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Chapter 1 Flashcards

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1
Q

What is psychology?

A

The scientific study of behaviour and mind. Uses the scientific method.

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2
Q

Empiricism

A

The view that knowledge arises directly from what we observe and experience.

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3
Q

Dualism

A

A philosophical position that the mind and body are separate entities.
Problem: by placing the mind as an inherently immaterial, unknowable agent that forces its will upon the body, it is removed from the realm of scientific inquiry.

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4
Q

3 Branches of Psychology

A
  1. Basic Research
  2. Application
  3. Clinical work
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5
Q
  1. Basic Research
A
  • Attempt to understand the fundamental principles that govern behaviour and mind.
  • Conducted with healthy people, not clinical populations.
  • The “how” & “why” of behaviour
  • Has no regard how the information will be used
  • Useful because if psychologist has understanding on how a behaviour occurs, it can be influenced in useful ways to solve practical problems
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6
Q

8 Fields of Basic Research

A
  1. Abnormal
  2. Behavioural genetics
  3. Behavioural neuroscience
  4. Cognitive
  5. Comparative
  6. Developmental
  7. Personality
  8. Social
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7
Q

Basic Research&raquo_space; Abnormal

A

Understanding how & why unusual or maladaptive behavioural, emotional, and thought-processes develop.
(Researching why major depression more common in women)

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8
Q

Basic Research&raquo_space; Behavioural genetics

A

Linking individual differences in behaviour to genetic factors.
(Searching for genetic markers for autism, schizophrenia)

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9
Q

Basic Research&raquo_space; Behavioural neuroscience

A

Linking specific behaviour patterns to underlying physical components or activities in the brain.
(Linking the processing of faces to a specific area of the brain’s cortex)

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10
Q

Basic Research&raquo_space; Cognitive

A

Understanding mental processes, and the ways people organise and process information.
(Figuring out how people transform sensations produced by the eyes into an understandable image)

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11
Q

Basic Research&raquo_space; Comparative

A

Studying nonhuman animal behaviour, often looking for commonalities with human behaviour.
(Testing whether a specific chemical that affects eating behaviour in mice also affects eating behaviour in humans)

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12
Q

Basic Research&raquo_space; Developmental

A

Understanding how & why the human mind, body, and behaviour change across the lifespan.
(Investigating how children learn to speak, why memory declines in old age)

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13
Q

Basic Research&raquo_space; Personality

A

Understanding how & why people differ in their characteristic traits, and how these differences may influence behaviour.
(Describing how some people are extraverted, & how extraversion predicts specific behaviour patterns)

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14
Q

Basic Research&raquo_space; Social

A

Studying how people understand themselves & others, and how behaviour can be influenced by other people.
(Investigating how/why ppl are persuaded by advertisement)

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15
Q
  1. Applied Psychology
A
  • Solving practical problems
  • Typically they change behaviour to solve practical problem (mental health issues, workplace efficiency)
  • Sometimes they will alter environments so it better matches behaviour of people in them (keyboard design for helicopter pilot)
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16
Q

2 Types of Applied Psychology

A
  1. Applied research

2. Applied practice

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17
Q

Applied Research

A

Applied research is done to discover a new or more effective way to solve some specific problem.

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18
Q

Applied Practice

A

Applied practice refers to the actual application of techniques to the problems themselves.

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19
Q

Translational Research

A
  • The effort to translate basic findings into practical solutions.
  • It is applied research.
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20
Q

8 Types of Applied Psychology

A
  1. Consumer behaviour
  2. Educational
  3. Forensic & legal
  4. Human factors
  5. Health
  6. Industrial & organisational
  7. Political
  8. School
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21
Q

Applied Psychology&raquo_space; Consumer behaviour

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A

Understanding the decisions consumers make about products & services.
(Research example: Investigating effectiveness of different advertisement techniques)
(Practice example: Designing product label in ways known to increase consumer interest)

22
Q

Applied Psychology&raquo_space; Educational

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A

Improving learning in educational settings.
(Research example: Testing how effective online HW is in raising understanding)
(Practice example: Designing textbook to take advantage of research on learning)

23
Q

Applied Psychology&raquo_space; Forensic & legal

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A

Applying psychological principles to features of the legal system.
(Research example: Investigating accuracy of eyewitness)
(Practice example: Testifying that defendant is competent to stand trial)

24
Q

Applied Psychology&raquo_space; Human factors

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A

Designing products/processes that improve usefulness or comfort for people using them.
(Research example: Studying which keyboard layout for helicopter pilots prevents more typing errors)
(Practice example: Designing user interface with target audience in mind)

25
Applied Psychology >> Health
Improving long-term physical health & healthcare by applying psychological principles. (Research example: Understanding the effects of chronic stress & how it affects mind and body...) (Practice example: Developing workplace campaigns to reduce stress... mindfulness/meditation, etc)
26
Applied Psychology >> Industrial & organisational
Helping organisations improve member performance, motivation, etc. (Research example: Determining what kinds of job stresses lead to increased turnover rates) (Practice example: Consulting with company to improve its management training program)
27
Applied Psychology >> Political
Understanding the role of psychology in the political process, & the role of politics in psychology. (Research example: Figuring out what kinds of demographic factors predict how someone will vote in upcoming election) (Practice example: Using demographic info to determine where candidate should campaign)
28
Applied Psychology >> School
Using psychology to improve academic & social experiences of children in school. (Research example: Researching effective ways to prevent absenteeism in high school settings) (Practice example: Meeting with students parents to recommend course of action for student with anger issues)
29
Clinical Psychology
- Another form of applied psychology. - Focuses on mental health & wellness issues. - Dominant type of work in psychology. Identify, prevent, and relieve distress that is psychological in origin. (P.h.D/Psy. D) (Research: evaluating effectiveness of different types of treatments for depression) (Practice: Diagnosing a mental illness, helping client with strategies to overcome anxiety)
30
Psychiatrists
- Medical doctors. - Contrasted with clinical psychologists. - Difference in training & approach to treatment. - Psychiatrists focus on pharmacotherapy (prescribing medicine) (M.D.) (Research: Medical research on physiological causes of mental illness) (Practice: Managing a patient's psychoactive medication..)
31
Counselling psychology
Help people dealing with ongoing life crises, or transitioning from one situation to another. (P.h.D/Ed.D)
32
Nativism
- Opposite of empiricism. - Hypothesizes that some forms of knowledge are innate. - To its extreme, this position is called biological determinism. - Nativism not dismissed entirely. (Ponzo illusion)
33
Adaptive traits
- Traits that are advantageous for survival. - Spread through population by natural selection. - Darwin noted that these traits could extend to human behaviour.
34
Phrenology
Shape of skull can determine how smart you are. (Debunked)
35
William Wundt (structuralist)
- 1st psychologist, also a medical doctor & philosopher - Structuralist - Made first psychology lab in University of Leipzig 1879. - Focused on sensation & perception, mental experience, the mind. - How ppl understand the world and turn it into thoughts and ideas. - Most experiments involved testing response time.
36
Structuralism
- 1st movement in psychology (as a science) - Structuralists believed that psychology should focus on decomposing immediate conscious experience into its basic elements and understanding how those elements combine to create experience. - Believed self-reports should be primary form of evidence in psychology.
37
Systematic introspection (structuralism)
- Edward Titchner. - Used to solve the problem of self-reports. - Attempted to standardize the way conscious experiences could be compared to another's more effectively.
38
Edward Titchner (structuralist)
- Wundt's student. | - Founded lab at Cornell.
39
William James (functionalist)
- Critic against structuralism. - A functionalist. - American doctor & philosopher. - 1st person to offer course on psychology in USA at Harvard.
40
Functionalism
- Position that psychologists must first understand the function of a behaviour or mental process in order to understand how its parts work together. - 2nd movement in psychology. - Influenced by Darwin/evolutionary theory.
41
Gestalt psychology
- Berlin. - Continuing with structuralism in Europe while functionalism is taking off in USA. - Focusing on understanding how people perceived a unified whole out of the many chaotic individual elements of sensation.
42
Behaviourism
- Skepticism around introspection (for eg. can't be performed on animals) - Belief that psychology should focus on behaviour (ie. what is observable) - By 1920s was dominant approach to psychology in North America.
43
B. F. Skinner (behaviourist)
- Best known for operant conditioning. (rewards and punishment system)
44
Cognitive Revolution
- 1950s. - Renewed interest in mental processes & the mind. - Limitations in purely behaviourist models & advances in methodology and measurement led to this.
45
Sigmund Freud
- Austria. - Believed mental illness came from the unconscious mind. - Psychoanalysis
46
Humanists & Positive Psychology
- Humanistic psychology proposes that people have free will & the capacity to realise their own potential. - Rogers & Maslow. - Positive psychology studies how humans can flourish & how positive outcomes can be achieved.
47
Ultimate explanations
- Attempt to address the reasons why a psychological phenomenon occurs, by appealing to its role in the process of evolution.
48
Proximate explanations
- Attempt to describe an immediate cause of a physiological phenomenon.
49
Functional explanations
- Are proximate explanations that seek to identify a specific problem as the cause of a psychological phenomenon.
50
Evolutionary psychology
- Strives to explain how mental processes and behavior have developed over the course of evolutionary history.

PSY100 (2 decks)

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