The Origins Of Psychology Flashcards
What are Ekman’s 6 basic emotions?
Paul Ekman stated that there are 6 basic emotions that are experienced by everyone:
- Happy
- Sad
- Fear
- Anger
- Surprise
- Disgust
How did Psychology come about?
Questions about the mind were philosophical and several philosophers asked key questions about human behaviour:
- Rene Descartes was a medieval philosopher and proposed Cartesian Dualism. This is the concept that the mind/soul and the rest of the body are separate entities.
- John Locke was an empiricist and proposed Empiricism. This is the idea that all knowledge is gained through experience, and links to the behaviourism and social learning theory.
- Charles Darwin was a scientist and proposed Evolution. Evolution is the concept that humans have changed over many generations to increase their chances of survival, linking to the biological approach.
What is the timeline of Psychology?
- 17th-19th Century: Branch of philosophy known as experimental philosophy.
- 1870: Wilhelm Wundt opens the first psychological lab in Leipzig to study the mind using introspection.
- 1900s: Freud establishes the Psychodynamic Approach which emphasised the importance of the unconscious mind and conflicts that arise in childhood.
- 1913: John B Watson and B.F. Skinner establish the Behaviourist Approach which emphasises the role of reinforcement in learning. The Behaviourist and Psychodynamic approaches dominate for 50 years.
- 1950s: Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow reject the Behaviourist and Psychodynamic approaches and develop the Humanist Approach which emphasises the importance of free will.
- 1960s: The cognitive revolution comes with the invention of the computer which provides the analogy of the human mind working like a computer does. The Cognitive Approach emphasises the importance of studying internal mental processes in a scientific way.
- 1960s: Albert Bandura proposes the Social Learning Theory which combines the cognitive and behaviourist approaches. Emphasises the role of imitating role models.
- 1980s: The Biological Approach is established as the dominant approach due to technological advances allowing us to directly study the brain.
- 1990s-2000: Cognitive Neuroscience emerges as a distinct perspective.
Who is Wilhelm Wundt?
- The birth of Psychology is identified as 1879, when Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig in Germany.
- Wilhelm Wundt aimed to study the structure if the human mind through breaking down behaviours e.g. sensation and perception into basic elements.
- He tried to be scientific, using strict methods only. He only studied behaviour that could be strictly controlled in exptal conditions e.g. reaction times. He was objective and wasn’t open to interpretation.
- This is called introspection, which means looking into or within (self-observation).
What was the process of introspection?
- Wundt would use stimuli e.g. ticking of a metronome or a dripping tap that is a simple everyday object.
- Participants would report all of their feelings, thoughts and images as objectively as possible, breaking down thoughts on an object to separate elements.
- Wundt would analyse each participants response for consistent themes.
What are the features of science?
- Theory construction and hypothesis testing.
- Objectivity and the Empirical Method.
- Falsifiability.
- Paradigms.
- Replicability.
What is theory constructing and hypothesis testing?
- Theory: a set of general laws that can explain behaviours or events.
- Theory construction: gathering evidence via direct observation.
- Hypothesis testing: The scientific testing (systematic + objective) of a precise prediction based on the theory.
What is objectivity and the Empirical Method?
- Science must be objective: not affected by the feelings and experiences of the researcher (unbiased).
- Methods with high control.
- Objectivity is based on empirical method: The scientific approach of gathering evidence through observation and experience.
What is falsifiability?
- Karl Popper argued a key principle of science is opening the theory up to being proven not true.
- For this to be possible the theory needs to be testable: create hypotheses and repeatedly test if they are accurate.
What is replicability?
A theory is only scientific (and therefore trustworthy) if they can be repeated over and over and get the same results often by different researchers in different circumstances.
What are paradigms?
- Paradigms are a shared set of assumptions and methods of studying those assumptions.
- A universally agreed paradigm makes a discipline scientific.
- Natural sciences agree core principles e.g. general relativity in Physics. Wundt attempted to make Psychology the same through introspection.
- Wundt attempted a paradigm shift: a scientific revolution that occurs when many scientists question the current paradigm e.g. from Newtonian theory to general relativity.
