Practice Questions for Test #1 Flashcards
Give me one definition of Psychology we used in class.
The study of mind and behavior.
What is the goal of Psychology?
Psychologists seek general principles that help explain many behaviors.
According to the reading What is Mind?, what is the difference between mind and the brain?
The mind as the flow of information through the nervous system.
The brain is the biophysical matter that makes up the part of the nervous system that is inside your skull.
According to the reading What is Mind?, what is consciousness?
Consciousness is experienced information flow.
According to the reading What is Consciousness?, how would a property dualist define consciousness?
A non-physical property that emerges from neural activity.
What was the goal of the structuralists?
They wanted to identify and measure the basic mental elements and their attributes and understand how they combine to produce complex conscious thought. They believed that the structure of consciousness must be understood before talking about its function.
Psychology first arose in what country?
Germany
Who is considered the first psychologist?
Gustav Fechner
Why is Fechner considered the first psychologist?
He believed that if a systematic relationship could be found between known changes in physical stimuli and changes in conscious perception of those experiences, then we should be able to measure consciousness.
How is knowledge gained scientifically?
Through systematic observation and measurement of nature.
Tell me two major questions the structuralists wanted to answer.
How, mechanically, do thoughts and behaviors occur? What biology is behind thought and behavior?
What is self? What is life? Does the part of the body that is self continue on after life has ended? Is self the soul?
What is the vital spark that gives life to some object? What distinguishes living from non-living things?
How is reality transformed into perception?
What early scientist identified the brain as an organ that carries out specific functions such as thinking and controlling behavior?
Gall
Building on Gall’s work, who found that language was localized in one spot in the left hemisphere?
Paul Broca
What was phrenology and who invented it?
The study of the mind through reading the shape and size of the skull. Created by Johann Spurzheim.
What is the law of specific nerve energies and who suggested it?
Suggested by Johann Spurzheim.
We are aware not of objects themselves, but by signals about them transmitted through our nerves, each nerve having a specific kind of nervous energy.
Tell me one thing Herrmann con Helmholtz discovered.
Nerve conduction travels at the rate of 90 feet per second.
Ernst Weber studied two-point discrimination. Define two-point discrimination.
Sensitivity to touch, temperature and weight differ from one area of the body to another, and that this differing sensitivity is due to the density of nerve fibers and nerve endings in different parts of the skin.
Ernst Weber also studied just noticeable difference. Define just noticeable difference.
When a subject can tell there is a difference between two weights (or pressure or temperature).
What does O’Boyle say is necessary for Psychology to be a science?
We must be able to measure consciousness.
What was the spiritualist movement?
This movement said that spirits are self, will, mind or some form of mysterious non-physical energy, thus the dead (both human and non-human such as pets) could be communicated with through a special group of people called mediums.
Which American psychologist believed in spiritualism?
William James
Can spiritualism be studied scientifically? Why or why not?
No. We can only study observable phenomena scientifically.
Name two paradigm shifts that we talked about in class and tell me who is associated with that shift.
Darwin’s theory of evolution
Mendel’s theory of genetic inheritance
Gall’s theory that thinking and behavior are in the brain
Fechner’s belief that consciousness could be measured
Muller’s law of specific nerve energies
Epigenetics
Copernicus, the earth revolves around the sun
What were Wundt’s two goals?
To discover the basic elements of consciousness by measuring sensory experiences.
To discover how the basic elements of sensation are combined into perception, thoughts and complex ideas.
Lamark believed that there is inheritance of acquired characteristics between parents and offspring. What current paradigm suggests this may be true?
Epigenetics
Who founded experimental psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt
According to Wundt, what is introspection?
Subjects are trained to observe and catalog their own reaction times to various stimuli.
What is the difference between physiology and psychology?
Physiology is more focused on how various sensory systems work, while Psychology is focused on attention and perception and other mental functions.
Who was the first American psychologist?
William James
Which German psychologist did William James study under?
Wilhelm Wundt
What was the name of the school of thought that American psychologists founded? What did this school of thought study/believe?
Functionalism.
Functionalism can be defined as how the mind functions to help organisms adapt to their environments. Consciousness exists for the purpose of helping organisms to survive and adapt to the physical world. Functionalists use experimental methods to understand learning, memory, problem solving, motivation, emotion, beliefs and concepts of self.
How did William James believe that higher mental processes came about?
They are the result of simple mental elements combined.
How did James define empiricism? Does his idea fit with our current understanding of empiricism? Why or why not?
James thought that all aspects of experience, both observable and not observable, both objective and subjective could be studied.
This does not fit with our current understanding.
Empiricism is defined as studying observable and measureable phenomena and experience.
How did James define consciousness?
As a constantly flowing dynamic stream of thought, connected with and dependent on those thoughts coming before and after.
List three reasons why James is considered the first American psychologist.
There were no professors of psychology in America until James began teaching in 1875.
Within 2 decades of the beginning of his psychology course, about 2 dozen universities had classes in psychology, three psychology journals were published and a professional psychology society had been formed.
He introduced experimental psychology to America.
He published the first psychology textbook, Principles of Psychology
He applied psychological principles to teaching, which became the core of educational psychology.
He was largely responsible for getting the Rockefeller Foundation and similar groups to allocate millions of dollars to the development of mental hospitals and the training of mental health professionals.
What did James consider to be the goal of psychology?
The discovery of the connection between each physiological brain state and corresponding states of mind.
Define Ontology.
The study of what is real, and the question of whether reality includes what cannot be observed.
Define Theory.
An explanation of reality that has been thoroughly tested so that most scientists agree on it. Theories give rise to predictions or hypotheses.
Define Hypothesis.
A proposed explanation for an observable phenomenon that can be scientifically tested. A hypothesis is an untested prediction arising from a theory.
Define empirical.
Inquiry based on, concerned with, or verifiable by observation or experience rather than theory or pure logic.
How did Thomas Kuhn define paradigm?
A universally recognized scientific achievement that, for a time, provides model problems and solutions for a community of researchers.
