Modern Psychology Flashcards
Define psychology and describe foundations of the psychology discipline
What is Biopsychology
It seeks to understand the mind through understanding the biological activity of the brain
What does culture refer to?
The influence of membership of a larger group, such as tribe or nation
What is psychology?
It is defined as the scientific investigation of mental processes, behaviour and the interaction between them
What five questions did psychology evolve from?
Free will vs determination Nature vs nurture Reason vs emotion Conscious vs unconscious Mental vs physical
What were the two earliest psychological viewpoints?
Structuralism and functionalism
What is structuralism?
Attempting to determine the structure of consciousness
What is functionalism?
Attempting to explain psychological processes in terms of the role or function they play
What five perspectives guide psychological thinking?
Psychodynamic, behaviourist, humanistic, cognitive and evolutionary
What is the psychodynamic perspective?
This suggests that most psychological processes that guide behaviour are unconscious
What is the behaviourist perspective?
Focuses on the relationship between environmental events and response to them
What is the humanistic perspective?
It emphasises the uniqueness of the individual and focuses on the person’s immediate experience
What is the cognitive perspective?
It focuses on how people store, process and retrieve information
What is the evolutionary perspective?
This suggests that human behaviours evolved because they helped our ancestors survive and reproduce
What do biological psychologists suggest causes deja vu?
Caused by a brief malfunction in the brains ability to combine incoming information from the senses, creating the impression of two copies of a single event
What is neuroscience?
The scientific study if all levels of the nervous system, including neuroanatomy, neurochemistry, neurology, neurophysiology and neuropharmacology
