Introduction Flashcards
What is psychology?
The scientific investigation of mental processes and behaviour. Understanding an individual requires examination of their biology, pychological experience and cultural context.
Founding of psychology
Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory in 1879 at the University of Leipzig, Germany.
The first school of thought - Structuralism
Edward Titchener, a student of Wundt, founded Structuralism. He focused on introspection in experiments and hoped to devise a periodic table of the elements of human consciousness.
Functionalism
William James was a founder from Harvard and focused on the function of psychological processes for individuals to adapt to their environment. Wrote the first textbook in psychology in 1890.
Cognitive perspective
Focuses on the way people perceive, process and retrieve information. Thinking is information processing: the environment provides inputs which are transformed, stored and retrieved using various mental programs, leading to specific response outputs.
Evolutionary perspective
Argues that many behavioural tendencies in humans evolved to aid their survival and reproduction. Psychological processes have evolved through natural selection to adapt to an organism’s environment. Evolutionary methods are deductive, as they observe something that exists and attempt to explain it with logical arguments.
Psychological anthropologists
Study psychological phenomena in other cultures by observing people in their natural settings.
Psychodynamic perspective
Originating with Sigmund Freud, the notion that people’s behaviour are determined by the link between thoughts, feelings and motives. Many of these processes are subconscious and many may be unaware of the processes that guide their behaviour.
Humanistic perspective
Focuses on how individuals are self-actualised and choose their goals and ambitions consciously from personal motives and subjective experiences. Advocated by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
Behaviourist perspective
Focuses on how stimuli controls behaviour through the process of learning by reward and punishment. This perspective emphasises empiricism and experimentation to observe quantitative data. B.F. Skinner and Ivan Pavlov are key figures.
Positive psychology
A proactive approach to improving an individual’s well-being by focusing on positive emotions and experiences.
Biopsychology (behavioural neuroscience)
Examines the physical basis of psychological phenomena such as electrical and chemical processes underlying mental events.
Sociocultural perspective
Emphasises social interaction and cultural determinants of behaviour and mental processes.
Cultural psychology
Focuses on how culture influences patterns in behaviour.
Cross-cultural psychology
Distinguishes universal patterns of behaviour from those that are specific to particular cultures. Differences and similarities in behaviour are examined across various cultures.
