Test 1: Introduction Flashcards
Mind
Private inner experience
Psychology
Scientific study of mind and behavior
Behavior
Observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals
What does an fMRI do?
Allows scientists to scan a brain and see which parts are active when a person does something.
How does the mind usually allow us to function effectively in the world?
The function of the mind is to help us do what we have to do in order to prosper, such as acquiring food, shelter, and mates.
What are emotions function?
Emotions function as signals that tell us when we are putting ourselves in harm’s way.
Nativism
Certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn
Who argued in favor of Nativism?
Plato
Philosophical empiricism
We are a tabula rasa and that all knowledge is acquired through experience.
Who argued for philosophical empiricism?
Aristotle
René Descartes
Body and Mind are fundamentally different things. Mind influences body through pineal gland.
Thomas Hobbes
The mind is what the brain does.
Franz Joseph Gall
Thought brains and mind were linked but by size rather than by glands. Came up with phrenology.
Phrenology
Specific mental abilities and characteristics, ranging from memory to the capacity for happiness, are localized in specific regions of the brain.
Paul Broca
Crucial insight that damage to a specific part of the brain impaired a specific mental function, demonstrating that the mind and the brain are closely linked.
Physiology
Study of biological processes, especially in the human body
Stimulus
Sensory input from the environment
Reaction time
The amount of time taken to respond to a specific stimulus
Hermann Von Helmholtz
Studied nerve impulses and reaction times, showed mental processes did not occur simultaneously.
Wilhelm Wundt
Opened the first lab ever to be exclusively devoted to psychological studies. Believed psychology should focus on analyzing consciousness. Also adapted structuralism.
Consciousness
A person’s subjective experience of the world and the mind.
Structuralism
The analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind
Introspection
The subjective observation of one’s own experience
William James
“Father of psychology”- believed that trying to isolate and analyze a particular moment of consciousness distorted the essential nature of consciousness. Said consciousness was more like a flowing stream than a bundle of separate elements. Functionalist.
Functionalism
The study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment.
Natural selection
The features of an organism that help it survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to the subsequent generations.
Jean-Martin Charcot
Interviewed hysteria patients using hypnosis
Hysteria
A temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as a result of emotionally upsetting experiences.
Sigmund Freud
Defined the unconsciousness and developed the psychoanalytic theory and psychoanalysis
Unconscious
The part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness but influences conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Psychoanalytic theory
An approach that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors
Psychoanalysis
Bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness.
Humanistic psychology
an approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings
Challenges for Psychoanalysis?
- Sexual spin on psychology
- Pessimistic view
- Difficult to study
- Freud did not do well with those who questioned his approach
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
Associated with humanistic psychology
Humanistic psychology
an approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings
John Watson, B.F. Skinner, and Ivan Pavlov
associated with behaviorism
Behaviorism
the scientific study of objectively observable behavior
Response
an action or physiological change elicited by a stimulus
Skinner
- animals learn by interacting with their environment- not passive like Pavlov’s dogs
- “Skinner box”
reinforcement
the consequences of behavior determine whether it will be more or less likely to occur again.
Illusions
errors of perception memory, or judgment in which subjective experience differs from objective reality
Gestalt psychology
a psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts.
Sir Frederic Bartlett
Our memory is influenced by our mind (our knowledge, hopes, aspirations, and desires) rather than a photographic representation of actual events.
Cognitive psychology
the scientific study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, and reasoning
Karl Lashley
- Removed parts of rat brains
- Observed deficits
- Behavioral Neuroscience
Cognitive Neuroscience
Links between cognitive processes and brain activity
John Garcia
associated with evolutionary psych
Evolutionary psychology
explains mind and behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by natural selection
Norman Triplett
associated with social psych
Social psychology
the study of the causes and consequences of interpersonal behavior
Culture
the values, traditions, and beliefs that are shared by a particular group of people
cultural psychology
the study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members.
Margaret Mead
associated with cultural psych
American Psychological Association (APA)
Formed in 1892
Who makes up most of the psych field?
Clinical psychologists
