Psych 210 Exam #1

Question 1

Popper

Answer 1

Scientific method composed of problems, proposed solutions, and criticisms of the proposed solutions
All theories will eventually be proved false, so your the best a theory can be is “not yet disconfirmed.”

Question 2

Kuhn

Answer 2

Science is actually highly subjective!

Paradigm: widely-accepted viewpoint

Question 3

Socrates

Answer 3

If you examine enough individual manifestations of a concept, you can define it. When known, these general definitions generate moral behavior.

Question 4

Aristotle

Answer 4

Sensory experience is the basis of all knowledge! Everything in nature has a purpose, or entelechy, that determines its potential. Humans should use active reason. An “unmoved mover” causes everything in the world but has no cause itself.
The greatest happiness comes from exercising our rational powers.
Scala naturae: the hierarchy of matter from formless all the way up to the “Unmoved mover.”
The Laws of Association:
-Contiguity: When we think of something, we think of things we experienced with it
-Similarity: think of things similar to it
-Contrast: think of opposites
-Frequency: the more often experiences occur together, the stronger the association
The Four Causes:
1. Material Cause: What something is made of
2. Efficient Cause: What makes the thing (ie. construction workers)
3. Formal Cause: How it’s made (ie. blueprint, recipe)
4. Final Cause: The purpose for which it exists

Question 5

Copernicus

Answer 5

The earth rotates around the sun!!!

Question 6

Galileo

Answer 6

Aristotle was NOT always right. Also, science is not subjective! Everything in science should be able to be measured.

Question 7

Bacon

Answer 7

Science should only be based off of the facts of observation!

Experiments of Light: designed to discover causal relationships
Experiments of Fruit: designed to discover how the laws of nature may be utilized

Four Idols:

1. Tribe: deceptive beliefs/biases
2. Cave: The way we perceive the world is shaped by our own experiences.
3. Marketplace: Bias from the meaning we give words
4. Bias that results from blind allegiance to any viewpoint.

Question 8

Descartes

Answer 8

Human behavior can be explained mechanically. The mind is nonphysical, the body is physical, but they interact with and influence each other.
Brought up innate ideas
Only certain that he was doubting
Discovered that math/physics can make things quite certain.

Question 9

Berkeley

Answer 9

We only experience our own perceptions directly, and we CAN trust our senses. Reality exists because God perceives it.

Question 10

John Stuart Mills

Answer 10

Complex ideas can be very different than the simple ideas that constitute them.
A science of human nature can and should be developed.

Question 11

Leibniz

Answer 11

Monadology–The universe is made up of an infinite number of life particles called monads that vary in intelligence.
Petites perceptions: occur below the level of awareness
Apperceptions: conscious awareness built off of petites perceptions
Limen: the threshold/border between the conscious and the unconscious mind

Question 12

Kant

Answer 12

Experiences (such as unity, causation, and time) cannot be derived from sensory experience, they must be derived from innate ideas (rationalism).
Categorical Imperative
Believed that psychology can’t (Kant hehehe) become a science.

Question 13

Herbart

Answer 13

Ideas have energy and consciousness of their own, and they STRIVE for consciousness.
Apperceptive mass
One of the first mathematical and educational psychologists

Question 14

Hegel

Answer 14

The universe is an interrelated unity–the Absolute. Ideas should not be isolated from one another, but should be studied together, as they work together.

Question 15

Rousseau

Answer 15

Father of modern romanticism
Humans are innately good, they don’t really need government. If there is a government, it MUST allow humans to exercise free will!
Social contract

Question 16

Schopenhauer

Answer 16

The will to survive is the most powerful human motive!
Humans are driven partially by animalistic needs. Those needs can be repressed by engaging in non-need-related behavior, such as art.

Question 17

Kierkegaard

Answer 17

A relationship with God should be intensely personal, as emotional as a love affair! Truth is subjectivity, and it must be experienced.
Three Stages Toward Full Personal Freedom:
1. Aesthetic
2. Ethical
3. Religious

Question 18

Nietzsche

Answer 18

Believed that humans can’t rely on religion. A Cynic. Determine life’s meaning for yourself! The desire for power is the driving force in human nature. People should give into their negative and animalistic instincts more often. Supermen are people that are approaching their full potential. (Nazis twisted this.)

Question 19

Plato

Answer 19

Postulated the abstract world of forms (the pure, abstract realities that are unchanging and timeless and therefore knowable. Such forms create imperfect manifestations of themselves when they interact with matter). The only true knowledge is that of the forms, a knowledge that can be gained only by reflecting on the innate contents of the soul. Sensory experience interferes with the attainment of knowledge and should be AVOIDED!
The Analogy of the Divided Line: Hierarchy of Understanding
-Lowest: based on images of empirical object
-Next: understanding of empirical objects themselves (results in opinion)
-Next: understanding mathematic and abstract principles
-Next: understanding of the forms
-Highest: (true knowledge) Understanding of the form of the good that includes a knowledge of all forms and their organization