.
The two points of view — structuralism and functionalism — were evolving and competing at the same time.
True. Wundt set up his laboratory in 1879 and James published Principles only one year later.
Structure vs. Function
-Mind as composed parts
-Titchener
-Sound plus sight equals watching a movie
Structuralism
Structure vs. Function
-Purpose of the mind
-James
-Why does this movie make me cry?
Functionalism
What was Gestalt psychologists stance on structuralism and functionalism?
They opposed the structuralists’ methods of studying the basic elements of consciousness, but they weren’t exactly functionalists.
What is Gestalts psychology?
Individuals perceive objects and patterns as whole units and that the whole is more than the sum of its parts. They believed that behavior, perception, and all elements of the self must be viewed as a whole.
What does the word “gestalt” mean?
Whole form or pattern
Who were notable advocated in Gestalt Psychology?
Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler.
Gestalt vs Structuralism vs Functionalism
-Whole greater than parts
-Kohler
-Wertheimer
Gestalt
Who was the founder of psychoanalysis?
Sigmund Freud
What was Sigmund Freund’s belief ?
He emphasized the importance of unconscious mental processes and sexuality in shaping behavior. Freud’s underlying belief is that individuals don’t consciously control their thoughts and behaviors. Instead, Freud believed that unconscious forces determine thoughts and behavior. (Bro also rejected structuralism)
