Unit text #1 Flashcards
The existential
this represents concrete living in the sense of the
duration or manner of life. The expressions “good life,” “long life,” “hard
life,” and “quality of life” use the word in the general sense of
bios, or existence.
the Greek
The ontological
a more abstract sense, by which, we mean that
“mysterious something” that distinguishes the living from lifeless matter.
When used of humans in this way, we mean the human essence often
referred to as the “soul,” or, a complete human being.
Rene Descartes
*introduced the idea of dualism, which asserted that the mind and body were two
entities that interact to form the human experience.
*known for his “Cogito ergo sum”, translated as, “I think, therefore, I am,” is often
associated with inaugurating the era of modern psychology.
*purported that the body is like a machine, whose operation can be explained by
the mechanical laws that govern the movement of all objects in space.
Wilhelm Wundt
Published book in 1873, “Principles of Physiological Psychology,”
outlining many of the major connections between the science of
physiology and the study of human thought and behavior.
* opened the world’s first psychology lab in 1879 at the University of
Leipzig.
* perceived the subject of psychology as the study of human
consciousness and sought to apply experimental methods to studying
internal mental processes.
Edward Titchener
*introduced Structuralism and used a process known as introspection,
where trained subjects would attempt to break down their responses and
reactions to the most basic sensation and perceptions, aimed at
determining the structure and most basic elements of the mind.
*while structuralism is notable for its emphasis on scientific research, its
methods were unreliable, limiting, and subjective. When Titchener died
in 1927, structuralism essentially died with him.
William James
*psychologist and philosopher who had a major influence on the development
of psychology in the United States.
*first to teach a psychology course in the United States and is often referred to
as the father of American psychology.
*theory of the self, divided a person’s mental picture or components of self into
two categories: the “Me” and the “I”.
*introduced functionalism, which became an important influence on psychology,
and influenced the development of behaviorism and applied psychology.
John Watson
*American psychologist who became one of the strongest advocates of
behaviorism.
*initially outlining the basic principles of this new school of thought in his 1913
paper, “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It” and proposed that psychology
should be the science of observable behavior.
*purported that psychology, as the behaviorist views it, is a purely objective
experimental branch of natural science, and its theoretical goal is the
prediction and control of behavior.
* known for the Little Albert experiment, in which he demonstrated that a child
could be conditioned to fear a previously neutral stimulus.
B.F. Skinner
*psychologist who furthered the behaviorist perspective with his concept of operant
conditioning, which demonstrated the effect of punishment and reinforcement on
behavior.
*referred to his philosophy as “radical behaviorism,“ and suggested that the concept of
free will was simply an illusion and, instead, believed that all human action was
the direct result of conditioning.
*utilized therapeutic techniques such as behavior analysis, behavioral modification,
and token economies are often utilized to help children learn new skills and
overcome maladaptive behaviors, while conditioning is used in many situations
ranging from parenting to education.
Carl Rogers
Self-Actualization - believed that all people possess an inherent need to grow and achieve their
potential, and self-actualization was one of the primary motives driving behavior.
Unconditional Positive Regard - for psychotherapy to be successful, it was imperative for the therapist
to provide unconditional positive regard to the client, which means that the therapist accepts the client
as they are and allows them to express both positive and negative feelings without judgment or
reproach.
Development of the Self - formation of a healthy self-concept was an ongoing process shaped by a
person’s life experiences, and people with a stable sense of self tend to have greater confidence and
cope more effectively with life’s challenges.
Congruence – Rogers believed that people tend to have a concept of their “ideal self.” The problem is
that our image of who we think we should be does not always match up with our perceptions of who
we are today, and when our self-image does not line up with our ideal self, we are in a state of
incongruence.
Abraham Maslow
*an American psychologist who developed a hierarchy of needs to explain
human motivation.
*suggested that people have a number of basic needs that must be met
before people move up the hierarchy to pursue more social, emotional, and
self-actualizing needs.
*contributed to humanistic psychology with his famous hierarchy of needs
theory of human motivation, which suggested that people were motivated by
increasingly complex needs. Once the most basic needs are fulfilled,
people then become motivated to pursue higher level needs.
Cognitive Psychology
- during the 1950s and 1960s, a movement known as the cognitive
revolution began to take hold in psychology.
*has remained a dominant area of psychology as researchers continue to
study things such as perception, memory, decision-making, problem-
solving, intelligence, and language.
*the majority of professionals in the field of psychology do not identify
themselves with a single school of thought, preferring to focus on a
particular specialty area or perspective, often drawing on ideas from a
range of theoretical backgrounds.
Classical Greek Dualism
- in classical Greek dualism, there is a physical realm and a spiritual realm, a
separation of the body and the soul. - if this is the case, then in physical matters such as medicine, one does not
have to bother himself with morality. - psychology could never pass a test of doctrine, and could never hold up if it
were passed off as inerrant and true. - because of this, many Christians are inclined to reject psychology altogether
in favor of the higher thing in the spiritual dimension, the Bible itself.
Active learning
often used to describe an interactive
process, such as doing a hands-on experiment to learn
a concept rather than reading about it.
Passive Learning
a non-interactive process, such as,
reading a text, listening to a lecture, watching a
program, is still learning, and can be just as effective.
Social Learning Theory
- introduced by psychologist Albert Bandura, proposed that learning
occurs through observation, imitation, and modeling.
1. People can learn through observation.
2. Internal mental states are an essential part of this learning
process.
3. Just because something has been learned, it does not mean
that it will result in a change of behavior.
three (3) main elements of intrinsic reinforcement, or,
sometimes referred to as intrinsic motivation.
- Autonomy
- Purpose
- Mastery
Behavior Therapy
*a term that describes a broad range of techniques used to change
maladaptive behaviors.
*goal is to reinforce desirable behaviors and eliminate unwanted ones.
*rooted in the principles of behaviorism, which is a school of thought
focused on the idea that we learn from our environment.
*emerged during the early part of the 20th-century and became a dominant
force in the field for many years.
*one of the first to refer to the idea of modifying behavior was Edward Thorndike.
Classical Conditioning
Classical Conditioning is defined as a type of learning
that takes place through the formation of associations.
