Origins of Psychology Flashcards
What is introspection?
The first systematic experimental attempt to study the mind by breaking out conscious awareness into basic structures of thoughts, images and sensations
What did Rene Descartes come up with?
descartes dualism
What is Descartes Dualism?
The idea that the mind and body are separate from each other
What did John Locke propose?
Empiricism
What is empiricism?
The idea that all experience can be obtained through the senses
What did empiricism form the basis of?
The behaviourist approach
What did Charles Darwin develop?
The evolutionary theory
What is the evolutionary theory?
All human and animal behaviour has changed over successive generations so that the individuals with stronger more adaptive genes survive and reproduce
What did the evolutionary theory form the basis of?
The biological approach
What is structuralism?
Isolating the structure of consciousness in this way is called structuralism
What type of conditions was introspection observed in?
Controlled lab setting, standardised instructions which allowed procedures to be replicated
What was Watson’s issue with introspection?
The data produced was subjective
Varied greatly from person to person
Hard to establish general principles
What type of psychologists supported the emergence of psychology as a science?
Behaviourists such as Watson and Skinner
How was psychology established as a science?
Introduction of scientific language, rigour and processes
Controlled lab conditions
