Unit 1 Psychology’s History and Approaches

Question 1

What is psychology?

Answer 1

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes

Question 2

Empiricism

Answer 2

Founded by John Locke. It’s the view that knowledge, originates in experiences and that science should rely on observations.

Question 3

Structuralism

Answer 3

An early school of psychology that use introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind, founded by Wundt’s student Edward Titchener.

Question 4

What we’re structuralism criticisms?

Answer 4

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.

Question 5

Functionalism

Answer 5

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.

Question 6

Who was the first female president of the American Psychological Association?

Answer 6

Mary Whiton Calkins

Question 7

Who was the first women to receive a PhD in psychology?

Answer 7

Margaret Floy Washburn

Question 8

Experimental Psychologists

Answer 8

The organization, founded by Titchener, of people who studied behavior and thinking, using the experimental method.

Question 9

What two fields helped develop psychology?

Answer 9

Philosophy and Biology

Question 10

Ivan Pavlov

Answer 10

• 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

Question 11

Sigmund Freud

Answer 11

• Austrian psychologist who pioneered the study of learning
• believed in Psychoanalysis
• said behavior came from unconscious drives

Question 12

Jean Piaget

Answer 12

• 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

Question 13

Behaviorism

Answer 13

The view that psychology should be an objective science, that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

Question 14

How did John B Watson and BF Skinner define psychology?

Answer 14

The scientific study of observable behavior.

Question 15

Humanistic Psychology (humanism)

Answer 15

Emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individuals potential for personal growth.

Question 16

Cognitive Neuroscience

Answer 16

The interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language).

Question 17

What is the nature-nurture issue?

Answer 17

The controversy over what has a bigger impact on us, heredity or environment?

Question 18

Natural Selection

Answer 18

The principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributions to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed onto succeeding generations.

Question 19

Levels of analysis

Answer 19

The differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social culture, for analyzing any given phenomenon.

Question 20

Biological Influences

Answer 20

• natural selection of adaptive traits
• genetic predispositions responding to environment
• brain mechanisms
• hormonal influences

Question 21

Psychological Influences

Answer 21

• learned fears and other learned expectations
• emotional responses
• cognitive processing and perceptual interpretations

Question 22

Socio-cultural Influences

Answer 22

• presence of others
• cultural, societal, and family expectations
• peer and other group influences
• compelling models (ex. The media)

Question 23

Biological View

Answer 23

How the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences; how genes combine w environment to influence individual differences.

Question 24

Evolutionary View

Answer 24

How the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes.

Question 25

Psychodynamic View

Answer 25

How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

Question 26

Behavioral View

Answer 26

How we learn observable responses.

Question 27

Cognitive View

Answer 27

How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information.

Question 28

Humanistic View

Answer 28

How we meet our needs for love and acceptance and achieve self-fulfillment.

Question 29

Social-Cultural View

Answer 29

How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures.

Question 30

Biological psychologists

Answer 30

Explore the links between brain and mind.

Question 31

Development psychologists

Answer 31

Study our changing abilities from birth to death.

Question 32

Cognitive psychologists

Answer 32

Experiment with how we perceive, think, and solve problems.

Question 33

Educational psychologists

Answer 33

Study influences on teaching and learning.

Question 34

Personality psychologists

Answer 34

Investigate our persistent traits.

Question 35

Social psychologists

Answer 35

Explore how we view and affect one another.

Question 36

Psychiatrists

Answer 36

A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders practiced by physicians who often provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy.

Question 37

Scientific Method

Answer 37

1. Generate a question
2. Formulate a theory
3. Develop a hypothesis (if-then-cuz)
4. Test hypothesis
5. Results

Question 38

Wilhelm Wundt

Answer 38

• 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