Psychological Science Flashcards
How do we call the biological processes within the brain?
Mental activity
Observable actions =
Behavior
Describe amiable scepticism.
- being open
- being wary of new “scientific findings”
- carefully weighing facts
Describe confirmation bias.
Ignoring new evidence that does not support their beliefs, selective memory, selective sampling of information (facebook groups)
Biased thinking: Why do we sometimes see relationships that do not exist?
We desire to find predictability in the world.
Explain and give another term for “after-the-fact explanation”.
Hindsight bias. Coming up with explanations for why something happened, interpreting and reinterpreting old evidence to make sense of the outcome.
Mental shortcuts.
Heuristics.
What is usually the cause of people not being able/failing to see their own weaknesses?
Lack of skill in that particular thing.
What concerns the nature/nurture debate and what is the situation nowadays?
Arguments concerning if psychological characteristics are biologically innate of acquired via experience/education…
Psychology today focuses on both nature and nurture influencing each other in shaping mind, brain and behavior.
Describe the mind/body problem.
A fundamental psychological issue: Are mind and body separate or is mind simply brains subjective experience - resulting from the biological processes within the brain?
Today: Mind arises from mental activity.
Explain dualism.
Idea claiming mind and body are two separate entities,
Who is the author of the book “A system of logic” and of the quote “Psychology should leave the realms of philosophy and of speculations and become a science of observation and of experiment.”
John Stuart Mill (1843)
Who was the first one in 1879 to establish the first psychology laboratory and the founder of modern experimental psychology?
Wilhelm Wundt.
What did Wundt use to study psychological processes?
Reaction time, later introspection.
Who was Edward Titchener?
Founder of structuralism, Wundts student.
What is the main idea of structuralism?
Conscious experience can be broken down into its basic elements (by introspection).
What is unreliable about introspection?
It is subjective.
Who first came up with the idea of functionalism?
William James.
Explain functionalism.
An approach to psychology concerned with the adaptive purpose or function of mind and behavior.
According to James, what is the stream of consciousness?
Ever-changing, continuous series of thoughts. (It cannot be frozen in time, therefore the structuralists techniques were sterile and artificial)
Explain the term “natural selection”.
The survival of the fittest.
What are adaptations?
The characteristics, skills that increase the chances of reproduction or survival and are therefore likely to be passed along to future generations.
Explain the term unconsciousness.
The place where mental processes operate below the level of conscious awareness.
Who came up with the psychoanalytic theory?
Sigmund Freud.
What is psychoanalysis?
A method that attempts to bring the contents of the unconscious into conscious awareness so that inner conflicts can be revealed. (dreams, free association)
Is Freuds theory of psychoanalysis reliable?
It is impossible to prove and impossible to dismiss, so nope.
Explain the idea behind behaviorism.
This approach emphasized environmental effects on observable behavior. The study of environmental stimuli/triggers in a particular situation to then predict responses. (Watson, Skinner)
what is the main idea of the Gestalt movement?
The whole is different from the sum of its parts.
Who were the psychologists behind the Gestalt movement?
Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler
Which school of thought represents the idea that “people are free to choose”?
Humanistic psychology.
Humanists?
Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers.
What is the idea of cognitivism?
That mental functions are important for understanding behavior. (animals could learn by observation, without reward – there must be some kind of mind process)
What are the latest developments in psychology? (biological)
- progress in understanding brain chemistry
- developments in neuroscience
- advances in decoding the human genome
What is the human genome?
The basic genetic code for the human body.
What are the four levels of analysis in psychological science? + examples
- biological (brain systems, neurochemistry, genetics)
- individual (individual differences, perception, behavior)
- cultural (thoughts, actions, behaviors - in different cultural groups)
- social (interpersonal behavior, social cognition)
