Exam 1 Study Flashcards
(61 cards)
Why study the history of psychology?
Psychology is such a diverse discipline so its history provides cohesiveness by showing how different ideas and theories evolved.
Studying history helps recognize relationships among various psychological ____, ____, and ____, linking them together into a comprehensive narrative.
ideas, strategies, and theories
Historiography
The study of the methods, principles, and philosophical issues of historical research
Primary sources
Created AT THE TIME of the event such as letters, diaries, speeches, archives like those in library of congress
Secondary sources
Created AFTER the time of the event often summarizing or analyzing primary sources like textbooks, articles, usually unreliable in history of psychology
Issues with writing the history of psych
- lost data
- withheld data
- translation distortions
- bias interpretations
Personalistic Approach to scientific history
“Great Man Theory” states progress in psychology is credited to its contributors like Freud and wouldn’t be the same today without them
Naturalist Approach to scientific theory
Scientific progress is determined by the intellectual and cultural climate of the time, meaning that ideas emerge when society is ready for them. (Zeitgeist Theory)
Zeitgeist
The “spirit of times,” or cultural and intellectual climate that influences which ideas are accepted. Ex: The theory of evolution by natural selection was proposed by Charles Darwin, but Alfred Russell Wallace independently developed a similar idea at the same time, suggesting that the intellectual climate was ripe for this discovery.
Psychology developed from _______ & _______
Philosophy & Physiology
What is a similarity between Ancient Greek Philosophers and Modern Psychologists
Ancient Greek Philosophers explored ideas like motivation, abnormal behavior, learning, thinking, etc, as modern psychologists do today
Modern Psychology uses the ______ ______ but Greek Philosophers relied on __________ & ______ ________
- Scientific method
- Speculation & logical reasoning
Believed that the brain was the interpreter of consciousness and rejected supernatural explanations for illness
Hippocrates
Empiricism
Belief that all knowledge is obtained through our 5 senses. Ex. a child learning fire is hot only after touching it
Who is the father of modern psychology
Rene Descartes
What is dualism and who proposed it
the mind and body are separate entities that interact and was proposed by Rene Descartes
What is Reflex Action Theory and who was behind it
Theory that some movements occur automatically in response to external stimuli, without conscious thought, Descartes ex. if you touch a hot stove, your hand will pull away automatically before your brain fully registers the pain
What view did Descartes have of the body?
A Mechanistic view stating the body operates like a machine governed by physical laws
What is the Pineal gland hypothesis and who developed it
Descartes incorrectly believed that the ind and body interacted through the pineal gland because it was the only structure within the brain that was not duplicated
Who said I think, therefore I am, and what does it mean
Descartes; its essentially saying that the only thing you can be sure of is that you are thinking, and therefore, you must exist.
Who localized all mental activity taking place in the brain
Descartes
After Descartes philosophy was
rationalistic in spirit
After Descartes philosophers believed that reasoning/ rational thought could be the key to understanding the world but Descartes believed
that truth could be discovered through logical thinking and careful reasoning. He was a strong advocate for using clear, structured thought to arrive at certain knowledge.
Who founded positivism and what does it argue?
Auguste Comte; it argues that only observable, objective facts should be considered valid knowledge
