Vocab 1 (april 2) Flashcards
Brain
Skins
Behavior
The observable actions of an individual person or animal
Mind
The entire set of an individuals sensations, perceptions, memories, thoughts, dreams, motives, emotional feelings, and other subjective experiences
Dualism
The philosophical theory that two distinct systems–the material body and the immaterial soul–are involved in the control of behavior
Empiricism
The idea that all human knowledge and thought ultimately come from sensory experience; the philosophical approach to understanding the mind that is based on that idea
Behaviorism
A school of psychological thought that holds that the proper subject of study is observable behavior, not the mind, and that behavior should be understood in terms of its relationship to observable events in the environment rather than in terms of hypothetical events within the individual
Natural selection
The selective breeding that results from the obstacles to reproduction that are imposed by the natural environment ; driving that force of evolution
Functionalism
A school of psychological thought, founded by William James and others, that focuses on understanding the functions, or adaptive purposes, of mental processes
Renée Descartes
His version of dualism was that the body was an intricate complex machine that generates its own heat and is capable of moving even without the influence of the soul
Nonhuman animals do not have souls
Thought which he defined as conscious deliberation and judgment
The soul the nonphysical ask on the body at a particular physical location
Thomas Hobbes
Hobbes argued that spirit or soul is a meaningless concept and that nothing exists that matter and energy, a philosophy now known as materialism
Called human behavior can in theory be understood in terms of physical processes in the body
Conscious thought is purely a product of brains machinery and therefore subject to natural law
His ideas helped inspire the school of thought about the mind known as empiricism
John Locke
Page 570
Correlations between changes in self efficacy and changes in performance have likewise been found in such diverse realms of mathematics physical exertion tolerance for pain and exhibition of social skills
Self efficacy is not simply a correlate of good performance but is also a cause of it
Charles Darwin
Naturalist/Natural selection
Book: the origin of species
Fundamental idea: living things evolve
gradually over generation by a process of natural selection
The expression of the emotions in man and animals
Argued that the basic forms of human emotional expressions are inherited as are those of other animals
All species are two very degrees similar to one another because of common ancestry and all species are to some degree unique because natural selection has adopted each species to the unique aspects of the environment in which it lives and produces
Humans automatically communicate moods and behavioral intentions to one another through body postures, movements, and facial expressions
William James
Suggested that bodily reactions preceded the emotions and cause them rather, than the reverse
Looked at own emotions for evidence
Contiguity allows us to think of the properties of any given object and then allows us to think of other objects that have the same properties, leading to associations by similarity
We reason by using our memories of previous experiences to make sense of present experiences or to plan for the future
Ideas on reference group
A persons self esteem is equal to his achievements divided by his pretensions
B.F. Skinner
Behaviorist
Believed that the principles of learning are the most fundamental principles in psychology
Skinner box: is a cage with a lever or another mechanism in it that the animal can operate to produce some effect, such as delivery of a pellet of food or a drop of water
Operant response: to refer to any behavioral act that has some effect on the environment
Operant conditioning: to refer to the process by which the effect of an operant response changes the likelihood of the responses reccurrence
Reinforcer: a replacement for such words as satisfaction and reward, to refer to a stimulus change that occurs after a response and that increases the subsequent frequency of that response
Operant conditioning without awareness
Schedules of partial reinforcement
Distinction between positive and negative reinforcement
Distinction between reinforcement and punishment
Argued that attitudes are simply verbal habits that influence what people say but are largely irrelevant to what they do
Self actualization
In humanistic psychology, the fulfillment of drives that go beyond one’s survival needs and pertain to psychological growth, creativity, and self expression
Repressed
The defense mechanism by which the mind prevents anxiety provoking ideas from becoming conscious
Biological psychology
The application of the principles of biology to The study of physiological, genetic, and developmental mechanisms of behavior in human and nonhuman animals
Carl Rogers
Self theory: The person’s understanding of who he or she is aka Rogers own version of humanistic theory
Claimed that at first he avoided the construct of self because it seemed unscientific, but was forced to consider it through listening to his clients in therapy session
People often are diverted from becoming themselves by the demand and judgments placed upon them by other people, particularly by authority figures such as parents and teachers
To be oneself is to live life according to one’s own wishes rather than someone else’s
Unconditional positive regard: showing complete support and acceptance of a person no matter what that person says or does
Abraham Maslow
Suggested that to self actualized one must satisfy five sets of needs that can be arranged in a hierarchy
A person can focus on higher needs only if lower ones, which are more immediately went to survival, are sufficiently satisfied so that they do not claim the person’s full attention and energy
Evolutionary theory
Seeks to identify which human psychological traits are involved adaptation that is, the functional products of natural selection or sexual selection
structuralism
The study of the basic concious elements
Concious experience can be broken down into basic concious elements
Introspection
The examination of ones own concious thought and feelings
Behavior modification
Behavior change techniques to increase or decrease the frequency of behaviors such as altering an individuals behaviors and reactions to stimuli through positive and negative reinforcement of adaptive behavior
Cognitive psychology
The study of mental processes such as attention, language used, memory, perception, problem-solving, creativity, and thinking
Humanistic psychology
Holds that people are inherently good
Adopts a holistic approach to human existence and pay special attention to such phenomena as creativity, Freewill, and human potential
Encourages feeling ourselves as a whole person greater than the sum of our parts and encourages self exploration rather than the study of behavior and other people
Conscious mind
Freud
Consists of everything inside of our awareness
Includes sensations, perceptions, memories, feelings, and fantasies inside of our current awareness
Unconscious mind
Includes everything that we are aware of
This is the aspect of our mental processing that we can think and talk about rationally
Sociocultural approach
What a person thinks is based on his or her sociocultural background
Based on the idea that society and culture shape cognition
Evolutionary approach
Studies how evolutionary ideas, such as adoption and natural selection, explain behaviors and mental processes
Psychoanalytic theory
Freud
Refers to the definition of personality organization and the dynamics of personality development that underlie and God the psychoanalytic and psychodynamic psychotherapy
Edward Titchener
Brought Structuralism to US
Wundt’s student
William Wundt
Established first psychology lab
Known for influence on the school of thought known as structuralism and introspection
Set the stage for behavioralism
Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalysis
Defense mechanisms
Repression of memories
