Introduction - Key Concepts

Question 1

Behaviorism

Answer 1

People (and animals) are controlled by their environment and they are the result of what they have learned from their environment. Behaviorists are concerned with how environmental factors (called stimuli) affect observable behavior (called the response).

Question 2

Psychoanalysis

Answer 2

Events in our childhood can have a significant impact on our behavior as adults. People have little free will to make choices in life. Instead, our behavior is determined by the unconscious mind and childhood experiences.

Question 3

Humanistic psychology

Answer 3

Emphasizes the study of the whole person (know as holism). Humanistic psychologists look at human behavior, not only through the eyes of the observer, but through the eyes of the person doing the behaving.