Unit 1: Scientific Foundations of Psychology Flashcards
What were the two fields psychology was modeled after?
Philosophy and physiology
Who created the first psychology laboratory for research in the field?
Wilhelm Wundt
When was the first psychology laboratory established?
1879
According to Wundt, what should psychology be the study of?
The conscious experience;
The awareness of immediate experience
Where was the first laboratory for psychology established?
At the University of Leipzig
What was the first two major schools of thought in psychology that fought against each other?
Structuralism and functionalism
What was structuralism?
It was based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyse consciousness into its basic elements and see how those elements are related
How did psychologists pursue structuralism?
Through introspection
What is introspection?
The careful, systematic self-observation of one’s own conscious experience
What was the flaw with introspection?
It required training to make the subject more objective, aware, and response to their tests
Who inspired structuralism?
Edward Titchener
Who inspired functionalism?
William James
What was functionalism based on?
The belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure
What is the “stream of consciousness”?
A term coined by William James;
He argued that consciousness consists of a continuous flow of thoughts and that structuralism was studying static points in that flow
What influential book did William James write?
The Principles of Psychology (1890);
It discusses his theories of emotion
What were the functionalists interested in doing in order to carry out their beliefs?
They were interested in how people adapt their behavior to the demands of the real world
What did structuralists do to study their school of thought?
They asked their participants to analyse and describe the quality and intensity of auditory and visual stimuli
What was the “unconscious,” according to Sigmund Freud?
It contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behavior
What did Freud’s psychoanalytic theory do?
Attempt to explain personality, motivations, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior
What does Freud’s psychoanalytic theory suggest?
It made the disconcerting suggestion tat people are not masters of their own mind,
that our behavior is governed by unconscious forces that we were unaware of
When did the psychoanalytic theory and early behaviorism come about?
They came about in the early 1900s
What is behaviorism?
A theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behavior
Why was behaviorism radical?
It suggested that psychology be the study of behaviors that could be observed directly, not the study of the consciousness
What is behavior?
It refers to any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism
Why did James Watson suggest such a shift in psychology?
Because to him, the power of the scientific method rested on the idea of verifiability,
And mental processes are a difficult subject because they are ultimately private events
What is the nature versus nurture debate?
It is a debate concered with whether behavior is determined mainly by genetic inheritance (“nature”) or by the environment and experience (“nurture”)
How did animals start becoming popular in psychology experiments?
Because experimental research is often more productive if experimenters can exercise considerable control over their subjects
What did B. F. Skinner suggest?
That there was no need to study internal mental events;
He emphasized how environmental factors mold behavior
What is the fundamental principle of behavior that Skinner documented?
That we act entirely based on our surroundings;
That organisms tend to repeat responses that lead to positive outcomes, and they tend not to repeat responses that lead to neutral or negative outcomes;
That free will is an illusion
What did Skinner experiment on?
Using a Skinner box, he showed that he could exert remarkable control over the behavior of animals by manipulating the outcomes of their responses
What was the criticism on behaviorism and the psychoanalytic theory in the 1950s?
That they were “dehumanizing”;
Behaviorism seemed too occupied with animal operations;
The psychonanalytic theory was condemned for its focus on primitive, sexual urges
What is humanism?
A theoretical orientation that emphaizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth
What does humanism say about humans?
That they have control over their lives;
That they are different from animals, so experiments on animals have little relevance to human concern
What is the stance humanism has on human motivation?
It maintained its stance that humans have a natural drive for personal growth, to reach self-actualization
