Topic 01 - Introducing Psychology Flashcards
Animism
The belief that the world is alive.
Anthropomorphism
Giving inanimate objects human attributes.
Apperception
According to Wundt, the organization of the basic elements of experience.
Archetypes
Themes that constantly recur in consciousness.
Association
The combination of simple ideas into complex one.
Automata
Mechanical contraptions that mimicked human action and movement.
Basic anxiety
Pervasive loneliness and helplessness in a hostile world.
Clinical method
The technique developed by Paul Broca that involved documenting the behavior conditions a person experienced during life and then examining the person’s brain post mortem to see what structures were diseased or damaged.
Continguity
Ideas or sensations that occur together are associated with one another.
Creative synthesis
The combination of simple ideas into complex ones yielding some new and distinct quality not present in the simple ideas.
Determination
The belief that all acts, behaviors, or effects are caused by past events.
Doctrine of specific nerve energies
Stated there were five types of sensory nerves and each was maximally sensitive to its own type of stimulation, which Muller called its “specific irritability”.
Drive-reduction theory of reinforcement
If we engage in a behavior and it successfully reduces a drive, we are more likely to make the same response again when the same drive occurs.
Electrical stimulation
Involved applying weak electrical currents to the cerebral cortex and then observing motor responses.
Empiricism
The notion that knowledge could be gained only via sensory experience and that there were no innate ideas.
Extirpation method /
Extirpation ablation
The technique used by Pierre Flourens involving destroying or removing part of the brain and then observing the behavioral changes that occurred.
Formal discipline
The arrangement of educational experiences in ways that certain faculties could be strengthened; linked to phrenology.
Functionalism
Focused on the function of consciousness and how an organism could use the mind to adapt to its environment.
Historiography
The study of the proper way to write history and conduct historical research; includes all relevant principles and tools.
Individual psychology
Adler’s idea that personality was affected by both biological and social factors.
Inferiority complex
A feeling of inferiority or weakness linked to being dependent on others in childhood.
Introspection
When a person examines his or her own mental state and reports on his or her personal feelings and thoughts.
Law of primary reinforcement
Stated that when a stimulus-response relationship leads to a reduction in some need or deficit, there is a greater likelihood that the same stimulus will cause the same response in the future.
Locus of control
An individual’s perception about the source of reinforcement that could come from within or outside.
Materialism
The view that the universe could be described in physical terms and explained by the properties of matter and energy.
Mechanism
The view of the universe as a great machine.
Mental age
The age when children of average ability are able to perform certain tasks.
Mental tests
Tests to measure motor skills and sensory abilities.
Mentalism
The belief that there are no primary qualities but only secondary ones; thus, knowledge or reality was dependent on the person doing the perceiving.
Nonsense syllables
Meaningless series of syllables, usually consisting of two consonants with a vowel in between, used in the study of memory.
Operationism
The idea that all physical concepts could be defined precisely using a set of operations or procedures by which they are determined.
Paradigmatic stage
When a discipline moves to having one school of thought.
Perceptual constancies
The idea that although sensory elements change, a person’s perception of an object does not.
Personal equation
Measurement errors caused by individual differences.
Phrenology
The movement that proposed that the intellectual and emotional characteristics of a person could be discerned by looking at the size and shape of the person’s skulls.
Pop(ular) psychology /
Folk psychology
Refers to the use of terminology, interpretations, strategies, and concepts to help explain aspects of human behavior that tend to be bothersome for the individual experiencing them and the solutions recommended to alleviate the problem.
Positive regard
The unconditional love a mother has for her child; proposed by Rogers.
Positivism
The idea that knowledge could only be gained through empirical observations.
Preparadigmatic stage
Characterized by the rival schools fighting with one another for dominance.
Primary qualities
Qualities inherent in an object as actual physical attributes, including such things as size, motion, quantity, and shape.
Pseudoscience
Practices that give the appearance of being scientific but actually are not.
Psychology
The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Purposive behavior
Behavior directed toward a specific goal and that ends once the goal is obtained.
Recapitulation theory
Stated that the development of children was similar to the history of the human race; proposed by Hall.
Reductionism
The ability to break up complex things into their parts.
Repetition
Hartley’s idea that the more times ideas or sensations occur together, the more likely they will be associated.
Revolutionary stage
Occurs when a new school rises and attempts to displace the dominant one.
School of thought
Refers to a group of scientists who becomes linked to one ideological framework, work on common problems, use common methods, and are possibly linked to one particular individual or geographical region.
Secondary qualities
Qualities such as color, taste, temperature, odor, and sound are not in the option but in one’s perception of it.
Self-help /
Self-improvement books
Tools that aid the troubled individual work through his or her issues in a self-guided fashion and without the need to see a professional.
Social Darwinism
The idea that not only does the development of species follow evolutionary principles but so does the development of social institutions.
Stream of consciousness
James’s belief that consciousness was personal, a continuous flow, and distorted if efforts were made to reduce it to its elements; it was constantly changing, selective, and functional.
Structuralism
The attempt to take consciousness and break it down into its basic parts.
Vicarious reinforcement
Learning that occurs by observing the actions of others and the consequences of such behavior.
Voluntarism
When the mind organizes mental elements into higher-level thought processes.
Zeitgeist
The spirit or attitude of the time.
