Science of Psychology

Question 1

Give 3 contributions from Descartes to psychological foundations

Answer 1

Dualism
The malevolent demon
Reflexes

Question 2

What is dualism and who’s concept is it

Answer 2

separation of mind and body; Descartes

Question 3

Who is the father of modern psychology

Answer 3

Wilhelm Wundt

Question 4

What year was the first experimental laboratory established and where

Answer 4

1879; Leipzig in Germany

Question 5

What is structuralism

Answer 5

Studying the structure of the mind to construct such subject matter into a table of elements. Learn about the brain by breaking down elements into basic functions. Relied on introspection

Question 6

What is introspection

Answer 6

breaking down elements into their component structures by training introspectionists to observe stimuli and describe their experiences

Question 7

Give a flaw of introspection

Answer 7

Behaviourists in particular believed their was subjective bias in the reports given

Question 8

What did Wundt contribute to psychology

Answer 8

Introspection; the first lab; structuralism

Question 9

What is functionalism

Answer 9

Protest against structuralism; looking to organism function to understand behaviour.

Question 10

What is psychology based upon; specify

Answer 10

philosophy; animism

Question 11

What came first, structuralism or functionalism

Answer 11

structuralism

Question 12

Who came up with functionalist psychology

Answer 12

James

Question 13

What was James influenced by

Answer 13

Darwin’s theory of evolution

Question 14

What is behaviourism

Answer 14

The scientific study of behaviour; relation between environ and behaviour; what goes on inside mind is irrelevant as cannot be studied

Question 15

What is the cognitive perspective

Answer 15

The scientific study of mental processes. Took notions of Wundt and James and applied rigorous
control procedures to reduce possibility of subjective bias.

Question 16

What is the humanistic perspective

Answer 16

emphasising holism to move away from the reduction of the human being to an “organism” that “responds to environmental stimuli.” emphasises the needs and goals of the individual; free will important

Question 17

What is the psychodynamic perspective in psychology

Answer 17

Unconscious motivating forces that guide behaviour and
produce our personality. Human personality consists of an id, an ego and superego. Has strong statements regarding human development and particular stages that children go through.

Question 18

What is the biological perspective

Answer 18

All behaviour and mental processes can be traced to physical causes. In the brain and nervous system, behaviour is tied to neural activity

Question 19

What is the evolutionary perspective

Answer 19

Looks at genetics and sociobiology. Behaviour is determined by genes and the reason for our existence is to reproduce our genes.

Question 20

Give 3 examples of behaviourists

Answer 20

Pavlov, Skinner and Watson

Question 21

Give an example of a cognitive psychologist

Answer 21

Ebbinghaus

Question 22

Give 2 examples of humanistic psychologists

Answer 22

Maslow and Rogers

Question 23

Give 2 examples of psychodynamic psychologists

Answer 23

Freud and Jung

Question 24

Give 2 examples of biological psychologists

Answer 24

Broca and Wernicke

Question 25

Give 3 examples of evolutionary psychologists

Answer 25

Darwin, Dawkins and Wilson

Question 26

What was key about Watson

Answer 26

he reacted against the subjective, possibly biased, schools | of structuralism and functionalism.

Question 27

Give 2 behaviourist concepts

Answer 27

Classical conditioning and operant conditioning

Question 28

What is classical conditioning and who researched into it

Answer 28

CS becomes associated with US in order to produce a CR- a learned response to the previously neutral stimulus. Pavlov and Watson

Question 29

What is operant conditioning and who researched into it

Answer 29

Behaviour shaped by the consequences of behaviour - | reinforcement and punishment. Skinner

Question 30

What did Ebbinghaus research into

Answer 30

memory

Question 31

What is the cognitive revolution

Answer 31

prevalence of cognitive psychology in different psychological areas

Question 32

What did Maslow contribute to humanistic psychology

Answer 32

The hierarchy of needs

Question 33

What did Rogers contribute to humanistic psychology

Answer 33

Client centred therapy and concept of 'the self'

Question 34

Why is the psychodynamic approach less influential now than in the 1950/60s

Answer 34

Difficulty in testing the theories it presents. And some of the notions are far-fetched e.g. penis envy

Question 35

How has the biological approach aided modern psychology

Answer 35

Know a great deal about the brain, its structure, the cells and their function, role of chemicals in the brain.

Question 36

What has the biological approach become more focussed on

Answer 36

Cognitive Neuroscience

Question 37

What 3 things does evolution require to work

Answer 37

1. A self-replicating unit (usually a gene) 2. Some random variability in its replication (mutation) 3. Pressure to select on that variability