Unit 1 Psychology’s History and Approaches Flashcards
What is psychology?
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Empiricism
Founded by John Locke. It’s the view that knowledge, originates in experiences and that science should rely on observations.
Structuralism
An early school of psychology that use introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind, founded by Wundt’s student Edward Titchener.
What we’re structuralism criticisms?
Results always varied from person to person. It was overall an unreliable theory because most of the time we don’t know why we feel things.
Functionalism
A school of psychology that focused on how our mental health and behavioral processes function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish. It was founded by William James.
Who was the first female president of the American Psychological Association?
Mary Whiton Calkins
Who was the first women to receive a PhD in psychology?
Margaret Floy Washburn
Experimental Psychologists
The organization, founded by Titchener, of people who studied behavior and thinking, using the experimental method.
What two fields helped develop psychology?
Philosophy and Biology
Ivan Pavlov
- Russian psychologist who pioneered the study of learning
- his research led to the first experimental model of learning, Classical Conditioning
- he studied the salivation of dogs
Sigmund Freud
- Austrian psychologist who pioneered the study of learning
- believed in Psychoanalysis
- said behavior came from unconscious drives
Jean Piaget
- Swiss biologist who studied children
- said Theory of Cognitive Development explains how a child constructs a mental model of the world
- disagreed w the idea that intelligence was a fixed trait
- regarded cognitive development as a process which occurs due to biological maturation and interaction w the environment
Behaviorism
The view that psychology should be an objective science, that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.
How did John B Watson and BF Skinner define psychology?
The scientific study of observable behavior.
Humanistic Psychology (humanism)
Emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individuals potential for personal growth.
Cognitive Neuroscience
The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language).
What is the nature-nurture issue?
The controversy over what has a bigger impact on us, heredity or environment?
Natural Selection
The principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributions to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed onto succeeding generations.
Levels of analysis
The differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social culture, for analyzing any given phenomenon.
Biological Influences
- natural selection of adaptive traits
- genetic predispositions responding to environment
- brain mechanisms
- hormonal influences
Psychological Influences
- learned fears and other learned expectations
- emotional responses
- cognitive processing and perceptual interpretations
Socio-cultural Influences
- presence of others
- cultural, societal, and family expectations
- peer and other group influences
- compelling models (ex. The media)
Biological View
How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences; how genes combine w environment to influence individual differences.
Evolutionary View
How the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes.
Psychodynamic View
How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts
Behavioral View
How we learn observable responses.
Cognitive View
How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information.
Humanistic View
How we meet our needs for love and acceptance and achieve self-fulfillment.
Social-Cultural View
How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures.
Biological psychologists
Explore the links between brain and mind.
Development psychologists
Study our changing abilities from birth to death.
Cognitive psychologists
Experiment with how we perceive, think, and solve problems.
Educational psychologists
Study influences on teaching and learning.
Personality psychologists
Investigate our persistent traits.
Social psychologists
Explore how we view and affect one another.
Psychiatrists
A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders practiced by physicians who often provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy.
Scientific Method
- Generate a question
- Formulate a theory
- Develop a hypothesis (if-then-cuz)
- Test hypothesis
- Results
Wilhelm Wundt
- first to declare himself a psychologist
- considered the father of psychology
- 1879, created the first psych lab
- 1881, 1st journal to publish psych research
- believed in structuralism
