module 1 - history and scope of psych Flashcards
modern definition:
psychology
the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
definition:
behavior
anything an organism does / any action that can be observed and recorded
definition:
mental processes
internal, subjective experiences that can be inferred from behavior
example:
behavior
smiling, yelling, sweating, talking
example:
mental processes
dreams, beliefs, thoughts, feelings
what does psychology try to do?
attempts to describe and explain human nature by evaluating competing ideas with observations and rigorous analysis
where do the roots of psych trace back to?
India, China, the Middle East, and Europe
- the scholars were trying to understand how the mind works and the body’s relation to it
what did buddha and Confucius focus on?
powers and origin of ideas
who was Socrates?
a philosopher-teacher
who was Plato?
a student of Socrates
what did Socrates and Plato conclude?
- the mind is separable from the body and will continue after the body dies
- knowledge is innate (born within us)
who was Aristotle?
Plato’s student
what did Aristotle claim about knowledge?
knowledge is NOT preexisting (counters Socrates and Plato) but it grows from the experiences stored in our memories
what happened during the 1600s?
modern science began to flourish
who was René Descartes, and what are his thoughts on knowledge and the mind?
French philosopher and scientist
agreed with Socrates and Plato: mind is separable and knowledge is born within us
who was Francis Bacon, and what were his contributions to psychology?
one of the founders of modern science!
centered on experiment, experience, and common-sense judgement
viewed research findings abt how our noticing and remembering events confirm our beliefs
who was John Locke, and what did he think about the mind?
British political philosopher who wrote one of history’s greatest and latest papers, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, where he argued that the mind starts as a “white paper” at birth and experience writes on it.
This idea added to Bacon’s idea to form modern empiricism
definition:
empiricism
the view that knowledge originates in experience and that science flourishes through observation and experiment
when was the birth of psychology?
December 1879
when and where was the first true psychology experiment done?
in Germany 1879, where Wilhelm Wundt ran the first experiment in psychology’s first lab
who was Wilhelm Wundt
a philosopher, physiologist, and teacher who is the founder of the first psychology laboratory @ the University of Leipzig (located in Germany)
definition:
structuralism
explores the basic elements of the human mind by using introspection
who is the founder of structuralism?
Edward Bradford Titchener (Wundt’s student)