General Psychology // Chapter 1 Approaches to Psychology

What kind of background do school psychologist usually have?

A degree in human development, clinical psychology, & education

Which branches of psychology are the largest?

Clinical & counseling

Compare & contrast functionalism & behaviorism

Functionalism is how we function & behaviorism is the learning of a behavior. One deals with how we work & the other deals with how we behave or learn to behave.

What factors did Francis Galton fail to take into account on his studies?

He didn't consider the possibility that the tendency of genius to run in distinguished families might be a result of the exceptional advantages that also tend to surround such families - his flaws in the study were: heredity, & environmental influences intelligence

How did Freud make use of free association in psychoanalysis?

He merely sat & listened & then interpreted the associations described by the patient. He believed that it revealed the operation of unconscious processes during psychoanalysis

Do you think that humanistic psychology presents an optimistic world view? Explain.

Humanistic psychology believes in internal growth which is an optimistic view

Why is it fair to say that psychology is a young science? As it is a young science, why should we study its history?

It keeps changing & evolving from the beginning (Victorian era) we're still trying to figure out how it works & we may never get there - If we're so good at psychology, then why can we not fix all patients?

Discuss the goals of psychology & it's development as a unique form of study in the late nineteenth century.

Natural scientists were studying complex phenomena by reducing them to simpler parts. It was in this environment of emerging modern science that the science of psychology was formed. The history of psychology is an alternative perspective. As the field enrolled, various schools of through arose to compete & offer new approaches to the science of behavior

Consider the issue of fear of the dark. How would the work of a psychologist involved in basic science and a psychologist involved in applied science differ in regards to the study of the issue?

Psychologists involved in basic science would just research the topic whereas a psychologist involved in applied science would experiment on a human with the research collected

Do you think human behavior is free or determined? Defend your answer using theories from the different approaches to psychology.

There's no right answer. Ever since we were little we saw how other people acted & were expected to act like that when we were older but we also have the ability to act the way we want whether there are consequences or not (whether you want to go down that road)

Define psychiatrist

a medical practitioner specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness

What are the four goals of psychology?

description, explanation, prediction, influence

What are the steps of the scientific method?

question, hypothesis, experiment, results, conclusions, theory

Define psychologist

studies how people think, feel, and behave

Define Psychology

the scientific study of behavior and mental processes