Prologue - The Story of Psychology Flashcards
Who first theorized about personality, memory, and motivation?
Aristotle.
Who conducted the first modern psychology experiment?
Wilhelm Wundt.
Psychology’s first graduate students studied the “atoms of the mind” by conducting experiments at Leipzig, Germany in 1879. This work is considered the birth of psychology.
What did Wundt emphasize in his experiments?
Carefully measured observations and repeatable experiments.
What was Edward Titchner’s structuralism?
Using introspection (looking in) to explore the structural elements of the mind. This was very unreliable and not very scientific.
What is functionalism?
Developed by William James (1842 - 1910), it focused on the function is human thoughts, feelings, and behaviors, and how they contributed to out ancestors’ survival.
He was heavily influenced by Charles Darwin.
Sigmund Freud founded what school of psychology and what did it focus on?
Freudian / psychoanalytic psychology, founded in the late 1800s.
His school of study and treatments focused on the role of unconscious wishes, drives, and needs, emphasizing the importance of childhood experiences.
His research was based solely on his patients and his theories with no real basis in science.
What was behaviorism?
Founded by John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner.
They thought Freud was full of shit. You can’t measure thoughts but you can measure behaviors.
They were only worried about observable behaviors and believed that people were a product of their environment.
What was Watson’s famous experiment?
He conditioned nine month old “Little Albert” to be afraid of white mice by associating a loud noise with the presentation of a mouse. This is an example of classical conditioning.
What was Skinner’s famous experiment?
He taught pigeons how to do amazing things to get rewards. He later wrote about how human communities could be shaped by this method.
Reward only, no punishment.
What is classical conditioning?
A learning process that occurs when two stimuli are repeatedly paired; a response that is at first elicited by the second stimulus is eventually elicited by the first stimulus alone.
Naturally occurring stimulus paired with a response.
Ex. Pavlov’s dogs.
What is operant conditioning?
A type of learning in which an individual’s behavior is modified by its antecedents and consequences.
Reward focused.
Who were the founders of humanism and what do they believe?
Abraham Maslow and Carol Rogers (1960s).
They studied people who were thriving - how did they become successful and remain happy despite traumas?
They developed theories and treatments to help people feel accepted and to reach their full potential. However, this may not be enough to cure depression, etc.
What is the nature - nurture debate?
To what extent are out traits already set in place at birth (Plato - “the good” and “the beauty” are inborn - determined by genes).
And to what extent do our traits develop in response to our environment and experiences (how parents raised you, schooling, etc. Aristotle - all knowledge comes through senses; John Locke - at birth, minds are a blank slate).
What was Darwin’s stance on the nature-nurture debate?
Some traits and behaviors are inborn. We share a common origin that gives us an inborn human nature and we have differences that are shaped by influences.
What is the biopsychosocial theory?
Biology - genetic predisposition.
Psychology - thoughts.
Environment - social influences.
Disorders have multiple explanations and influential variables. You have to look at it from all sides.
