Lec. 1 (intro to psych) Flashcards
the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Psychology
what does “scientific” mean in the definition of psychology?
using the scientific method
what does “behavior” mean in the definition of psychology?
everything we can “see” (ex: what I’m doing with my hands); outward behavior (HAS to be observable)
what does “mental processes” mean in the definition of psychology?
activity we can’t “see” such as thinking, feeling, and remembering (ex: thinking about what you’re going to eat for lunch); can be inferred
types of psychology fields (3):
- Counseling/Clinical psychology
- Child/Developmental psychologist
- Engineering Psychology (Human Factors Psychology)
type of psychology field: most common
Counseling/Clinical psych
type of psychology field: study child development (ex: autism), teenager, and adults
Child/Developmental psych
type of psychology field: newest field; asks how can you make a human do that; very DIFFERENT types
Engineering psych
the APA has _____ different divisions of psychology
56 (experimental, health, teaching, developmental, military, aging, engineering, sport, etc.)
the divisions of psychology are _______ and represent the major areas that psychologists study
sub-types
GOALS of psychology (4):
- describe
- understand
- predict
- control
goal of psychology: what behavior or mental process are we talking about? (ex: smoking behaviors)
describe
goal of psychology: why does this behavior occur?; create theories to understand the mechanics; theories are ideas about WHY and HOW (ex: lack of knowledge/awareness, peer pressure, media, etc.)
understand
goal of psychology: does the theory predict behavior? Can it predict behavior? (ex: experiment or surveys – does removing smoking from movies reduct smoking rates?)
predict
goal of psychology: use theory to help control unwanted behaviors (ex: increase awareness, ban advertisements, etc.)
control
believed that knowledge was INNATE (born with it) = “nature view”
Plato/Descartes (plato first tho)
believed that knowledge was acquired through EXPERIENCE; you’re born with a blank slate = “nurture view”
Aristotle/Locke
nature vs. nurture questions could be answered with ______ and ________
logic and reasoning
father of modern psychology =
William Wundt
Influenced by the techniques of “hard sciences” (ex: physics, chemistry) of the day; wanted to study consciousness scientifically; human behavior was considered a “SOFT science” at his time
William Wundt
the beginning of modern psychology started in ______ with William Wundt
1879
how did Wundt measure the speed of “thought”?
told a set of ppl to listen for a tone and hit a button as fast as they can (0.5 seconds) and another to hit the button as fast as they can (0.25); the difference is how long “perception of sound” takes
the mind (consciousness) is composed of many parts, we can study the individual parts to understand the whole
Structuralism
who came up with Structuralism?
Wundt
