Lecture 2 Flashcards
What is the main focus of psychology as a field?
The study of mental states in humans and non-humans.
Who is credited as the father of Experimental Psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt.
What year is commonly credited as the ‘Birth’ of Psychology?
1879.
What is Structuralism?
The notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements.
What method did Edward Titchener develop to study consciousness?
Introspection.
Who founded Functionalism?
William James.
What does Functionalism focus on?
The function or purpose of consciousness.
What is the primary focus of Behaviorism?
Only studying observable behavior.
Who popularized the Behaviorism approach?
John B. Watson.
What is the Stimulus-Response (S-R) Theory?
Behavior is either a reflex evoked by a stimulus or a consequence of prior learning.
What was the focus of Watson’s ‘Little Albert’ experiment?
Demonstrating that emotional reactions could be conditioned in a child.
Who is known for the Skinner Box?
B.F. Skinner.
What principle did B.F. Skinner emphasize regarding behavior?
Organisms tend to repeat responses that lead to positive outcomes.
What is Psychoanalysis?
A psychological approach that focuses on unconscious determinants of behavior.
Who is the founder of Psychoanalysis?
Sigmund Freud.
What does the term ‘unconscious’ refer to in Freud’s theory?
Thoughts, memories, and desires below conscious awareness.
What are Defense Mechanisms?
Strategies to cope with inner conflicts and protect from anxiety-producing thoughts.
What is Repression in the context of Defense Mechanisms?
The unconscious act of pushing unacceptable thoughts out of awareness.
What is the Pleasure Principle according to Freud?
The instinctive tendency to seek pleasure and avoid pain.
What concept did Carl Jung introduce?
Collective unconscious.
What are Archetypes according to Carl Jung?
Innate, universal symbols or themes within the collective unconscious.
What is Humanism in psychology?
An approach emphasizing the unique qualities of humans and their potential for personal growth.
Who are the key proponents of Humanism?
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
What is Person-Centered Therapy?
A therapeutic approach prioritizing empathy, active listening, and unconditional positive regard.
What does Self-Actualization refer to?
The innate drive toward realizing one’s full potential.
What is Self-Concept?
How an individual perceives and values themselves.
True or False: Behaviorism emphasizes internal mental processes.
False.
Fill in the blank: Freud’s theory emphasizes the role of the ______ in shaping human behavior.
unconscious.
What is the main critique of Behaviorism?
It oversimplifies the human experience as simple animal behavior.
What was a significant contribution of Freud to clinical psychology?
The development of talk therapy.
What are the three principal contributors to Psychoanalysis?
- Sigmund Freud
- Carl Jung
- Alfred Adler
What is self-concept in person-centered therapy?
How an individual perceives and values themselves.
Rogers highlighted the importance of a positive self-concept.
What is the significance of incongruence in self-concept?
It is viewed as a source of psychological distress.
Incongruence occurs between the self-concept and lived experiences.
What did humanistic psychology shift the focus of psychology towards?
Personal growth, well-being, and potential for positive change.
This shift moved away from pathology and illness.
What is cognition?
Refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.
Focuses on thoughts, conscious experience, and mental processes.
Who is known as the ‘father of cognitive psychology’?
Ulric Neisser.
He published ‘Cognitive Psychology’ in 1967, challenging behaviorism.
What defines cognitive psychology according to Ulric Neisser?
All processes by which the sensory input is transformed, reduced, elaborated, stored, recovered, and used.
This definition emphasizes mental processes.
What does the cognitive perspective emphasize?
People’s mental manipulation of information influences behavior.
Mental operations are indirectly observable and important.
What is the light from above bias?
The cognitive bias that our visual system assumes light typically comes from overhead, influencing our perception of objects and their shading.
What was the Stanford Marshmallow Experiment focused on?
Cognitive theories of self-regulation and deferred gratification.
Conducted by Walter Mischel in 1972.
What factors can affect behavioral responses besides learning?
Personality.
Delaying gratification is also age-dependent.
What is neuroscience?
An organism’s functioning can be explained in terms of the brain structures and biochemical processes that underlie behavior.
Who discovered Broca’s Area?
Paul Broca.
Discovered in 1861; it is crucial for the production of speech.
What did Hubel and Wiesel discover?
Certain cells in the brain respond to specific types of visual input.
They won the Nobel Prize in 1981 for their work.
What did Eric Kandel study?
A marine slug (Aplysia) with enormous neurons and its gill withdrawal reflex.
His work demonstrated the biological basis of cognitive processes.
What is the main conclusion from Kandel’s research?
Synaptic connections between neurons become strengthened during learning.
This is critical for understanding memory storage.
What does evolutionary psychology examine?
Behavioral processes in terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over generations.
What favors behaviors according to evolutionary psychology?
Natural selection favors behaviors that enhance reproductive success.
This perspective emerged as a new theoretical framework since the 1950s/1960s.
