The rise of behaviourism Flashcards
1
Q
What were the two goals in the German education system?
A
- 2 goals: 1. Conduct research 2. Make good citizens
- Leading in the development of science
2
Q
What were Wilhelm Wundt’s firsts?
A
- Scientific psychologist
- Psychology course
- Psychology lab (beginning of modern psychology)
- Book on the Principles of Physiological Psychology
3
Q
What were Wilhelm Wundt’s three goals?
A
- Analyse elements of consciousness
- Connection between elements
- Find laws
4
Q
What did Wilhelm Wundt believe?
A
- Psychophysical parallelism –every physical event has a mental counterpart, and vice versa
- Assumption: measurable variables are bi-products of sensations and movements.
- Physiological Psychology
5
Q
What were Wilhelm Wundt’s three methods?
A
- Psychophysical methods (study between physical stimuli and positive states)
- Historical method (products of human cultures)
- Method of introspection
6
Q
What is the method of introspection? (Wilhelm Wundt)
A
- Ability to observe the phenomena
- Pay close attention
- Repeated experiments
- Conditions should vary
- Distinction between internal perception and experimental self-observation was made due to the criticism of introspection
- Internal perception (reflect inward)
- Experimental self-observation
7
Q
Problems with introspection - Readiness potentials experiment - Libet (2002)
A
- EEG’s used to measure brains readiness potential
- Looked at hand muscle activity, asked to flex hand when they felt the urge to do so
- Onset of RP already in action prior to the hand flex, shows inaccurate perception of own behaviour
8
Q
Problems with introspection - Love on a bridge experiment -Dutton and Aron (1974)
A
- Attractive women go up to men on a scary or stable bridge
- Ask them to participate in a study about scenic beauty effects creativity
- Gives phone number at the end for an optional follow up
- 50% in the scary condition called, vs 13% in the non-scary condition
- More sexual themes from men on the scary bridge, due to heightened arousal
9
Q
Problems with introspection - Shopper’s choice experiment -Nisbett and Wilson (1977)
A
- Completed survey about pantyhose preference
- The rightmost choice was selected the most often (40%)
- “Little ability to access higher-order processes”
- Participants don’t know why they prefer the one they chose
10
Q
“Intuition’s Dozen Deadly Sins” -Myers 2004
A
- Memory construction
- Misreading our own minds
- Mis-predicting our own feelings
- Mis-predicting our own behaviors
- Hindsight bias
- Self-serving bias
- Overconfidence bias
- Fundamental attribution error
- Belief preservation and confirmation bias
- Representativeness and availability
- Framing
- Illusory correlation
11
Q
1 Memory construction
A
- Influenced by multiple factors
- False memories can form
- Encoding – storage – retrieval
- Memory is not a recording device
- Error can occur such as forgetting
- Influences how memory is reconstructed
12
Q
2 Misreading our own minds
A
Often we don’t know why we do what we do
13
Q
3 Mis-predicting our own feelings
A
We can mis-predict the intensity and duration of our emotions
14
Q
4 Mis-predicting our own behaviours
A
Intuitive self-predictions can go astray
15
Q
5 Hindsight bias
A
- ‘I knew it all along’ bias
- Think something will happen after it has happened
- Memory distortion (mis-remembering)
- Inevitability (it had to happen)
- Foreseeability (I knew it would happen)
16
Q
6 Self-serving bias
A
- Take credit for success
- Won’t take credit for failure – blame outside source
- Takes away personal responsibility
- We can show inflated self-assessments
- Attribute successes to personal attributes
17
Q
7 Overconfidence bias
A
- Our assessments of our knowledge can be more confident than correct
- More confident than you should be
18
Q
8 Fundamental attribution error
A
- Attributing others’ behaviour to their dispositions by discounting situational forces
- Discount the situation
- Internal explanations rather than the situation
19
Q
9 Confirmation bias and belief preservation
A
- Preferring information which supports their own beliefs, denies any which contradicts
- Prefers information that support beliefs
- Even after their foundation is discredited
20
Q
10 Availability and representativeness heuristics
A
- Mental shortcuts, helps us make decisions and judgments with no analysis
- Can lead to incorrect judgment e.g. more likely to die in a plane crash than die from a disease
- Base judgments on how easily the information comes to mind
- Base judgments on how similar something is compared to the typical case
21
Q
11 Framing effect
A
-Judgments flip flop depending on how the information is presented
22
Q
12 Illusory correlation
A
- Perceiving correlations where none exist
- Relationship between variables when there is no relationship
23
Q
Experimental psychology in Germany
A
- German Professors were encouraged to pursue their own interests
- Baconian research methods were used to collect facts
- Germany included biology as part of science
24
Q
Who was William James ?
A
- One of the 1st Psychologists
- Functionalist – Introspection (best available method at the time) – Darwin’s theory – Influential in Psychology in US
- Wrote Principles of Psychology
- Looked at functions of the mind
25
Who was Edward Titchener ?
- Studied under Wundt
- Structuralism (through introspection) – Structure of the mind – Introspection – Not big in the US
- Thought UK wasn’t receptive of psychology
- Didn’t address issues which the US had at the time
- US was influenced by Darwin and James
26
Why was functionalism embraced in the US?
- Economic superpower
- By 1900 41 labs
- APA founded in 1892
- Darwin’s work was influential
- Influx of immigrants (20 million)
- Invested heavily in research
27
What happened in the Industrial Revolution ?
- Natural resources
- Human resources
- Tech inventions (e.g. railworks, telegraph, calculator)
- Darwin’s theory appealed
- Functionalism succeeded
28
What did Thorndike do?
- Changed method in 2 ways:
- Did not rely on anecdotal evidence
- Based conclusions on behaviour (observations)
- Law of effect –behaviours followed by positive consequences are repeated and strengthened
- Wanted to look at how children learn, but used animals in a controlled environment
29
What did Pavlov do?
- Physiologist studying digestive system
| - Accidental discovery: classical conditioning
30
What did Watson do?
- Established Behaviour School of Psychology
- Classical conditioning of emotional responses
- Psychology should be objective
- Shift from introspection to observation – marked the clear transition
- Little Albert
31
What was Comte ?
1. Because science is based on observation and experimentation, findings are always true
2. Scientific theories are summaries of empirical findings; therefore they are always true as well
3. Because scientific knowledge is infallible, it should be the motor of all progress
32
Why is animal research helpful?
- Cornerstone of human progress
| - Positivism –describe experienced phenomena
33
What 3 points need to be met in animal research?
1. Operational definitions are needed – Variables must be expressed numerically
2. Distinction between independent and dependent variables – Independent –characteristics of the environment. Dependent –measured the effect of the IV
3. Needs verification – Increases objectivity
- Statements are only useful if they can be verified by empirical observation
34
What did Skinner do?
- Operant conditioning – Reinforcement – Punishment
| - Radical behaviourism
35
What did Tolmon do?
- Purposive Behaviourism
- Latent learning –acquisition of knowledge without observable behaviour
- Animal and human behaviours are motivated by goals
- Partially influential in the development of cognitive psychology
36
What were Tolmon's 3 conditions?
1. Control group: Never found food (HNR)
2. Control group: Found food throughout (HR)
3. Experimental group: Found food at the end of maze from the 11th day on (HNR-R)
