unit 1 - active learning Flashcards
what is the scientific attitude?
curious, skeptical, having humility
what is critical thinking?
a way of thinking that inquires, questions, and assesses biases and underlying factors
what did socrates and plato believe about knowledge? how did aristotle challenge them?
s & p believed that knowledge was innate; aristotle believed that it was built on experience
how did descarte’s ideas about knowledge compare to socrates and plato’s, how did they contrast?
descartes agreed with s & p but believed that that brain cavity fluid conducted impulses and memories
how did bacon lead a paradigm shift in psychology? what did he believe in?
bacon led the empiricism movement—observations must be validated by the scientific method. he believed that knowledge was built on experience,
what is the tabula rasa and who thought it up?
locke believed that babies were born with blank slates that right upon themselves with experiences.
who started modern, scientific psychology?
willhelm wundt revolutionized psychology through his experiments; his machine recorded how long it took people to press a key after hearing a ball drop. group 1 pressed as they heard, group 2 pressed as they perceived it. his experimental design alluded to a psychological force that established modern psychology’s earlier pursuits.
how did titchener contribute to modern psychology?
he pushed forward structuralism, a branch that sought to understand the elements of the mind’s structure. titchener used introspection in order to classify components but was proved unreliable (subjectivity/bias)
how did william james build upon titchener’s ideas?
james viewed psychology through functions and evolutionary logic, often asking the significance and utility of certain behaviors (functions). he brought forth the functionalism branch.
*mary calkins was his student and became apa’s first female president
when did modern psychology mature? who is responsible?
when john watson and b.f. skinner dismissed introspection (as unreliable) and redefined it as the study of OBSERVABLE behaviors; hence they lead the behaviorism movement which reacted to functionalism which reacted to structuralism.
how did sigmund freud contribute to modern psychology?
his psychoanalytic ideas emerged to emphasize the role of the subconscious and childhood in relation to behaviors.
what did carl rogers and abraham maslow bring forward?
humanistic psychology, a branch focused on the growth potential of the mind
what was the cognitive revolution (1960) about?
alongside humanism, an interest in cognition - mental processing + memory - grew. cogpsy examines how cognition interacts with thinking and emotion
another blend became cogneurosci which is an interdisciplinary study of brain activity and mental processes
how did the cog revolution redefine modern psychology?
modern psychology quickly became a science of behavior (any action) and mental processes we infer from sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings (cognition)
what is the nature-nurture discourse?
both sides ask if human traits are inborn or developed.
today’s consensus says a mix of both
what is the branch of evolutionary psychology?
a branch that draws on darwinian ideas of natural selection; behaviors increase in relative fitness based on the benefits they confer –> in psychology, recurring behaviors are observed under this lens - how is this particular trait evolutionarily beneficial? evopsych asks how humans are alike from their shared evo history and biologies.
how does behavior genetics differ from evopsy?
behavior genetics asks how individuals differ from one another from genes and their environment and asserts that nurture builds on nature.
what is an offshoot of humanism?
positive psychology; this branch is very modern and asks how humans can flourish in the face of suffering; martin seligman
how does culture shape our behaviors?
culture influences our standards BUT our biological heritages (evolution) supersede our cultures; diseases persist regardless of culture.
what is the biopsychosocial approach?
an examination of behaviors and mental processes through bio/psych/soc lenses
b –> genetic predispositions, genes, and the environment, evolution
p –> learned behaviors, cognitive processing, perceptions.
s –> expectations, media, normalized behaviors.
what question(s) would each branch ask?
B B C E H P S
B eha –> triggers? how was it learned?
B io –> heredity? anatomy? physiology?
C og –> how perception/emotions impacted?
E vo –> how behaviors relate to natural selection?
H um –> impact on growth potential?
P syd –> unconscious drivers/conflicts?
S oc/c –> how setting contextualizes emergent behavior?
what separates basic and applied psychology?
basic aims to research for the sake of getting more information (theoretical); applied aims to finds applications for acquired knowledge.
an example of applied is industrial / organization psychologists who use psych concepts to understand people and the workplace; another is human factors psychologists that study people/machines/ the environment
