Psych Chapter 1
Franz Joseph Gall
Developed a theory called phrenology, which suggested that psychological capacities (such as the capacity for friendship) and traits (such as cautiousness and mirth) were located in particular parts of the brain.
Illusions
Errors of perceptions, memory of judgement in which subjective experience differs form objective reality.
Hermann von Helmholtz
German physician who by measuring a person's reaction time to different stimuli estimated the length of time it takes a nerve impulse to travel to the brain.
Humanistic Psychology
An approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings.
Behaviorism
An approach that advocates that psychologists restrict themselves to the scientific study of objectively observable behavior.
Aristotle
4th Century BC Greek philosopher who believed in empiricism
Plato
4th Century BC Greek philosopher who believed in nativism
Behavioral neuroscience
An approach to psychology that links psychological processes to activities in the nervous system and other bodily processes.
Cognitive neuroscience
A field that attempts to understand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity.
Phrenology
A now defunct theory that specific mental abilities and characteristics, ranging from memory to the capacity for happiness, are localized in specific regions of the brain.
Consciousness
A person's subjective experience of the world and the mind.
Gestalt psychology
A psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts.
Evolutionary psychology
A psychological approach that explains mind and behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time by natural selection.
Margaret Floy Washburn
A student of Edward Titchener at Cornell, became the first woman to receive a PhD degree in psychology and developed a theory of consciousness.
Social psychology
A subfield of psychology that studies the causes and consequences of interpersonal behavior.
Paul Broca
A surgeon who worked with a brain-damaged person who could comprehend but not produce spoken language. He suggested that the mind is grounded in the material processes of the brain.
Hysteria
A temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as a result of emotionally upsetting experiences.
Psychoanalysis
A therapeutic approach that focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness to better understand psychological disorders.
The Mueller-Lyer Line Illusion
Although they do not appear to be, these two horizontal lines are actually the same length.
G. (Granville) Stanley Hall
American psychologist who founded the continent's first physiology laboratory at John Hopkins University, the first academic journal devoted to psychology, and the first professional organization (the American Psychological Association).
Sigmund Freud
An Austrian neurologist, now known as the father of psychoanalysis.
Response
An action or physiological change elicited by a stimulus.
René Descartes
Best known for his suggestion that the body and soul are fundamentally different.
Edward Titchener
British psychologist who brought structuralism to America, setting up a psychology laboratory at Cornell University. He studied under Wundt in Germany.
Natural selection
Charles Darwin's theory that the features of an organism that help it survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to subsequent generations.
Karl Lashley
Conducted experiments that he hoped would reveal a brain area that stores learned information. He removed different parts of animals' brains and observed the effects on the animals' behavior. Though he never found specific area where learning is stored, his general approach had a major influence on behavioral neuroscience.
Noam Chomsky
Criticized Skinner's theory of language signaled the end of behaviorism's dominance in psychology and helped spark the development of cognitive psychology.
Wilhelm Wundt
Founded the first laboratory devoted exclusively to psychology at the University of Leipzig in Germany.
fMRI
Functional magnetic resonance imaging that produces more precise images than Positron emission tomography (PET) scans.
B.F. (Burrhus Frederick) Skinner
Inspired by Watson's behaviorism, he investigated the way an animal learns by interacting with its environment, most famous for his experiments where rats learn to press a lever to receive food.
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
Introduced a positive, humanistic, psychology in response to what they viewed as the overly pessimistic view of psychoanalysis.
John B. (Broadus) Watson
Left John Hopkins University after a scandal and embarked on a successful career with the J. Walter Thompson advertising firm in New York City.
Behavior
Observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals.
Mind
Our private inner experiences of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings.
Stimulus
Sensory input from the environment.
Psychoanalytic theory
Sigmund Freud's approach to understanding human behavior that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors.
Jean Piaget
Studied and theorized about the developing mental lives of children, a marked departure from observations of external behavior dictated by the method of behaviorists.
Kenneth B. Clark
Studied the developmental effects of prejudice, discrimination, and segregation on children. In one classic study from the 1950s, he found that African American preschoolers preferred white dolls to black ones. His research was cited by the U.S. Supreme Court in its excision for the landmark Brown v. Board of Education case that ended school segregation.
Reaction time
The amount of time taken to respond to a specific stimulus.
Structuralism
The analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind.
Reinforcement
The consequences of a behavior that determine whether it will be more likely that the behavior will occur again.
Francis Cecil Summer
The first African American to hold a PhD in psychology, receiving his from Clark University in 1920. He conducted research on race relations, equality, and the psychology of religion.
William James
The first educator to offer a psychology course in the United States and by some is called the "Father of American psychology"
Mary Whiton Calkins
The first woman elected APA president. Despite academic setbacks (such as Harvard University refusing to grant women an official PhD), she went on to a distinguished career in research and teaching at Wellesley College.
Unconscious
The part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness, but influences conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions.
Philosophical empiricism
The philosophical view that all knowledge is acquired through experience
Nativism
The philosophical view that certain kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn.
Cognitive Psychology
The scientific study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, and reasoning.
Psychology
The scientific study of mind and behavior.
Physiology
The study of biological processes, especially in the human body.
Cultural psychology
The study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members.
Functionalism
The study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment.
Introspection
The subjective observation of one's own experience.