Week 1: Fundementals/History of Psych

Question 1

Define Psychology

Answer 1

The scientific study of the mind and behaviour.

Question 2

Define psychological science

Answer 2

Empirical,
based on measurable data.

Question 3

What is empiricism/ the empirical method?

Answer 3

An empirical method for acquiring knowledge is one based on observation, including experimentation, rather than a method based on forms of logical argument or previous authorities.

Question 4

How many divisions of psychology does the APA recognise?

Answer 4

54

Question 5

Who were Wilhelm Wundt (1832- 1920) and William James (1842 -
1910)?

Answer 5

Generally credited as being the founders of psych as a scientific and academic discipline that was separate from philosophy

Question 6

Who was the first psychologist?

Answer 6

Wilhelm Wundt (1832- 1920)

Question 7

Wundt’s explanation of psychology

Answer 7

He viewed psychology as a scientific study of the conscious experience and believed the goal of psychology is to identify components of consciousness and how the components combine to result in our conscious experience.

Question 8

Define Introspection or “internal perception”

Answer 8

A process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible, making the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observes

Question 9

Define voluntarism

Answer 9

people have free will and should know the intentions of a psychological experiment if they are participating.

Question 10

Founders of Functionalism

Answer 10

William James, John Dewey and Charles Sanders Pierce

Question 11

Key idea of Functionalism based on acceptance of Darwin’s theory of evolution

Answer 11

They accepted Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and viewed this theory as an explanation of an organism’s characteristics.
The key idea of this theory is that natural selection leads to an organism adapting to its environment

Question 12

Functionalist perspective on what a psychologist’s purpose is

Answer 12

To study the function of a behaviour in the world

Question 13

What is Functionalism?

Answer 13

Functionalism is focused on how mental activities help an organism fit into its
environment.
Another more subtle definition of Functionalism is that functionalists were more interested in the operation of the whole mind rather than its individual parts (focus of Structuralism)

Question 14

Founder of the psychoanalytic theory

Answer 14

Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1936) was one of the most influential and well-known figures in the history of psychology

Question 15

What is the psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 15

Psychoanalytic Theory focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious, as well as early
childhood experience, and is a theory that dominated clinical psychology for many
decades.
Emphasised the unconscious mind and that gaining access to the unconscious was crucial

Question 16

How is the psychoanalytic theory used?

Answer 16

Controversial, but contemporary psychotherapy has been found to be effective
Freud was fascinated w/ patients suffering from ‘hysteria’ and neurosis
Freud theorised that many of his patient’s problems arose from the unconscious mind

Question 17

Role of the unconscious mind (psychoanalytic theory)

Answer 17

In Freud’s view, the unconscious mind was a respiratory of feelings and urges of which we have no awareness. Gaining access then to the unconscious mind was crucial to the
successful resolution of their problems.
According to Freud, the unconscious mind could be accessed through dream analysis, by examinations of the first words that come to people’s minds, and through seemingly innocent slips of the tongue (‘Freudian’ slips)
Dream analysis
Free association

Question 18

Founders of Gestalt Psychology

Answer 18

Founded by Geman psychologists Max Wertheimer (1880-1943), Kurt Koffka (1886-1941) and Wolfgang Köhler(1887-1967) who immigrated to the US to escape Nazi Germany, and were credited for introducing psychologists in the US to various Gestalt principles.

Question 19

What is Gestalt Psychology?

Answer 19

Gestalt = Whole
Gestalt psychology emphasised whole sensory experience, not individual components, and that although sensory experience can be broken down into individual parts, how these parts relate to each other as a whole is often what the individual responds to in perception.
In many ways, Gestalt psychology would have directly contradicted the ideas of
Structuralism

Question 20

Why was the Gestalt Psychology movement short-lived?

Answer 20

The movement was short-lived as a consequence of their immigration due to WWII and these psychologists had to abandon much of their work and were unable to continue research on a larger scale. These factors and the rise of behaviourism prevented the Gestalt principles from being as influential in the US as they were in Germany, though they are very influential today and continued to influence research on sensation and perception.

Question 21

What do Structuralism, Psychoanalytic Theory and Gestalt Psychology have in common, and what are their criticisms?

Answer 21

Structuralism, Psychoanalytic Theory and Gestalt Psychology were concerned w/ inner experience, however, other researchers had concerns that inner experience could be considered a legitimate subject of scientific inquiry and chose instead to exclusively study
behaviour, the objectively observable outcome of natural processes.

Question 22

Who were the key psychologists within behaviourism?

Answer 22

Pavlov, Watson and Skinner

Question 23

What is behaviourism?

Answer 23

Whilst Wundt and James were concerned with the conscious experience, Watson thought that the study of consciousness was flawed, as he believed that the objective analysis of the mind was impossible. Watson preferred to shift focus from the mind to behaviour, to focus directly on observable behaviour and try to bring that behaviour under control (Behaviourism)

Question 24

Why is behaviourism important?

Answer 24

Behaviourism is largely responsible for establishing psychology as a scientific discipline through its objective methods and especially experimentation.

Question 25

Practical Applications of Behaviourism

Answer 25

behavioural and cognitive behaviour therapy (CBT)
behaviour modification is used in the classroom setting
behaviourism has also led to research on environmental influences on behaviour.

Question 26

Pavlov’s Research

Answer 26

Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1946) was responsible for early work in the field of behaviourism.
Pavlov studied a form of learning behaviour known as Classical Conditioning or a
conditioned reflex, in which an animal or human produces a reflex or unconscious
response to a stimulus, and over time, is conditioned to produce the same response to a different stimulus that the researcher associated w/ the original stimulus.
Eg. Dog salivation and bell experiment

Question 27

Watson’s Research

Answer 27

John B. Watson (1878 - 1958) was also a famous contributor to behaviourism
Eg. Little Albert experiment

Question 28

Skinner’s Research

Answer 28

B.F. Skinner (1904 - 1990) concentrated on how behaviour was affected by its
consequences (Operant Conditioning)
Skinner speaks of reinforcement and punishment as major factors in driving behaviour.
Developed “Skinner’s Box” experiment, which has remained a crucial resource for
researchers studying behaviour
Skinner’s focus on positive/negative reinforcement and punishment has had a lasting influence on psychology that has waned somewhat since the growth of cognitive psychology. Despite this, conditioned learning is still used in human behaviour modification.

Question 29

Founders of Humanism

Answer 29

Key contributors include Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970) and Carl Rodgers (1902 - 1987)

Question 30

What is Humanism?

Answer 30

Some psychologists were uncomfortable with what they viewed as limited perspectives being so influential to psychology, so they developed their own ideas that emphasised personal control, intentionality and a true predisposition for “good” as important for our self-concept and our behaviour, and thus, Humanism emerged.
Humanism is a perspective that emphasises the innate potential for “good” for all humans.

Question 31

Maslow’s hirarchy of needs

Answer 31

Maslow is most well-known for his proposition of the Hierarchy of Needs. Simply, he believed that if basic needs of survival were met, higher needs, such as social needs, would motivate behaviour. He described higher-level needs as relating to selfactualization, a process by which we reach our full potential

Question 32

Rodgers’ client-centred therapy

Answer 32

Like Maslow, Rodgers believed that all humans had the potential for “good”.
Rodgers used a therapeutic technique known as client-centred therapy, which involved the client taking the lead role in the therapy session, and the therapist needed to display three features to maximise the effects of this approach; unconditional positive regard, genuineness and empathy.

Question 33

Leader of the Cognitive Revolution

Answer 33

Chomsky, a linguist, was a leader in this revolution.

Question 34

The focus of the Cognitive Revolution

Answer 34

Behaviourism’s focus on objectivity and external behaviour had pulled psychologists’ attention away from the mind for a prolonged period of time.
The rise of linguistics, computer science and neuroscience in the 1950s prompted the cognitive revolution
Mind became a focus of research
Chomsky was dissatisfied with the influence behaviourism had on psychology and believed that psychology’s focus on behaviourism was short-sighted and that the field needed to reincorporate mental functioning into its understanding if it were to offer any meaningful contributions to understanding behaviour.

Question 35

What is Multi-cultural and Cross-cultural Psychology?

Answer 35

Culture is a major influence on individual behaviour
An ongoing issue researchers are trying to correct is that certain populations have been over-studied and the results have been applied to other populations.

Question 36

What are WEIRD societies?

Answer 36

Dominant psychological theories arose in WEIRD societies (Western, Educated,
Industrialised, Rich, Democratic)
WEIRD cultures don’t generalise well to other cultures
There have been many differences found in results from WEIRD societies and non-WEIRD societies including in areas such as perception, cooperation and moral reasoning.

Question 37

Influential women in psychology

Answer 37

Although rarely given credit, there are many influential women in psychology, and women have contributed to psychology since its inception as a field of psychology.

Some influential women in psychology include Margaret Floy Washburn, the first woman awarded a doctorate degree in psychology, Mary Whiton Calkins, Mary Cover Jones, Martha Bernal and Inez Beverly Prosser.

Question 38

What is contemporary psychology?

Answer 38

Contemporary psychology is a diverse field that is influenced by all of the historical
perspectives described. Reflective of the discipline’s diversity is the diversity seen within the APA, with 54 divisions being included within the APA representing a wide range of specialties.

Question 39

What is biopsychology?

Answer 39

Biopsychology combines psychological methods with physiological and neuroscientific methods to study how the structure and function of the nervous system generate behaviour.

Question 40

What is evolutionary psychology?

Answer 40

Evolutionary psychology explores the ultimate biological causes of behaviour to the extent that behaviour is affected by genetics. (Behaviour will demonstrate adaption)

Question 41

What is Cognitive Psychology?

Answer 41

The area of psychology that studies cognitions, or thoughts, and their relationship to our experiences and actions.

Question 42

What is Developmental Psychology?

Answer 42

The scientific study of development across a lifespan.

Question 43

What is Personality Psychology?

Answer 43

Focuses on patterns of thoughts and behaviors that make each individual unique

Question 44

What is Social Psychology?

Answer 44

Focuses on how we interact with and relate to others.

Question 45

What is Industrial-Organisational Psychology?

Answer 45

A subfield of psychology that applies psychological theories, principles and research findings in industrial and organisational settings.

Question 46

What is Health Psychology?

Answer 46

Focuses on how health is affected by the interaction of biological, psychological and sociocultural factors.

Question 47

What is Sport and Exercise Psychology?

Answer 47

Studies the psychological aspects of sport performance, including motivation and performance anxiety and the effects of sport on mental and emotional well-being.

Question 48

What is Clinical Psychology?

Answer 48

The area of psychology that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders and other problematic patterns of behaviour

Question 49

What is Forensic Psychology?

Answer 49

A branch of psychology that deals with questions of psychology that arise in the context of the justice system.