CH 1 Flashcards
(38 cards)
Define Psychology.
The scientific study of behaviour (observable actions and responses) and mind (internal states or processes such as thoughts and feelings, that can be inferred not observed from observable measurable responses)
What is Empirical Evidence?
Evidence gained through experience and observation, including results from manipulating things and observing the outcome (experimentation)
Why do scientific studies need to be systematic?
Scientific observations must be performed according to a system of rules or conditions as to be as objective and precise as possible.
What are some pitfalls of everyday approaches to understanding human behaviour?
Our sources can promote misconceptions. Via conversation, books, internet, and other media, people may provide us with believable but inaccurate information. Without a systematic scientific approach, we may not realize our experiences could be atypical and not representative of the general population.
What is Critical Thinking?
Critical thinking involves taking an active role in understanding the world around you rather than absorbing information without question, reflecting on what information means, how it fits with your experience, and on its practical implications for life and society.
Someone makes a claim or asserts a new “fact”. What (scientific) questions should you ask yourself?
What exactly is the claim or assertion?
Who is making the claim? Is the source credible and trustworthy?
What’s the evidence and how strong?
Are other explanations possible? Can I evaluate them?
What is the most appropriate conclusion?
What are the four central goals of psychology?
- To DESCRIBE how people and animals behave.
- To EXPLAIN and UNDERSTAND the causes of these behaviours.
- To PREDICT behaviour under certain conditions.
- To INFLUENCE or CONTROL behaviour through knowledge and control of its causes, in order to enhance human welfare.
Compare the goals of Basic and Applied research?
Basic Research pursues knowledge for its own sake. In psychology, it’s goals are to describe how people behave and to identify the factors that influence or cause a particular type of behaviour.
Applied Research is designed to solve specific practical problems, often using principles discovered through BR.
What are the levels of analysis?
Biological level
Psychological level
Environmental level
What are mind-body interactions?
The relations between mental processes in the brain and the functioning of other bodily systems. They focus our attention on the interplay between psychological and biological levels of analysis.
What is the position of mind-body dualism?
The belief that the mind is a spiritual entity, not subject to physical laws that govern the body. No amount of research on the physical body/brain could ever unravel the mysteries of the non-physical mind.
What is the position of mind-body monism?
The mind and body are one; the mind is not a separate spiritual entity. Mental events, correspond to physical events in the brain.
In 1879 who established the first experimental psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig in Germany?
Wilhelm Wundt. There he trained the first generation of scientific psychologists.
What is structuralism?
The analysis of the mind in terms of its basic elements. They use the method of “introspection” to study sensations.
What are the beliefs of the school of functionalism?
Psychology should study the functions of consciousness rather than its structure. Influenced by Darwins evolutionary theory, stressing the importance of adaptation to survival and reproduction.
What causal factors are the focus of the psychodynamic perspective?
Behaviours are the result of unconscious psychological conflicts between (1) powerful and unacceptable innate sexual/aggressive inclinations, which are then repressed and become traumas, and 2) the defence mechanisms developed to cope and fight the impulses.
Describe the modern psychodynamic theories.
Explores how unconscious and conscious aspects of personality influence behaviour, with less emphasis on sexual and aggressive motives, but more on how early relationships with family members and other caregivers shape peoples views of themselves and others.
What is the focus of the behavioural perspective?
The role of the external environment on governing or actions. Our behaviour is determined both by habits learned from previous life experiences, and by stimuli in our immediate environment.
Who led the behaviourism movement?
John B Watson, opposing mentalism, emphasizing environmental control of behaviour through learning. Proper subject matter of psychology was observable behaviour not unobservable consciousness.
Who said “no account of what is happening inside the human body no matter how complete will explain the origins of human behavior”?
B. F. Skinner believed that the real causes of behaviour reside in the outside world “a person does not act upon the world, the world acts upon him”. Lab studies examined how behaviour is influenced the rewarding and punishing consequences that it produced.
What is the view of cognitive behaviorism?
Learning experiences and the environment affect our behaviour by giving us the information we need to behave effectively.
What is the humanistic perspective?
Emphasizes free will, personal growth the attempt to find meaning in one’s existence. Each of us has an inborn force towards self actualization, the reaching of one’s individual potential.
When humans develop in a supportive environment, the positive inner nature of a person emerges. Misery and pathology occur when environments frustrate our innate tendency towards self actualization.
What is human nature by the cognitive perspective?
This perspective examines the nature of the mind, and how mental processes influence behaviour. Humans are information processors, whose actions are governed by thought.
What is gestalt psychology?
Examines how the mind organizes elements of experience into a unified or “whole” perception. “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
