Module 1: Introduction to Psychology Flashcards
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) was the first to ….
Publish a paper on experimental psychology and distinguish it from the field of philosophy.
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) is known for….
psychoanalysis, believed that the subconscious mind affects our brain and behaviours.
AKA “colourful bullshit”
William James (1890) wrote…
the principles of psychology
Early 1900’s begun the camp of ___
Behaviourism, shifting the focus onto overt and observable behaviour rather than focusing on the mind and mental processes which can not be overtly measured.
The term psychology was first coined in ___
1506’s during nature vs. nurture debate.
In the 1700’s ___ was used to predict mental illnesses and the introduction of ___.
facial expressions and madhouses.
Psychology was originally apart of ___ and was concerned with studying the ___ and produced theories on ___, ___, ___ and ___.
> philosophy
psyche (mind and soul).
reincarnation, truth, morality and justice.
Name (7) branches of psychology and what they study:
(A) Clinical
understanding, diagnosing
and treating mental
disorders.
(B) Cognitive
mind processes such as
attention, memory,
perception and
logic/reasoning.
(C) Developmental
development of child skills
overtime such as
perception, the theory of
mind, morality and other
skills.
(D) Forensics
The intersection of
psychology, crime and law.
Looks at psychopathy,
recidivism, child offenders,
jury decision making and
false eyewitness
testimonies or confessions.
(E) Social
group membership, social
identity theory, interactions,
romantic relationships,
belief systems,
discrimination, impression
formation etc.
(F) Cross-Cultural
comparison of cultural
differences in beliefs,
behaviours and thoughts
etc.
(G) Neuroscience
Biology heavy discipline
which looks at "how" we
enact mental processes at
the level of
neurotransmitters and brain
activation.(8) Psychology Myths:
(A) Psychology, Psychiatry and
Counsellor are
interchangable terms:
Psychiatrists have a medical
degree and can prescribe
medications. Counsellours
specialise in talking therapy
and psychologist can refer
to any branch of psychology.
(B) Psychology is common
sense:
Psychology can be used to
provide scientific evidence to
support or contradict
commonly held
beliefs/theories/claims.
(C) Psychology is just about
therapy:
therapy is predominantly a
skill taught in clinical other
areas like social,
organisational, educational,
neuroscience, cross-cultural
etc. do not use therapy.
(D) Psychologists are mind
readers:
No.
(E) Human memory is like a
recording of what happened:
Memory decays overtime, is
biased, limited and
reconstructed.
(F) Mental illness is caused by a
chemical imbalance in the
brain:
mental illness is the
combination of biology and
the environment.
(G) All dreams have a hidden
meaning:
e.g. psychoanalysis
"colourful bullshit"
(H) People only use 10% of their
brain:
We use much more than 10%
of our brain. People would
not be able to function if
they only used 10% of their
brain.(3) steps in developing a
research question
(A) Read newspaper articles,
journal articles and opinion
of the general topic.
(B) Find disagreement
(C) Find claims or opinions that
are not yet backed up by
science.What makes a good research question?
(A) Not too specific or too
broad
(B) Asking something new
(C) Avoid questions that have
a yes or no answer
(D) Testable and answerableWhy do we conduct research?
(A) anecdotal evidence does
not always agree with
scientific evidence.
(B) commonsense reflects a
general consensus and not
scientific evidence.A hypothesis must be “___”
Falsifiable. A good hypothesis needs to be able to be proven false.
What is the scientific cycle:
observations hypothesis/prediction experiment data analysis conclusion *revise theory etc.
Two steps before formulating a research hypothesis:
(A) Background research
read literature on the
general topic, opinions
and existing
claims/anecdotal evidence.
(B) Assumption
examine the underlying
assumptions on the theory
or claim.
