UNIT 1 - Chapter 1 - The Science of Psychology Flashcards
Psychology is the:
The scientific study of study of behavior and mental processes
When referring to studying of the behavior and mental processes - what is meant by:
1) Behavior processes:
2) Mental processes:
1) Behavior processes - OUTWARD or OVERT actions and REACTIONS
2) Mental processes - INTERNAL or COVERT activity of our minds
APPROXIMATELY how old is the study of psychology?
Approximately 138 years old
When did Wilhelm Wundt (Vill-helm Voont) start looking at the study of psychology?
He looked at it starting in Germany about 1879
What was Wundt’s technique of psychology?
What did he focus on?
Introspection
It was the process of objectively examining and measuring one’s thoughts and mental activities
What was the general thought of Objective Introspection?
It looked at the thought of if something was put into a person’s hand, and then the student was told to explain something to him. The thought was that the student would explain everything in relation to that FEELING. So, the FEELING was what drove the explanation of what the student was talking about.
What were two very important parts of Objective Introspection?
1). It was meant to remind scientists that they were to always remain unbiased (they were to remain OBJECTIVE)
2). This was the FIRST time that ANYONE attempted to bring objectivity and measurement to the concept of psychology
NOTE: THIS is why WUNDT is known as the father of psychology
Edward Titchener
Who was he?
What was his form of psychology?
Titchener was a student of Wundt’s
His theory of psychology was STRUCTURALISM
What was the premise of Structuralism?
While he incorporated some of the Objective Introspection of Wundt’s into it, he expanded his theory, thinking into thinking that experiences could be broken down into two (2) basic elements
1) Thoughts
2) Physical sensations
Structuralism element examples
While looking at Wundt’s example of the rock.
The student would actually be given an object, for example a BLUE object and then asked what their reactions were their reactions to it were.
1) What is blue?
2) Answers may lead to blue is calming, cool, feathers are blue etc.
When did structuralism die out?
In the early 1900’s
No explanation given as to why
Margaret Washburn - Significance
1) She was the first female to ever earn a Ph.D. in psychology
2) . She was Titchener’s only graduate from Cornell in 1894
3) She published a book in 1908 on ANIMAL behavior (“The Animal Mind’)
What was the first college to actually offer classes in Psychology in the 1870’s
Harvard University
William James - Taught at Harvard - What was his theory that he pioneered?
2) What was the focus of it?
3) What was he heavily influenced by?
1) Functionalism
2) He focused on how the mind allowed people to adapt, live, work and play.
3) He was heavily influenced by Darwinism, his premise was if natural selection allowed people to survive when talking about physical traits, then the same could be said about mental as well.
What would an example of Functionalism allowing someone to use that mental “natural selection” to help them to survive?
If someone were to avoid eye contact in an elevator, it could be interpreted as that person protecting their personal space. Them protecting their territory, a primitive need that went back to the need to protect home, land, food and water.
The three Influential Approaches are:
1) Gestalt
2) Psychoanalysis
3) Behaviorism
What does the Gestalt approach look at?
Max Wertheimer (VERT-hi-mer)
Gestalt means: An organized whole, or configuration
- An organized whole -
- Basic concept - The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
- Cannot be broken down into smaller parts
- Perceiving and seeing cannot be broken down into “smaller elements” and still be understood
- Has to remain in tact in order to be understood
- If you take a smartphone apart, it is not going to work (the smaller pieces need to be all together, in order for the phone to work).
Gestalt theories are now part of study and cognitive psychology
What does the word Gestalt mean?
An organized whole or configuration
What does Psychoanalysis look like?
Sigmund Freud - not a psychologist
Freud looked at all of the patients and found that these patients had no physical ailments that could be attributed to their conditions - so he went with looking at the mental side of the patients
- Proposed the existence of an unconscious (unaware) mind into which we push - or repress - our threatening urges and desires
- Believed that these repressed urges, in trying to surface, created nervous disorders
- Stressed importance of early childhood experiences
What does behaviorism look like?
Pavlov, Watson and Jones
Ivan Pavlov - not a psychologist
John B. Watson - focused on the OBSERVABLE BEHAVIOR - Felt that phobias were a TAUGHT or LEARNED behavior (baby was taught to fear a white rat
Mary Cover Jones - Early pioneer in behavior therapy
Pavlov - noticed that by using a metronome while feeding an animal, would cause them to salivate. Then would use the metronome without food with the salivation effect.
Watson - Used the behavior test to see that the phobia was learned
Jones - worked on those theories to see if she could counteract the theories (worked on bringing a rabbit closer and closer each day)
What is the psychodynamic perspective?
- Modern version of psychoanalysis
- More focused on development of a sense of self and discovery of motivations behind a person’s behavior other than sexual motivations
What is the behavioral perspective?
Operant Conditioning
B.F. Skinner developed the theory that it is a learned/conditioned behavior.
A child that cries, gets attention.
Behavioral responses are followed by pleasurable consequences
Behaviorism became a major force in the 20th century
Skinner introduced the concept of reinforcement to behaviorism
What is Humanistic Perspective?
Called the “third force” in psychology
Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers
Psychologists in the mid-1900’s were either psychoanalysts, or behaviorists
This (Humanistic Perspective) focuses on people’s ability to direct their own lives
- People have their free will: the freedom to choose their own destiny and strive for self-actualization
Cognitive Perspective
Focuses on memory, intelligence, perception, problem solving and learning
