History and Methods of Psychology

Question 1

Define psychology

Answer 1

• vast discipline involving the studies of perceptions, emotions, thoughts, behaviours
• the scientific study of the brain, mind, and behaviour (scientific method is applied)

Question 2

What are the core areas of psychology?

Answer 2

• social
• personality
• developmental
• cognitive
• perception
• learning
• biopsychology

Question 3

Applied psychology sectors

Answer 3

clinical: psychological conditions
organisational: use psychological techniques to understand occupational behaviour and organisational structure
health: promoting health and prevention of disease
neuropsychology: assess and treat brain injuries and people with neurological disorders
educational: how people learn - improving learning

Question 4

Define a theory

Answer 4

• a theory is a model of how the world works - they are not educated guesses, but are based on evidence and continuously revised (they are formed by reliable converging empirical evidence)

Question 5

common sense vs science (how are our intuitions affected)

Answer 5

• reliable errors and biases effect how we process information about the world
• naive realism (seeing is believing)
• confirmation bias: we have a reliable tendency to seek out info that supports our beliefs while dismissing contradictory info
• belief perseverance: once a belief is formed, it is difficult to demolish (ppl tend to fall back on original explanations)

Question 6

psychology v pseudoscience

Answer 6

• psychology uses the scientific method
• pseudoscience refers to claims that seem to be scientific, but are not derived using scientific method (characteristics include reliance on anecdotes, lack of self-correction, ad hoc immunising hypotheses)

Question 7

What are the principles of scientific thinking?

Answer 7

• extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
• claims must be testable (predictive questions must be falsifiable, rather than vague statements)
• Occam’s Razor (principle of parsimony): if two explanations account for data equally well, we should prefer the simpler explanation
• has the claim been replicated?
• exclude rival hypotheses
• correlation not causation

Question 8

Ancient history of psychology

Answer 8

• 600-400 BCE: Ancient greece has the 4 temperaments which reflect the mix of fluids
• -> sanguine (optimistic; blood)
• -> melancholic depressive; black bile
• -> choleric short tempered; yellow bile)
• -> phlegmatic (apathetic; phlegma)
• 1500 BCE = Egyptian scrolls

Question 9

Modern history of psychology

Answer 9

• 1649: Descartes –> Mind-body problem
• -> minds are nonphysical substances so how do they interact with the physical body (nerves and muscles)
• 1850: Fechner –> psychophysics
• -> psychological methods begin to emerge
• 1859: Darwin –> theory of evolution
• -> mind and behaviour as a product of continuity between humans and other species

Question 10

What are the influential approaches in the history of psychology? (list)

Answer 10

Structuralism
Functionalism
Behaviourism 
Cognitivism 
Psychodynamic perspective

Question 11

Elaborate on Structuralism

Answer 11

• the analysis of the mind in terms of its basic elements
• -> 1879: Wundt and Titchener, first experimental study lab, studied the basic elements of consciousness sensations
• -> method = introspection
• -> exposed participants to sensory stimuli and trained them to describe their experiences
• -> criticised for being subjective (another limitation is that people can have imageless thoughts i.e. subconscious)

Question 12

Elaborate on Functionalism

Answer 12

• understanding the adaptive purpose of our thoughts, feelings and behaviour
• based on evolution –> natural selection
• William James used both theoretical and empirical method
• formed basis for modern evolutionary psychology

Question 13

Elaborate on behaviourism

Answer 13

• a theory of learning based on the idea that all behaviours are acquired through conditioning, and conditioning occurs through interaction with the environment
• 1910: Pavlovian conditions (sound previously associated with food can elicit salivation through classical conditioning)
• 1911: Thorndike’s Law of Effect (responses followed by a satisfying consequence are likely to recur)
• Watson: the proper subject matter of psychology is behaviour, not unobservable inner consciousness (the black box) –> Little Albert Study
• Skinner: operant conditioning

Question 14

elaborate on cognitivism

Answer 14

• studies mental processes, including perception, thinking, memory and judgement
• 1960s dissatisfaction with view that mental life was irrelevant
• thinking has a powerful influence on behaviour
• computer metaphor
• some leading figures include Niesser, Piaget, Broadbent, Tversky, Kahneman
• experimental methods used to infer unobserved mental processes - neuroimaging

Question 15

Elaborate on psychodynamic perspective

Answer 15

• occurred around the same time as behaviourism
• analysis of internal drives and conflicts that shape the relationship between conscious and unconscious mental processes
• Freud - identified ways that we cope with anxiety (repression, transference)