Science of Psychology Flashcards
early psychology background
psychology has its foundations in philosophy
which 3 philosophers initiated interest in psychology?
Aristotle
Plato
Descartes
Descartes relation to psychology
His book, Mediations of First Philosophy discussed dualism and the idea of the ‘malevolent demon’
define dualism
the separation of the mind and body
explain the idea of the ‘malevolent demon’
malevolent demon controls you and creates a virtual world in which you live
similar ideas to virtual reality
explain the idea of the ‘brain in the VAT’
ideas like your brain being in a VAT or the malevolent demon don’t seem plausible but it cannot be proven wrong
subjective observation
who is Wilhelm Wundt?
1932-1920
German psychologist
opened first experimental lab inside a philosophy department in 1879 in Leipzig University
introduced the idea of structuralism
very influential - known as father of psychology
peer of William James
explain the concept of structuralism and how Wundt experimented
- used a swinging pendulum to infer the speed of decision-making based on behaviour they would elicit e.g. reaction time
- Wundt wanted to strip down consciousness into its most basic parts through structuralism introspection
what is structuralism introspection and how does it work?
- used introspection to break down consciousness into its component parts or structure
- trained people to report their own mental conscious experience to stimuli
- limitation of subjective bias in these self-reports so introspection was criticised
who is William James?
1842-1910
wrote first psychology textbook, ‘Principles of psychology’ - interesting questions and concepts
influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution - looked to organisms function to understand their behaviour
how psychology is related to organisms function
idea of functionalism
what are the different perspectives in psychology?
behaviourism
cognitivism
humanism
psychodynamic
biological
evolutionary
key ideas of behaviourism
early 1900s
scientific study of behaviour
mind is a black box
only look at things you can objectively measure
internal mental processes ignored as they cannot be directly observed or measured so not worthy of scientific study
key theorists in behaviourism
Pavlov
Watson
Skinner
what are the types of conditioning in behaviourism?
classical and operant
what is classical conditioning?
pair 2 stimuli (unconditioned stimulus and neutral stimulus to produce a unconditioned response. Then by associated and time, without the unconditioned stimulus, the neutral stimulus becomes a conditioned stimulus which produces a conditioned response.
what is operant conditioning?
behaviour shaped by the consequences of said behaviour – positive and negative reinforcement and punishment.
Pavlov
Pavlov’s dogs
classical conditioning
Skinner
Skinner’s box
operant conditioning
Watson and Rayner
Little Albert case study
classical conditioning
Watson reacted against the subjective and biased nature of structuralism and functionalism
behaviourism real-life application
drug addicts in rehab – extinction – break the association between the cues which cause the cravings which cause the relapse when back in that setting
limitation of behaviourism
experiments on animals
ethics
generalisability
key ideas of cognitivism
1950s - behaviourism –> cognitivism
early memory research by Ebbinghaus on how memory worked
black box (mind) was the interesting part
took notions from Wundt and James applied rigorous control procedures to reduce subjective bias
combined with neuroscience
prevalent in many areas of psychology - Cognitive revolution
key ideas of humanism
emphasised move from reductionist approach to more holistic approach
humans are not just organisms that respond to environmental stimuli
reminds us that we are still people with needs and goals
idea of free will
behaviour is not determined by behaviour, stimuli and behaviour
key theorists in humanism
Rogers
Maslow
Rogers
client centred therapy
talked about ‘the self’
gave control back to client
Maslow
hierarchy of needs
can’t achieve higher goals until bottom levels have been achieved
final goal is self-actualisation
key ideas of psychodynamic
not experimental but clinical approach
highly influential but not any more
unconscious motivating forces guide behaviour and produce personality
key theorists in psychodynamics
Freud
Jung
Freud
stage theorist
strong statements regarding human development and stages that children go through
if you did not meet those needs at that stage, it would affect you in later life
Jung
what does personality consist of according to psychodynamic approach?
personality consists of an id, and ego and a superego
id: pleasure principle in unconscious
ego: rational principle in consciousness
superego: guilt principle makes up our conscious
ego tries to control both dynamics to maintain balance
limitations of psychodynamic approach
criticised because of difficulty to test theories
notions are far-fetched e.g. penis envy
key ideas of biological approach
monists - all behaviour and mental processes can be traced to physical causes
focus on the brain and nervous system
behaviour is tied to activity in the brain
looks at how the brain works, specific areas for specific functions, cell communication in the nervous system
know more about the brain, its structure, the cells, its functions, role of chemicals and neurotransmitters in the brain etc
cognitive neuroscience is a big field - combination of trying to understand cognitive processes from a neuroscientific perspective
key theorists in biological approach
Broca
Wernicke
Broca
identified Broca’s area
responsible for speech production
damage to this area is called Broca’s aphasia
Wernicke
identified Wernicke’s area
responsible for speech comprehension
damage to this area is called Wernicke’s aphasia
key ideas in evolutionary approach
genetics and sociobiological
behaviour determined by genes
reason for human existence is to reproduce
idea of memes and genes
both genes and memes respond to the same kind of things
key theorists in evolutionary approach
Darwin
Dawkins
Wilson
Darwin
survival of species
facial expressions
Dawkins
the selfish gene
animals dont behave for the good of the species but for the survival of the gene
brought into society through memes
emphasised a need for evidence in psychology
Wilson
sociobiology
controversy towards sexual selection when applied to humans
different reproductive strategies of males and females
sexual selection comparison of men and women’s reproductive strategies
females:
high investment, high cost, high risk, short time-frame to reproduce
look for quality in mate, want best genes possible for offspring
males:
low investment, low cost, low risk, long time-frame to reproduce
look for quantity in mates, want to impregnate as many women as possible, more likely to pass on genes
limitations of evolutionary approach
sexist theories
women only good for pregnancy and motherhood whereas men can sleep around and be ‘breadwinners’
what is a meme?
an idea unit that is likely to reproduce e.g. ideas in religion like christ was resurrected
memes are passed on through generations e.g. spread by social media virality
what are genes?
biological piece of DNA
passed on through biological reproduction
need to mutate for genetic variability - can be advantageous e.g. big ears or disadvantageous e.g. cancer
what are the three things for evolution to work?
- a self-replicating unit e.g. gene or meme
- some random variability in its replication e.g. mutation
- pressure to select on that variability
