Prologue Flashcards
Edward Bradford Titchener
Titchener used introspection to search for the mind’s structural elements.
Wilhelm Wundt
Wundt established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany, in 1879.
William James and Mary Whiton Calkins
James, legendary teacher-writer, mentored Calkins, who became a pioneering memory researcher and the first woman to be president of the American Psychological Association.
Margaret Floy Washburn
The first woman to receive a psychology Ph.D., Washburn synthesized animal behavior research in The Animal Mind.
What event defined the start of scientific psychology?
Scientific psychology began in Germany in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory.
Why did introspection fail as a method for understanding how the mind works?
People’s self-reports varied, depending on the experience and the person’s intelligence and verbal ability.
__________ used introspection to define the mind’s makeup; __________ focused on how mental processes enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish.
Structuralism; functionalism
John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner
Working with Rayner, Watson championed psychology as a science of behavior and demonstrated conditioned responses on a baby who became famous as “Little Albert.”
behaviorism
the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) but not with (2).
humanistic psychology
historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual’s potential for personal growth
B.F. Skinner
A leading behaviorist, Skinner rejected introspection and studied how consequences shape behavior.
Sigmund Freud
The controversial ideas of this famed personality theorist and therapist have influenced humanity’s self-understanding.
From the 1920s through the 1960s, the two major forces in psychology were __________ and __________ psychology.
behaviorism; Freudian
How did the cognitive revolution affect the field of psychology?
It recaptured the field’s early interest in mental processes and made them legitimate topics for scientific study.
cognitive neuroscience
the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language)
psychology
the science of behavior and mental processes
nature-nurture issue
the longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors. Today’s science seed traits and behaviors arising from the interaction of nature and nurture.
natural selection
the principle that among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations
Charles Darwin
Darwin argued that natural selection shapes behaviors as well as bodies.
levels of analysis
the differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any given phenomenon
biopsychosocial approach
an integrated approach that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis
What is natural selection?
This is the process by which nature selects from chance variations the traits that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.
neuroscience perspective
focuses on how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences
evolutionary perspective
focuses on how the natural selection of traits had promoted the survival of genes
