week 1 science of psychology Flashcards
What philosophical traditions influenced early psychology?
Aristotle, Plato, and Descartes initiated interest in psychology
What concept did Rene Descartes propose regarding the mind and body?
Dualism
what is dualism?
the separation of mind and body.
What is Descartes’ famous hypothetical concept about skepticism and perception?
The “Malevolent Demon” and the “Brain in the Vat.”
Who is considered the founder of structuralism?
Wilhelm Wundt
what is structuralisms main method
introspection
what is functionalism and who founded it
studies how organisms adapt - William James
which evolutionary theory influenced functionalism
Darwins theory of evolution
introspection
breaking down consciousness into its component parts
when was Wundts first lab experiment
1879
what book did William James write
principles of psychology
what is behaviorism
scientific study of observable behavior, ignoring the “mind” as a black box.
Name three key figures in behaviorism.
Pavlov, Watson, and Skinner.
what is classical conditioning
Learning through associations
key figures in classical conditioning studies
pavlov and watson
what is operant conditioning
Behavior shaped by reinforcement and punishment
main researcher into operant conditioning
skinner
What is cognitive psychology’s main focus?
The scientific study of mental processes.
What movement brought rigorous control to the study of mental processes?
cognitive revolution
key figures in humanistic psych
rogers and Maslow
main idea behind humanism
emphasis on free will, personal goals and self-actualisation
why is the humanistic approach not deterministic
gives free will
What does psychodynamic psychology emphasize?
Unconscious forces shaping personality and behavior, founded by Freud and Jung.
What are the three components of personality according to Freud?
Id, Ego, and Superego.
what does the psychodynamic approach say people are born with
instincts and needs controlled by the unconscious mind
what affects development of adult personality according to the psychodynamic approach
childhood experiences
What is the focus of biological psychology?
Linking behavior and mental processes to physical causes like brain activity.
What field studies the connection between the brain and cognition?
cognitive neuroscience
What does evolutionary psychology study?
How genetics and evolution influence behavior, drawing on Darwin’s theories.
why has the psychodynamic approach been criticized
because of the difficulty in testing the theories it presents and some of the notions are far fetched eg penis envy
2 main researchers in the biological approach
Paul Broca and Carl Wernicke
what is the reason for existence according to the evolutionary approach
to reproduce genes
what are 3 things needed for evolution to work?
- A self-replicating unit (usually a gene)
- Some random variability in its replication (mutation)
- Pressure to select on that variability
Who pioneered early memory research?
Hermann Ebbinghaus.
What therapy is Carl Rogers known for?
Client-centered therapy focusing on the “self.”
What is Maslow famous for?
The hierarchy of needs.
Decartes described how our conscious experience could be an illusion if input from our sense were controlled by a
malevolent demon
what does malevolent demon refer to
the possibility of an external force manipulating his perceptions so everything he experienced could be fabricated
what is the method of doubt by decartes?
he doubted everything that could be doubted in order to establish a foundation for certain knowledge
The behaviourist Skinner and the humanist Rogers debated over the existence of______.
free will
A guest at a party says that the psychodynamic and behavioural approaches to psychology are quite similar. You disagree and say the behavioural approach stresses ______ while the psychodynamic model emphasises ______.
overt behaviour; unconscious conflicts
Functionalism was a school of thought that originated in which country?
United States
Skinner dedicated most of his career to studying______.
operant conditioning
Which approach in psychology pays the most attention to the concept of natural selection?
evolutionary
The popularity of structuralism waned in part because _______.
the focus in psychology shifted to the study of human behaviour
The application Darwin’s theory of evolution to the understanding of human social behaviour is known as ________?
sociobiology
If a neutral stimulus (e.g., bell) is paired with a stimulus that has innate value (e.g., food), it will eventually produce a
conditioned response
