Psych: Prologue Flashcards
In 300 B.C.E, what Greek naturalist and philosopher theorized about learning and memory, motivation and emotion, perception and personality?
Aristotle
When was the birth of Psychology? And where was the birthplace?
1879, in Leipzig Germany
Who is Wilhelm Wundt?
He was a middle-aged professor who created an experimental apparatus. Wilhelm was the professor who began the study of psychology.
Who started up the first psychological laboratory?
Wilhelm Wundt and psychologies first graduate student.
What did psychology get organized into?
Different branches,or schools of thought.
Name 2 schools of thought
Structuralism and Functionalism
Who was Wilhelm’s student?
Edward Bradford Titchener
Who introduced Introspection? And what is introspection?
Edward Bradford Titchener aimed to discover the minds structure. He engaged people in self-reflective introspection (looking inward), training them to report elements of their experience as they looked at a rose, listened to a metronome, smelled a scent, or tasted a substance. What were their immediate sensations, their images, their feelings? And how did these relate to one another?
Was introspection reliable? Why?
No introspecion was proved somewhat unreliable. It required smart, verbal people and its results varied from person to person and experience to experience. *As introspection waned, so did structuralism.
Who thought it would be more fruitful to consider the evolved functions of our thoughts and feelings?
Philosopher-psychologist William James
What is William James known for?
He was a functionalist. Under the influence of evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin, James assumed that thinking, like smelling, developed because it was adaptive. As a functionalist, James encouraged explorations of down-to-earth emotions memories, willpower, habits, and moment-to-moment streams of consciousness.
In 1890, Who did William James bring into his graduate seminar, even though it was objected by the Harvard’s president.
In 1890 Mary Whiton Calkins was mentored by William James, she became a pioneering memory researcher and the first woman to be president of the American Psychological Association.
Who is Margaret Floy Washburn?
She is the first woman to receive a psychology Ph.D. Washburn synthesized animal behaviour research in “The Animal Mind” And also became the second female American Psychological Association president in 1921.
_____ used introspection to define the mind’s makeup; ______ focused on how mental processes enable us to adapt, survive and flourish.
Structuralism; functionalism
What is behaviourism?
The view that psychology (1) should be an objective science that (2) studies behaviour without reference to mental processes. Most research psychologists today agree with (1) not with (2)
Humanistic Psychology
Historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual’s potential for personal growth.
What was psychology defined as?
Psychology was defined as the “science of mental life”
What did Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener and William James each focus on?
Wundt and Titchener focused on inner sensations, images, and feelings. James engaged in introspective examination of the stream of consciousness and of emotion.
Who dismissed introspection and redefined psychology?
John B. Watson, and later the equally provocative B. F. Skinner, dismissed introspection and redefined psychology as “the scientific study of observable behaviour.”
Who were the Behaviourists? What lead them to be behaviourists?
John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner said , science is rooted in observation. You cannot observe a sensation, a feeling, or a thought, but you can observe and record people’s behaviour as they respond to different situations. Many agreed, and the behaviourists were one of two major forces in psychology well into the 1960s.
Define: Freudian Psychology
Freudian Psychology emphasized the ways our unconscious thought processes and our emotional responses to childhood experiences affect our behaviour.
What are some of Sigmund Freud’s teachings?
Sigmund Freud’s teachings, including his theory of personality, and his views on unconscious sexual conflicts and the mind’s defences against its own wishes and impulses.
What was the purpose of Humanistic Psychologists?
It was led by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, found both Freudian psychology and behaviourism too limiting. Rather than focusing on the meaning of early childhood memories or the learning of conditioned responses, the humanistic psychologists drew attention to ways that current environmental influences can nurture or limit our growth potential, and the importance of having our needs for love and acceptance satisfied.
What was the Cognitive Revolution?
The Cognitive Revolution was a rebellious group of psychologists during the 1960’s who led the field back to its early interest in mental processes, such as the importance of how our mind processes and retains information. Cognitive Psychology scientifically explores the ways we perceive, process, and remember information.
