lesson 1 intro Flashcards
what is psychology?
the science of the elementary laws of the mind and behavior
what is empiricism
the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation
what is evolution
saying genes make brains, and evolve over time
what is materialism
brains make minds
what is modularity
the mind is a collection of parts
constructivism
the mind makes reality
what are the 5 foundations of psychological science
empiricism, evolution, materialism, modularity, constructivism
what are the different types of psychology
experimental and clinical
what kinds of psychology fall under experimental
social, personality, cognitive, developmental, psychopathology
where does the word psychology come from
greek “psyche” which means soul and “logos” which means to study
father of psychology
william james
what does the word mind refer to
a set of private events that happen in a person, which no one else can see
what does the word behavior refer to
a set of public events; what we say and do that can be observed by others
what is philosophical dualism
the view that the mind and body are different, that the mind is immaterial and the body material
philosophical materialism
all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena; anything we experience in our mind is attributed to brain structure
philosophical realism
view that perceptions of the physical world are produced entirely by information from the sensory organs
philosophical idealism
view that perceptions of the physical world are the brain’s interpretation of information from the sensory organs
philosophical empiricism
view that all knowledge is acquired through experience
philosophical nativism
some knowledge is innate rather than acquired
helmholtz studied what
reaction time
what is reaction time
the amount of time between the onset of a stimulus and your response
what was helmholtz able to do with reaction time
calculate the speed at which nerves transmit information
structuralism
an approach to psychology which tries to isolate and analyze the mind’s basic elements
what did titchener pioneer
introspection
what is introspection
analysis of subjective experience by trained observers (raw experience rather than interpretation of it)
what did wundt discover
identified three basic dimensions of sensation (pleasure/pain, strain/relaxation, excitation/quiescence)
problem with introspection
every person’s inner experience is private, and there’s no way to tell whose is more accurate
functionalism
an approach to psychology that emphasizes adaptive significance of mental processes (if we physically adapted, why not mentally?)
natural selection
the process by which the specific attributes that promote an organism’s survival and reproduction become more prevalent in the population over time
who came up with natural selection
darwin
hysteria
loss of function with no obvious physical origin
unconscious
part of the mind that contains information of which people are not aware
psychoanalytic theory
emphasizes the influence of the unconscious on feelings, thoughts, and behaviors
what was freud’s discovery
hysteria was due to repressed memories, and the patients had gone through trauma so bad they wouldnt allow themselves to remember it
psychoanalysis
therapy that aims to give people insight into the contents of their unconscious minds (what does this word make you feel)
behaviorism
approach to psychology that restricts scientific inquiry to observable behavior
what did pavlov do
figured out how conditioning works by associating a certain stimulus with good or bad responses
what did skinner do
realized pavlov’s work was good, but confined to a lab; animals had to act on environments to find food instead of waiting on it. developed skinner box where rats push lever themselves to get food
principle of reinforcement
any behavior that is rewarded will be repeated and any behavior that isnt wont
who agreed with freud and who didnt
experimental psychologists though this was mad, but clinicians were interested
what did wertheimer do
discovered how people perceived motion and connected it to sensory data being processed (contributed to news ticker with the information that looks like it’s scrolling by, but the lights are really flashing on and off)
gestalt psychology
emphasizes the way the mind creates perceptual experience
what did bartlett do
studied why people remember things that didnt really happen (memories distort time and we tend to remember things by how we expect them to happen)
what did piaget do
studied the minds of children by analyzing the mistakes they made (the mind has theories about how the world works and children havent learned that yet)
developmental psychology
study of the ways psychological phenomena change over a life span
why was lewin against behaviorism
responses dont depend on stimuli, but instead on how people think about those stimuli
social psychology
study of causes and consequences of sociality (like primacy effect of how people draw influences about others, making inferences based on what they hear first)
who said behaviorism cant work
chomsky- said purely behaviorist account of learning cant explain how children learn grammar, and behaviorism as a whole is too robotic compared to the fluidity of psychology
what is neuroscience
the mind is what the brain does; used to be studied with damaged brains, but that isnt enough to see how we work on a daily basis
fmri
technology that produces brain scans
broca’s area
damage to this area (frontal lobe) can cause aphasia where you understand but cant speak
cultural psychology
how culture influences mental life, like individualism of americans vs interdependnece of japanese and how this influences how they perceive visual information
example of a theory
that the brain responds to traumatic events by producing chemicals that facilitate memory
split-brain procedure
To alleviate the severity of the seizures, surgeons can sever the corpus callosum in this operation
The result is that a seizure that starts in one hemisphere
is isolated in that hemisphere because there is no longer a connection to the other side
two broad approaches to treatment
psychological and biological
dogmatism
sticking to beliefs
how did skinner differ from pavlov
pavlov was in a controlled environment; the dogs knew the food was coming so they salivated ahead of time. skinner thought, in the real world the animals had to act on their environments to get food, not just wait for a person (which is why he used reinforcement in his boxes)
give an example of a way culture influences perception
show two pictures with differences in the background of buildings and foreground of cars to americans vs asians; asian communities tend to be more familial and holistic so they focus on the back while americans are more individualistic so they’ll focus on the front
