EXAM 1: CHAPTER 1 & 2 Flashcards
(162 cards)
Psychology
The scientific study of mental processes and behaviour
What influences us
We are influenced by our psychobiology and external environments
Psychobiology
Branch of science that deals with the biological basis of behaviour and mental environments
What influences our psychological analysis (3)
- Brain (neuronal activity, structure, genes)
- The person (emotions, ideas, thoughts)
- The group (friends, family, population, culture)
Wilhelm Wundt (5)*
- Father of experimental psychology
- Developed a psychological paradigm called voluntarism
- Founder of the first psychology lab in Germany
- His research was based on actual experiment/observations (hypothesis + experiment)
- Studied consciousness
Experimental psychology
A branch of psychology that tests theories on human thoughts, feelings, actions, memory
Elementarism
Procedure of explaining complex things by reducing it to simple elemental units
Edward Titchener*
- Developed structuralism, a theoretical paradigm as an attempt to try and identify all elements of consciousness
Consciousness
The awareness of immediate behaviors and mental processes
Structuralism (2)
- Branch of psychology that analyzes the human mind and the fundamental units that may be found through introspection
- Structure of mind (i.e., cognitive structure) is the result of evolutionary and genetically determined biological forces
Introspection
“Looking inward”. Careful, reflective and systematic observation of the details of mental processes
William James (4)*
- Developed functionalism
- Established the first psychology lab in the US at Harvard
- Wrote the first psychology textbook (Principles of Psychology)
- Emphasized functions of mind adapting to environment
What ideology is the opposite of structuralism and why
Functionalism because functionalist scientists believed that mental processes were fluid instead of fixed elements
What research method did functionalist scientists use and on who
They used empirical methods and studied on animals, children, and individuals with mental disorders
Functionalism
A philosophical approach that considers how mental processes function to adapt to changing environments
Gestalt Psychology (3)
- School of psychology emerging as a theory of perception that looks at the human mind and behaviour as a whole
- Rejection of basic principles of Wilhelm Wundt’s and Edward Titchener’s elementals and structuralist
- The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Gestalt Psychology beliefs
- Consciousness cannot be broken down into elements
- We perceive things as a whole perceptual units
- Learning is tied to what we perceive
Simon Freud (2)
- Developed Psychoanalysis, which is a form of therapy aimed to resolve unconscious conflicts
- Most interested in patients suffering from hysteria
Psychoanalysis
-Set of theories and therapeutic techniques that deal in part with the unconscious mind, and which together form a method of treatment for mental disorders.
Behaviourism
Psychological research focusing on behaviour that is observable
Edward Thorndike
Functionalist who helped transition the field of psychology by proposing that animal findings could explain human behavior
Ivan Pavlov
Made medical attempts on his dog to understand its reflexes. He trained a hungry dog to salivate at the sound of a bell, indicating it as a sight of food
John B. Watson
Conducted the “Little Albert” experiment. He concluded that caregivers can shape a child’s behaviour and development
Operant behaviour
Associative learning process through which the strength of behaviour is modified by reinforcement or punishment