Lecture 1 - Introduction To Psychology

Question 1

What was Wilhelm Wundts profession?

Answer 1

Physiologist

Question 2

What was Wilhelm Wunt most famous for?

Answer 2

Established psychology as a separate discipline and defined psychology as the scientific study of conscious experience. His theory of consciousness is called structuralism.

Question 3

What did Wilhelm Wundt investigate most?

Answer 3

Vision, touch, hearing, taste, attention and emotion

Question 4

Who took Wilhelm Wundts ideas to USA?

Answer 4

Edward Titchner

Question 5

What is the idea of structuralism?

Answer 5

Taking the mind, dividing it up into its structural components and parts and identifying what each part does, presuming that this will allow you to understand consciousness (the human state) as a whole

Question 6

What are the 3 major criticisms of structuralism?

Answer 6

1. Reductionistic (takes all of the wealth of complex human behaviours that we engage in and reduces it. Says that we take all small elements and know them, then we know the whole).
2. Elemental (the idea that structuralism is about studying the elements and not the whole. Studying individual components and not the whole which can be a problem).
3. Reliance on verbal reports (relying on introspection and then the verbal reports of introspection as a reliable source)

Question 7

Who’s ideas is structuralism based on?

Answer 7

Wilhelm Wundt

Question 8

What replaced structuralism after it received critisism?

Answer 8

Functionalism

Question 9

Who created (is the most influential in the study of) Functionalism?

Answer 9

William James

Question 10

Functionalism and structuralism have been left behind. What is a more modern way of thinking of consciousness?

Answer 10

5 perspectives in psychology

Question 11

What are the 5 perspectives in psychology?

Answer 11

1. Psychodynamic approach
2. Behaviourism
3. Human perspective
4. Cognitive perspective
5. Evolutionary perspective

Question 12

Who was responsible for developing the psychodynamic approach?

Answer 12

Sigmund Freud

Question 13

What does the psychodynamic approach focus primarily on?

Answer 13

Unconscious behaviour

(Everything that makes us act the way we do. Particularly interesting because we are not aware of what lies in our unconscious and this is what drives us)

Question 14

Brief definition of ego, superego and ID

Answer 14

Ego (reality principal, secondary process thinking)

Superego (moral imperatives)

ID (Pleasure principal: primary process thinking)

Question 15

What were the primary sources of evidence for the psychodynamic approach used by Freud?

Answer 15

Case studies of patients

Reflection of his own anxieties, conflicts and desires (introspection)

Question 16

Primary criticisms of Freud and the psychodynamic approach

Answer 16

Unscientific and speculative

Question 17

Behaviourism was formed in the early 1900’s after Freuds psychodynamic approach by whom?

Answer 17

J.B Watson

Question 18

What is behaviourism based on?

Answer 18

Behaviourism abandons study of consciousness and behaviourists believer that Psychology should study only observable behaviour.

Question 19

Behaviourism redefines Psychology as what?

Answer 19

Science of behaviour

Question 20

What is a behaviour?

Answer 20

Any overt response or activity by an organism

Question 21

What issue did behaviourism take an extreme position on?

Answer 21

Nature/nurture issue

We are controlled by environmental factors and there is no such thing as free will

Question 22

Stimulus response psychology is also known as?

Answer 22

Behaviourism

Question 23

Who is responsible for the Humanistic perspective?

Answer 23

Carl Rogers

Abraham Maslow

Question 24

What perspective or study objected to the claim that people have no control over their destinies?

Answer 24

Humanism

Question 25

What study or perspective has the following viewpoints:

Optimistic, emphasises humans’ unique qualities (their freedom, potential for personal growth)

Human behaviour is governed primarily by each individuals sense of self

Research on animals has little relevance to human behaviour because animals do not have a sense of self.

Answer 25

Humanistic

Question 26

What perspective was responsible for renewed interest in consciousness and physiological bases of behaviour after the rise of the humanistic perspective

Answer 26

Cognitive perspective

Question 27

The mind is like a computer: enduring patterns of thoughts that are like software and:

Inputs from the environment are transformed, stored and retrieved using mental programs leading to response outputs

Are metaphors of what perspective?

Answer 27

Cognitive perspective

Question 28

What are the 3 main methods of studying cognitive processes?

Answer 28

Human experimental psychology (memory, attention, problem solving, language)

Computer analogies information processing approach (artificial intelligence, computer simulation)

Cognitive neuroscience (brain damage and affect on cognition)

Question 29

Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution is applied to human behaviour. What is this perspective called?

Answer 29

Evolutionary perspective

Question 30

Who created evolutionary perspective?

Answer 30

David Buss

Question 31

What perspective examines behavioural processes in terms of their adaptive value for a species over the course of many generations?

Answer 31

Evolutionary perspective

Question 32

“We are all runners in a race, competing for resources..”

Metaphor or what psychology/perspective

Answer 32

Evolutionary psychology

Question 33

What can be said about the 5 perspectives in psychology?

Answer 33

No single perspective is able to provide a comprehensive explanation of the human experience.

All have made important contributions to our understanding of human behaviour.

Question 34

Carl Rogers is linked to what perspective?

Answer 34

Humanistic

Question 35

What perspective is David Buss responsible for?

Answer 35

Evolutionary

Question 36

Current Dominating perspective

Answer 36

Cognitive

Question 37

What is functionalism?

Answer 37

How people adapt their behaviour to their environment

Question 38

What is not a major sub discipline of psychology?

Answer 38

Criminal