Chapter 1: The Evolution of Psychological Science

Question 1

What is the difference between dualism and materialism?

Answer 1

DUALISM:
- Descartes
- Mind and body are different things
MATERIALISM: 
- Hobbes
- Mind and body aren't different things; the mind is what the brain does.

Question 2

What is the difference between realism and idealism?

Answer 2

REALISM:
- Locke
- Perception is produced by information from the sensory organs.
IDEALISM:
- Kant
- Brains interpretation of information from sensory organs.

Question 3

What is the difference between empiricism and nativism?

Answer 3

EMPIRICISM:
- Locke
- Knowledge is gained through experience
NATIVISM:
- Kant
- Some knowledge is natural rather than acquired.

Question 4

What is introspection and how is it used in structuralism?

Answer 4

• Introspection: The subjective observation of ones own experience
• Used in structuralism to isolate and analyze the mind’s basic elements.

Question 5

What is natural selection and how did it influence functionalism?

Answer 5

• Natural Selection: Features that help an organism survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to future generations.
• Functionalism is the study of how mental processes enable people to adapt to their environment.

Question 6

What are the basic ideas behind Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

Answer 6

• The influence of the unconscious on feelings, thoughts and behaviours.

Question 7

What is the basic idea behind behaviourism?

Answer 7

• It is the approach to psychology that restricts scientific inquiry to observable behaviour.

Question 8

What is an example of the principle of reinforcement?

Answer 8

• Providing ice cream for completing homework instead of playing video games.

Question 9

What is cognitive psychology and how did it emerge?

Answer 9

• Scientific study of mental processes, including, perception, thought, memory and reasoning.
• Emerged in the 50s/60s; Chomsky’s critique of Skinner’s theory of language and the advent of the digital computer.

Question 10

What is evolutionary psychology and why did it emerge?

Answer 10

• It studies the ways in which the human mind has been shaped by natural selection.
• It emerged to explain mind and behaviour in terms of preserved adaptive values.

Question 11

What is neuroscience and how do modern psychologists study the brain?

Answer 11

• Study of the brain and mind: the mind is what the brain does.
• Using technologies such as fMRI (functional magnetic resonance imaging); allows neuroscientists to determine which areas of the brain are most/least active during various mental tasks.

Question 12

What is cultural psychology and why does it matter?

Answer 12

• It is the study of how cultures reflect/shape the psychological processes of their members.
• Uncovers the diversity of human cognition and behaviour.