Psych Final Flashcards
(282 cards)
What does the term psychology mean?
The scientific study of the mind and behavior
What makes psychology a science?
- Psychology is a social science.
- No biological organism exists in isolation, and our behavior is influenced by our interactions w others
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
- German scientist who was the first psychologist
- Viewed psych as a scientific study of conscious experience.
- Believed that the goal was to identify components of consciousness and how those components combined to result in our conscious experience.
- Used introspection (“internal perception”)
Introspection (“Internal Perception”)
- Used by Wundt
- A process by which someone examines their own conscious experience, making the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observed.
- Requirements for introspection:
- The use of “trained” or practiced observers, who could immediately observe & report a reaction
- The use of the repeatable stimuli that always produced the same experience in the subject and allowed the subject to expect & thus be fully attentive to the inner reaction.
- These requirements were used to eliminate “interpretation”
Structuralism
- An attempt to understand the structure or characteristics of the mind. (Focused on individual parts of the mind)
- Created the first lab at the University at Leipzig.
- Founded by Wilhelm Wundt and mainly identified with Edward Titchener
William James and Functionalism(1842-1910)
- The first American psychologist
- Used Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection & accepted it as an explanation of an organisms characteristics.
- The idea that natural selection leads to organisms that are adapted to their environment, including their behavior.
- James believed psych’s purpose was to study the function of behavior in the world, and as such, his perspective was known as functionalism.
Functionalism
- William James
- Focused on how mental activities helped an organism fit into its env.
- Functionalists were more interested in the operation of the whole mind.
- Believed that introspection could serve as one means to study mental activity.
* *James relied more on objective measures, including the use of various recording devices, and examinations of concrete products of mental activities & of anatomy and physiology.
Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory
- Fascinated by patients suffering from hysteria and neurosis
- Theorized that his patients problems came from the unconscious mind.
- Believed the unconscious mind was a repository of feelings and urges of which we had no awareness
- Freud believed the unconscious mind could be accessed through dream analysis, by examinations of the first words that came to peoples minds, and thru innocent slips of the tongue.
Psychoanalytic Theory
- Sigmund Freud
- Focuses on the role of a persons unconscious, as well as early childhood expereinces
- The method of psychoanalysis, which involves the patient talking about their experiences and selves was popularized by Freud.
- Drew Westen argues that many of the criticisms of Freuds ideas are misplaced
Drew Westen
- Drew Westen argues that many of the criticisms of Freuds ideas are misplaced
- Westen argues that critics fail to consider the success of the broad ideas Freud introduced such as
- The importance of childhood experiences in adult motivations
- The role of conscious vs. unconscious motivations in driving our behavior
- Motivations can cause conflicts that affect behavior
- The effects of mental representations of ourselves and others in guiding our interactions.
- The development of personality overtime
Wertheimer, Koffka, Kohler & Gestalt Psych
A major emphasis of Gestalt psych deals with the fact that although a sensory experience can be broken down into individual parts, how those parts relate to each other as a whole is often what the individual responds to in perception.
- This perspective would have directly contradicted Wundt’s idea of structuralism.
- Considering the human as whole rather than as a sum of individually measured parts became an important foundation in humanistic theory.
Pavlov, Watson, Skinner, and Behaviorism
- Early work in the field done by Ivan Pavlov
- Pavlov studied a form of learning behavior called a conditioned reflex.
Conditioned Reflex (Pavlov)
- An animal or human produced a reflex (unconscious) response to a stimulus and over time, was conditioned to produce the response to a different stimulus that the experimenter associated with the original stimulus.
- The reflex Pavlov worked with was salivation in response to the presence of food.
- Pavlov’s “classical conditioning” is only one form of learning behavior studied by behaviorists.
John B. Watson
- Father of Behaviorism
- Believed the study of consciousness was flawed
- Watson was a major proponent of shifting the focus of psychology from the mind to behavior, and this approach of observing and controlling behavior came to be known as behaviorism.
- Focused on learned behavior & its interactions with inborn qualities of the organism
- Behaviorists used animals in experiments(could relate findings back to us)
B.F Skinner (Behaviorist)
- Concentrated on how behavior was affected by its consequences
- Spoke of reinforcement & punishment as major factors in driving behavior
- Developed a chamber known as an operant conditioning chamber (or skinners box)
Humanism
- A perspective within psych. that emphasizes the potential for good that is innate to all humans.
- Maslow & Rogers
Abraham Maslow & Humanism
- Proposed a hierarchy of human needs in motivating behavior
- Maslow said so long as basic needs for survival are met (e.g food, shelter, etc), higher level needs (social needs) would begin to motivate behavior.
- The highest level needs relates to self actualization, a process by which we achieve our full potential .
- The focus on the (+) aspects of human nature that are characteristic of the humanistic perspective is evident
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Refer to notes
Carl Rogers & Humanism
-Emphasized the potential for good that exists within all people
-Used technique.. Client-Centered Therapy
-Rogers believed that a therapist needed to display 3 features to maximize the effectiveness of the
approach :
*Unconditional Positive Regard
*Genuineness
*Empathy
Client Centered Therapy ( Rogers)
- Carl Rogers
- Involves the patient taking a lead role in the therapy sesh.
Unconditional Positive Regard (Rogers)
- Carl Rogers
- Refers to the fact that the therapist accepts their client for who they are, no matter what they say.
Multicultural Pysch
-Studying of any one racial group could not be extended to the other groups, & yet potential causes of the differences were not measured.
-1920. CECIL SUMNER was the first A.A to receive a phD in psych in US.
Most of the work done by A.A psychologists was dedicated to testing and intelligence testing
-2 famous A.A psychologist (Mamie Clark and Kenneth Clark). Best known for their studies conducted on A.A children & internalized racism, research that was critical for the Brown v Board of education case. Clarks opened the first child guidance center in Harlem.
Biopsychology
- Explores how our biology influences our behavior. Want to understand how the structure & function of the nervous system is related to our psychology.
- Focuses on the immediate causes of behavior based in the physiology of a human or other animal.
- A component of neuroscience
- Some research interests include: sensory and motor systems, sleep, drug use and abuse, ingestive behavior etc.
Evolutionary Psych
- Seeks to study the ultimate biological causes of behavior.
- The study of behavior in the context of evolution has its origins with Charles Darwin. He was well aware that behaviors should be adaptive to physical and social environments.
- To be subject to evolution by natural selection, a behavior must have a significant genetic cause.
- We expect all human cultures to express a behavior if it is caused genetically, since the genetic differences among human groups are small.