The Science of Psychology Flashcards
What is psychological science?
Study of mind brain and behavior thorugh research
-the behavior-observable actions
-The brain- biolgical processses
-The mind- Perceptions, thoughts, memories, fceelings.
Level and Scope of Psych Explanation
Explanation of psychological phenomena refers to their attribution to a general principle- a principle that applies to human nature
- explanations are based on biology, mental states, or social cultural factors
What is the scope of an explanation?
Refers to whom it applies to
* ideally it applies to all human beings
It may also apply to certian groups of people (ex. Davis Students), particular individuals, (ex. my mom), and specific actions of particula individuals ( ex. why my firend said the things he siad.)
Intuition vs Science
Part of Human experience is the diesre to understand and predict behavior. Science-based understanding relies on **critical thinking. **
What does critical thinking do?
Systematically questions and evaluates information using well-supporte evidence
* Weights facts, consider sources, uses logcial and resaosning to see whether information makes sense, consider alternative explainations
Biases in Thinking
What is it, and examples of it with definition.
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Confirmation Bias- ingnoring evidence that contridicts our beliefs (ex vaccines)
2.Faling to accurately judge source credibllity (ex. celebrity endorsement)
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Confirmation Bias- ingnoring evidence that contridicts our beliefs (ex vaccines)
- misunderstanding or not using statistics (ex. gambler’s fallacy. )
(99% of gamblers quit before they hit it big HAHAHA)
Baises in Thinking
- Seeing relations that od not exist (ex. spurious Correlations [drownings/Nicolas Cage in Movies])
- Using relative comparisons
- Post Hoc Fallacy: Correlation (events happening together) does not equal causation (one event directly causing another)
- (I ate ice cream, and then I got a stomach ache. The ice cream must have caused it)
- Taking mental shortcuts: you mind reaching a particular conclusion without thinking alot.
- Self-serving bais (ex. failing to see our own inadequaceis)
Where did psychology orginate+ its roots
Originated In philosphy
1. Mind-body (brain) problem since antiquity
2. Cartesian Dualism (from Descartes)
3. Nature- nurture debate: (continues today, kinda)
4. British empiricists): (17th - 18th c. eg john locke, george berkley): all knowlege comes form our senses)
Roots of epistemology
Plato Signifcance
Founder of rationalism (rational anaylsis to understand the world, rather than emperical observation
* We are born with the knowledge inside our mind- we just need to find a way to get it out.
Aristotole significance
Founder of empiricism: a philosophical belief that states your knowledge of the world is based on your experiences, particularly your sensory experiences
My teacher is nuts- we need to obersve the physcial world we live in to gain knowlege of it.
Originis of experiemetnal psych
- Emergence of schools of thought (or perspective) in psychology as a seperate field from philsophy
What did experiental psych begin with?
Introspections: an examination of sujective metnal experiences. It requires people to inspect and report on the content of their thoghts.
Wilhelm Wunth Significance
Father of exp/al psych: Introspection, reaction time, and quantificaiton in the mental study
What did introspection led to while experiemtnal psych was begining
Strucuralism (a school of thought)
what is functinalism
- an approach to psych concered with the purpose/ fucntion of behavio- emerged as the antithesisi to structuralism- infleucnes by darwins theoru of evolution
Whiliam James
First American psychologist: stream of consciouness (a perosn ocntinous series of ever changing thouhgts), mind is like a river.
Who was a major infleucne on Functionalism?
Charles Darwin
Charles Darwin
* Evolutionary theory: views the history of aspecies in term so foinherited adaptive value
1.Variation in feature sdue to random mutaitons
2. Natural selctions
3. Adaptaiton
20th Cnetury Psych, Gestalt Psychology
Gestalth theory: the whole of personal experiences is more than the sum of its parts
* * For instance you enjoy the compelete lego toy more than just all its bricks
*Goes against strucalist approach
The perception of objects is subjective and dependent on context (why does introspeciton does not work.
Gestalt principle
whole is more than sum of its parts
Experiencing the entire compositions lead to a different perspective than does the summation of all indivudal compoents [ the dog photo])
Gestalt priciples: Common fate
The Gestalt principle of “common fate” states that elements moving in the same direction or in unison are perceived as belonging together as a group
we think a flock of birds is one thing
Sigmund Freud
Much of human behavior is detmined by mental process operation in the unconscious, below the level of awarness.
Three mental entities accordign to freud
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Id: uncscious, basic desires, instincts
2.Super-ego: higher moral vlaues, mostly also unconscious - Ego: the rational part, conscious, trying to balance the other two.
Fruedian Slip
Dreams and slips-of- the- tongue can be revealing of these unconcsious struggles
