history of psych

Question 1

psychology

Answer 1

the scientific investigation of mental processes (thinking, remembering and feeling), behaviour and the interaction between them

Question 2

goal of psychology

Answer 2

to understand, explain and predict human behaviour in different contexts

Question 3

localisation of function

Answer 3

the extent to which different parts of the brain control different aspects of functioning

Question 4

Broca’s area

Answer 4

lesions in the front section of the left hemisphere were often unable to speak fluently but could comprehend language

Question 5

Wernicke’s area

Answer 5

an area behind Broca’s where individuals can speak fluently and follow grammatical rules but can neither understand language nor speak in a way that is comprehensible to others

Question 6

what is aphasia

Answer 6

language disorder

Question 7

sociocultural perspective

Answer 7

emphasises the social interactions and cultural determinants of behaviour and mental processes, such as factors like ethnicity, religion, occupation and SES

Question 8

determinism

Answer 8

asserts that behaviour follows lawful patterns like everything else in the universe, and physical forces determine the actions of humans and other animals

Question 9

empiricism

Answer 9

the human mind began as a “tabula rasa” or blank slate and we learn through experience

Question 10

who was associated with empiricism

Answer 10

John Locke

Question 11

what technique did Wundt use

Answer 11

introspection

Question 12

introspection meaning

Answer 12

the process of looking inward and reporting on one’s conscious experience

Question 13

who founded structuralism

Answer 13

Edward Titchner

Question 14

aim of structuralism

Answer 14

aimed to learn about the structure of the mind (consciousness) through analysing elementary conscious experience (like Wundt)

Question 15

who founded functionalism

Answer 15

William James

Question 16

what was W.James interested in

Answer 16

interested in explaining, not simply describing, the mind’s contents; focused on the function of the mind rather than the structure

Question 17

functionalism

Answer 17

an early school of thought in psychology influenced by Darwinian theory that looked for explanations of psychological processes in terms of their role, or function, in helping the individual adapt to the environment

Question 18

paradigm

Answer 18

a broad system of theoretical assumptions that a scientific community uses to make sense of its domain of study

Question 19

components of a paradigm

Answer 19

1. set of theoretical assertions that provide a model of the object of study
2. set of shared metaphors that compare the subject to something else that is readily apprehended
3. set of methods that scientists agree will produce valid and useful data

Question 20

psychodynamic perspective

Answer 20

the perspective initiated by Sigmund Freud that focuses on the dynamic interplay of mental forces

Question 21

id

Answer 21

pleasure principle

Question 22

ego

Answer 22

reality principle

Question 23

superego

Answer 23

morality principle

Question 24

metaphor for psychodynamic

Answer 24

consciousness is like the tip of an iceberg

Question 25

who founded the psychodynamic perspective

Answer 25

Sigmund Freud

Question 26

what did Freud argue

Answer 26

just as people have conscious motives or wishes, they also have powerful unconscious motives that underlie their intentions

Question 27

who founded the behaviourist perspective

Answer 27

John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner

Question 28

behaviourist perspective

Answer 28

focuses on the way objects or events in the environment (stimuli) come to control behaviour through learning

Question 29

what did Skinner observe

Answer 29

the behaviour of organisms can be controlled by environmental consequences that either increase (reinforce) or decrease (punish) their likelihood of occurring

Question 30

metaphor for behaviourist

Answer 30

the mind is like a black box that you can’t see into

Question 31

key figures for humanistic

Answer 31

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow

Question 32

humanistic perspective

Answer 32

an optimistic view of human experience, assuming that people are innately good and will almost always choose adaptive, goal-directed and self-actualisation behaviours

Question 33

metaphor for humanistic

Answer 33

life is like a bottle of milk - the cream always rises to the top (everyone aims to be the best person they can be)

Question 34

key figure for cognitive perspective

Answer 34

Ulric Neisser

Question 35

cognitive perspective

Answer 35

a psychological perspective that focuses on the way people perceive, process and retrieve information

Question 36

metaphor for cognitive

Answer 36

the computer - thinking is information processing, where the environment provides inputs that are transformed, stored and retrieved using various mental programs, leading to specific response outputs

Question 37

who founded evolutionary

Answer 37

Charles Darwin

Question 38

evolutionary perspective

Answer 38

the viewpoint built on Darwin’s principle of natural selection that argues that human behavioural proclivities must be understood in the context of their evolutionary and adaptive significance

Question 39

metaphor for evolutionary

Answer 39

life is like a race for survival and reproduction

Question 40

biopsychosocial model

Answer 40

a model that recognises that there is usually no single cause for our behavioural or mental states and that biological, psychological and social processes are both interrelated and interacting influences