Science and History (1a)

Question 1

What is psychology?

Answer 1

Psychology is the scientific study of mental processes and behaviour

Question 2

What are the four goals of psychologists?

Answer 2

1. Description: of what they observe
2. Explanation: of why a mental process or behaviour is occurring
3. Prediction: of the circumstances that lead to a certain behaviour or mental process
4. To provide advice on how to Control behaviour and mental processes

Question 3

What are the three areas of influence in the study of behaviour and mental processes?

Answer 3

• The brain: neural activity, Brian structure, genes
• The person: thoughts, emotions, ideas, motivations
• The group: friends, family, population, culture

Question 4

What is being analyze in the ‘brain’ level?

Answer 4

How brain structure and brain cell activity differ from person to person and situation to situation

Question 5

What is being analyzed in the ‘person’ level?

Answer 5

How the content of the individuals;s mental processes form and influence behaviour

Question 6

What is being analyzed in the group level?

Answer 6

How behaviour is being shaped by the social and cultural enviorment

Question 7

What is structuralism?

Answer 7

Looking for the components of consciousness
- the goal was to describe observable mental processes rather than to explain, predict or control

Question 8

Who is Edward titchener?

Answer 8

He developed structuralism as an attempt to try and identify al the laments of consciousness

Question 9

What is introspection?

Answer 9

It is the careful reflective and systematic observation of the details of mental processes

Question 10

What is functionalism?

Answer 10

Is the flow of consciousness, James believed that mental processes were fluid (functionalism) instead of fixed elements (structuralism) . Empathized the functions of the mind in adapting to changing environment

Question 11

What did Gesalt psychology’s belive?

Answer 11

• hey beloved that consciousness CANNOT be broken down into elements
• That we perceive things as whole perceptual units
• The whole in greater than the sum of its parts
• Learning is tied to what we perceive

Question 12

What did sign and frued belive?

Answer 12

That peoples behaviours are based on their unconscious desires and conflicts
Developed a form of therpay, psychoanalysis that aimed to resolved unconscious conflicts

Question 13

What is behaviourism?

Answer 13

Psychological research should only focus on behaviours you can observe

Question 14

What is humanistic psychology?

Answer 14

A person has a capacity for personal, positive growth
A person has the freedom to choose his or her destiny
Our subjective perceptions of the world and unique and are more important than behaviour itself

Question 15

What is cultural psycholoy?

Answer 15

The study of how cognitive processes vary across different populations due to sociology-cultural environments

Question 16

What is cross-cultural psycology?

Answer 16

The study of the cognitive processes that are universal regardless of culture

Question 17

What is a cell assembly?

Answer 17

When neurons develop networks of connections based on experiences as we develop and interact with out environments

Question 18

What is behavioural genetics:

Answer 18

The influence of gene expression on brains developments and its control of human behaviour

Question 19

Sociobiologists?

Answer 19

Humans have a genetically innate concept of hwo social behaviour should be organized

Question 20

What is evolutionary psycolog?

Answer 20

How the processes of evolution has shaped our brain and expression of behaviour

Question 21

What are the three main branches of psycology?

Answer 21

1. Clinical and counselling psycology - therapists
2. Academic Psycology - professors
3. Applied Psychology - marketing firms, schools, research institutions

Question 22

What are the shared values of all psychologists?

Answer 22

• theory driven: uses theories to explain behaviour
• Empirical: Based on research
• Multi-Level: explain by the brain, individual, and group
• Contextual: psychological perspectives continue to evolve which impacts work in psychology

Question 23

What are mental processes?

Answer 23

Activities of our brain when engaged in thinking, observing the environment, and using language

Question 24

What is behaviour?

Answer 24

Our observable actions, often in response to environmental cues