Intro / Ch. 1 Flashcards
(13 cards)
What is psychology?
Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour, the mind and the brain.
What is cognitive psychology?
What does ‘cognitive’ refer to?
Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes.
Cognitive refers to mental processes.
What is biological psychology?
Biological psychology is the study of the biology that gives rise to cognition (thinking) and behaviour.
What does psyche mean?
Psyche in Greek means soul.
What is nativism and who originated it?
Nativism is a theory proposed by Plato in 350 BC that at least certain kind of knowledge is innate or inborn, does not require learning.
What is philosophical empiricism?
Why is it tied to the Nature part of nature vs. nuture?
Philosophical empiricism is the theory that knowledge is acquired through experience.
Philosophical empiricism is tied to the nature debate because it suggests that we are the sum of what we experience.
What does ‘tabula rasa’ mean?
Tabula rasa means blank slate and implies that entire mind is a product of socialization by parents and absoprtion of societal values.
This is what Aristotle thought of the human mind at birth.
What is nature versus nurture ‘hot-potato’ about?
Nature versus nurture is a debate on the origin of knowledge?
Who was Francis Galton?
What did he say about the personality?
What did he say about Nature vs. Nurture?
Francis Galton (1822-1911) was a British scientist among other things.
He said the personality is composed of only two elements: nature (inherited) and nurture (from our environment).
He said that if the two were in competition that nature would triumph.
How did modern psychology emerge?
Modern psychology emerged from physiology (the study of biological processes) and philosophy.
What does nurture say?
What way did Galton give us to examine nature vs nurture?
Galton gave us the “twin design”, a method in behavioural genetics that allows us to examine the influence of environment by studying twins in different environments.
What is dualism?
Descarates proposed dualism, the mind body problem.
Mind and body are materially different things. The body acts as a container for the mind, linked via the pinneal glad (only structure in brain there is just one of).
