Chapter 1: Introduction to Psychology Flashcards
psychology is?
the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
what is behavior?
anything an organism does
the mind (mental processes)?
internal, personal experiences that we infer from behavior
- sensations, dreams, feelings, beliefs, etc…
what is hypothesis?
educated guess to explain something; needs to be tested
- evidence can support/refute a hypothesis, but can never prove a theory
what is empirical method?
way of answering questions based on observation/experimentation
- not just logically thinking through it
psych teaches critical thinking; what is it?
doesn’t blindly accept conclusions
- examines assumptions, considers biases, evaluates evidence, acessess conclusions
to think critically, a scientist must have what 3 things?
curiosity, skepticism, humility
curiosity
to have enthusiasm and willingness to question and explore the world around us
skepticism
don’t take anything at face value
- needs data, has to approach the things they examine w/ a certain extent of skepticism
humility
must be able to accept that the ideas we form may not always be right
critical thinking helps us do what?
helps students communicate better/helps students understand themselves/others
What/When did Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Tichener discover
the idea of structuralism in 1879 in Leipzig, Germany
structuralism
tried to explain the stucture of thought
- Wundt looked to describe the “atoms of the mind”; believed that psych was the science of how we consciously experience the world around us
introspection
trained observers described thoughts, feelings, memories, etc… when exposed to stimuli
- wundt’s views fell out of favor b/c the limitations of introspection
functionalism
adaptive value of beh/men processes
- how did they contribute to survival over our genetic past
the school of psych was formed as a reactin to what and was influenced by who?
the structuralism; influenced by work of william james and theory of charles darwin
- darwin wanted to learn about physical evolution
who did william james accept into his graduate program
a woman: mary whiton calkins
sigmund freud was influenced by psych and __ theory
psychoanalytic
psychoanalytic theory
early childhood experiences are important, we don’t have access to a lot of who we are
gestalt psychology
central principle summarized by Kurt koffka; “the whole is other than the sum of the parts”
-researchers: max wertheimer, kurt koffka, wolfgang kohler
behaviorism
view that psych
- should be objective science
- make no reference to mental processes
– researchers (ivan pavlov, john b. watson, b.f. skinner)
— watson/skinnet thoight thats pyshc was the stduy of observing since they cpundnt oberbse internal behaviors, therefore led to behaviorism
—- watson believed he could mold any baby into anything regarldess of background/genetics
humanism
humasn are basically “good”
- focused on individual growth/potential/need for love/acceptancr
- researchers (abraham maslow/carl rogers belive that its focused too hard on tragic emotions or too little on personal choice
- maslow has a hierarchy of needs
- fundamental belief is that people are good and that mental/social problems come from deviaitions from this natural tendency
cognitive revolution
began in 1960s and is apart of the field of neuroscience
- important researchers (noam chomsky/ulric neisser)
cognitive psych
how we perceive, process, remember
- similar to structuralism
