Midterm #1 Flashcards
What is psychology?
The study of mental behaviours and processes
What are the 4 goals of psychology? Curious George examples?
Describe - DESCRIBE an image of Curious George
Explain - WHY does Curious George like the yellow hat?
Predict - WHEN will Curious George put the hat on?
Control - bring desired outcomes (ex. putting Curious George in prison)
What are the levels our thoughts are influenced by?
Brain - neuronal activity, structure
Person - content of mental processes (ex. intelligence, personality)
Group - social environment/culture
What did Hippocrates contribute to psychology?
suggested physicla and psychological health is determined by 4 bodily fluids, recognized importance of good food/fresh air/rest, identified the brain as the organ of mental life as opposed to the heart
What did Socrates/Plato contribute to psychology?
concluded that the mind and body are distinct and that knowledge is innate, or existing from the time of birth
What did Aristotle contribute to psychology?
one of the first to promote empirical/testable investigations of the world
What did Francis Bacon contribute to psychology?
creator of empiricism (that knowledges originates in experience), mind is distinct from the body
What did John Locke contribute to psychology?
tabula rasa - the mind is a blank slate at birth, acquire all knowledge through experience
What did Johannes Muller contribute to psychology?
researchers need to study relationship between physical stimuli and their psychological effects
What did Herman van Helmholtz contribute to psychology?
first to measure the speed of a nerve impulse and discovered that they occur over time not instantaneously, thought and movement are linked but not the same
What did Gustav Fechner contribute to psychology?
founder of experimental psychology, discovered evidence of the relationship between physical and mental events - moves psychology closer to quantified science
What did Charles Darwin contribute to psychology?
theory of evolution (all life on Earth originated from common ancestral point), natural selection (chance variations are adaptive and beneficial so they thrive and reproduce)
What did Wilhelm Wundt contribute to psychology?
opened 1st psych lab, studied consciousness and the idea of will, developed voluntarism and introspection
What is voluntarism?
the theory that much of human behaviour is motivated and that attention is focused for a purpose
What did Edward Titchener contribute to psychology?
formed structuralism
What is structuralism?
studies the structure of the conscious experience, looking at the individual parts
What is introspection?
“looking inward”, careful evaluation of mental processes and the expansions of simple thoughts into ideas through self-observation/reflection
What are the flaws of structuralism?
failed to incorporate animals and abnormal behaviour
What did William James contribute to psychology?
functionalism
What is functionalism?
considers how mental process function to adapt to change
What is Gesalt Psychology?
“the whole is grater than the sum of its parts”, studied illusions and errors in perception
What are the scientific principles?
- the universe operates according to certain laws
2. these laws are discoverable and testable
What is deductive reasoning?
reasoning proceeding from broad principles narrowing down to specific situations (theory - predictions - observation/experiment)
What is inductive reasoning?
reasoning starting from specific situations broadening to general truths (observation/experiment - predictions - theory)
What is hypothetico-deductive reasoning?
process of modern science, starts with an educated guess and then designing observations to support/invalidate hypothesis (hypothesis - observation/experiment - support/invalidate: theory)
What is a theory?
an idea about a law that governs phenomena