Prologue Chapter Module (The Story of Psychology) Flashcards
Empirical Approach
An evidence-based method that draws on observation and experimentation.
Scientific Attitude
Curious, skeptic, and humble.
Critical Thinking
Thinking that does not automatically accept arguments and conclusions.
Examines assumptions, appraises the source, discerns hidden biases, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.
Unpredicted interesting findings and disproving predictable myths.
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
Established the first psychological laboratory in Germany.
Studied reaction time based on hearing.
Structuralism
An early school of thought promoted by Wundt and Titchener.
Used introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind.
Breaking things down.
Functionalism
An early school of thought promoted by James and influenced by Darwin.
Explored how mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish.
Asking why things are the way they are? What purpose do they carry?
Mary Whiton Calkins
Denied a Phd from Harvard
Studied under James.
First female president of the American Psychological Association (APA).
Margaret Floy Washburn
First female psychology PhD.
The Animal Mind
Second female APA president.
Behaviourism
Pavlov, Skinner, and Thorndike
Watson + Rayner - Behaviorism and humans (Little Albert)
Dismissed introspection. Observable behaviours should be the focus of psychological study.
1) Should be an objective science
2) Studies behavior without reference to mental processes.
Freudian (Pyschoanalytic) Psychology
Concerned with the ways our unconscious mind and childhood experiences affect our behaviour.
Sigmund Freud
Humanistic Psychology
Historically significant perspective that emphasized human growth potential.
Rogers and Maslow.
Focus on needs for love and acceptance, and environments of nurture.
Cognitive Psychology
The study of mental processes that occur when we perceive, learn, remember, think, communicate, and problem solve.
Cognitive Neuroscience
The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition.
Including perception, thinking, memory, and language.
Modern Definitionof Pyschology
The science of behavior and mental processes.
Nature-Nurture Issue
Controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviours.