Unit #1 - Chapter #1

Question 1

Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

Answer 1

The belief that human behavior is determined but the causes of behavior cannot be accurately measured.

Question 2

What is the major assumption in the Ontological Argument for the existence of god?

Answer 2

If one can think something, it must exist.

Question 3

What does a soft determinist believe?

Answer 3

That because cognitive processes such as intentions, values, and beliefs intervene between experience and behavior, humans are responsible for their actions.

Question 4

What is occasionalism?

Answer 4

The position on the mind-body question claiming that mental and bodily events are coordinated through God’s intervention.

Question 5

Which two methods of attaining knowledge are combined in science?

Answer 5

Rationalism and Empericism

Question 6

What stresses the emotional or unconscious determinants of human behavior?

Answer 6

Irrationalism.

Question 7

What does the historical development approach focus on?

Answer 7

Studying the history of psychology involves showing how various individuals or events contributed to changes in an idea through the years.

Question 8

What is the interactionism view?

Answer 8

The view that cognitive events that emerge from brain activity can cause behavior.

Question 9

Who was responsible for creating the notions of presentism and historicism? Define them.

Answer 9

Stocking.
Presentism: Takes the approach of looking at the way psychology is understood today.
Historicism: Takes the approach of studying the past for its own sake without attempting to relate the past to the present.

Question 10

Define the following: Great-Person Approach and Historical Development Approach.

Answer 10

Great Person: Emphasizes the works of individuals or great people in history.
Historical Development: Shows how various individuals or events contributed to changes in an idea or concept throughout the years.

Question 11

What are the two major components of science?

Answer 11

Empirical observation and theory.

Question 12

Define the following: Deeper understanding, recognition of fads and fashions, a source of valuable ideas.

Answer 12

Deeper Understanding: gain a greater understanding of the current psychology by studying it’s historical origin.
Fads/Fashions: Some viewpoints fade away because they become unpopular. Research ideas move in and out.
Valuable Ideas: Ideas that were developed at an earlier tie but became dormant.

Question 13

What are the two types of scientific laws?

Answer 13

Correlational Laws: Describe how classes of events vary together in some systemic way. Only prediction is possible.

Causal Laws: Specify how events are casually related. If we know the causes of something, we can predict and control it.

Question 14

Briefly describe Karl Popper and his ideas.

Answer 14

1. Disagreed that scientific activity starts with empirical observation.
2. Believes the classic view of science implies that scientists wander around making observations and then attempt to explain what they observed.
3. Scientific activity starts with a problem, problem determines observations, then solutions, then finding fault.
4. Principle of Falsifiability
5. Risky Predictions
6. Believes the highest status that a scientific theory can attain is “not yet confirmed”.

Question 15

Biological Determinism

Answer 15

Emphasizes the importance of physiological conditions or genetic predispositions in the explanation of behavior.

Question 15

Sociocultural Determinism

Answer 15

A form of environmental determinism that emphasizes how cultural, society rules, regulations, customs, and beliefs constrain human behavior.

Question 15

Environmental Determinism

Answer 15

Stresses the importance of environmental stimuli as determinants of behavior.

Question 16

Physical Determinism

Answer 16

Accessible/Quantifiable - beliefs, emotions, sensations, perceptions, ideas, values, and goals.

Question 17

Describe Heisenberg’s Uncertainty Principle

Answer 17

Based off the idea of observing electrons and how it influences their activity and therefore doubts the validity. Translates to psychology because although behavior is determined, we can never learn the causes of some behavior, because in attempting to determine them, we may change them.

Question 18

Indeterminism

Answer 18

Belief that there are specific causes of a behavior, but it cannot be accurately known.

Question 19

Free Will

Answer 19

Behavior is freely chosen, and is independent of physical or psychical causes.

Question 20

Nondeterminism

Answer 20

The individual freely chooses courses of action, he or she is solely responsible for them.

Question 21

How are the mind and body related according to: Materialists, idealists, dualists, interactionism, emergentist, epiphenomenalism.

Answer 21

Materialists: Explain everything in physical terms. They believe matter is the only reality. (Monists).
Idealists: Physical reality results from perceived ideas. (Monists).
Dualists: Believe that there are both physical and mental events.
Interactionism: Claims the mind and body interact, and they both influence each other.
Emergentist: Claims that mental states emerge from physical brain states.
Epiphenomenalism: Brain causes mental events, but mental events cannot cause behavior.

Question 22

What are the stages of scientific development according to Kuhn?

Answer 22

Preparadigmatic Stage: During which a number of competing viewpoints exist.
Paradigmatic Stage: During which the puzzle-solving activity called normal science occurs.
Revolutionary Stage: During which an existing paradigm is displaced by another paradigm.