Chapter 1: What is Psychology?

Why does Darwin's theory continue to influence psychologists today?

Because it is strongly supported by observation.

William James (1842-1910)

American psychologist whose approach became known as functionalism.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

An Austrian psychologist who believed that most human behavior is caused by dark, unpleasant, unconscious impulses clamoring for expression.

Evolutionary Approach

An approach to psychology centered on evolutionary ideas such as adaptation, reproduction, and natural selection as the basis for explaining specific human behaviors.

Biological Approach

An approach to psychology focusing on the body, especially the brain and nervous system.

How did William James see the mind?

As flexible and fluid, characterized by constant change in response to a continuous flow of information from the world.

What did William James call the natural flow of the mind?

Stream of Consciousness

What are the seven approaches to psychology?

~Biological ~Behavioral ~Psychodynamic ~Humanistic ~Cognitive ~Evolutionary ~Sociocultural

Motivation

A field of study of how individuals persist to attain a difficult goal and how rewards affect the experience.

School and Educational Psychology

A field of study that centrally concerns children's learning and adjustment in school. Children in elementary and secondary school systems are tested, recommendations about educational placements are made. Psychologists also collaborate on educational planning teams.

According to evolutionary theory, how do species change?

Through random genetic mutation.

What do behaviorists say?

We do what we do because of environmental conditions we have experienced and continue to experience.

Empirical Method

Gaining knowledge through the observation of events, the collection of data, and logical reasoning.

What is a core question in functionalism?

Why is human thought adaptive — that is, why are people better off because they can think than they would be otherwise?

What kind of questions do cognitive psychologists seek answers to?

~How we solve math problems . ~Why we remember some things for only a short time but others for a lifetime. ~How we use our imagination to plan for the future.

Gender

A field of study that focuses of the ways in which our biological sex influence our ideas about ourselves as men and women.

Industrial Psychology

A field of study that focuses on personnel matters and human resource management. Also known as Personnel Psychology.

How do cognitive psychologists view the mind?

As an active and aware problem-solving system. An individual's mental processes are in control of behavior through memories, perceptions, images, and thinking.

Critical Thinking

The process of reflecting deeply and actively, asking questions, and evaluating the evidence.

What did Freud base his ideas on?

On the patients whom he saw in his clinical practice - individuals who were struggling with psychological problems.

Psychologist

One who has a doctoral degree in psychology, which requires approximately four to five years of graduate work and one year of internship in a mental health facility.

Psychiatrist

One who is a physician with a medical degree who subsequently specializes in abnormal behavior and psychotherapy. They can also prescribe medication.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes. It is a rigorous discipline that tests assumptions, bringing scientific data to bear on the questions of central interest to human beings. It seeks to understand truths of human life in all its dimensions, including people's best and worst experiences.

What are the goals of psychological science?

To describe, predict, and explain behavior, in addition to, controlling or changing behavior.

Positive Psychology

A branch of psychology that emphasizes human strengths.

Sociocultural Approach

An approach to psychology that examines the ways in which social and cultural environments influence behavior.

What does the behavioral approach focus on?

An organism's visible interactions with the environment — that is, behaviors, not thoughts or feelings.

Natural Selection

Darwin's principle of an evolutionary process in which organisms that are best adapted to their environment will survive and produce offspring.

Behavior

Everything we do that can be directly observed.

What is meant by the characteristic of adaptivity?

How it makes an organism better able to survive.

When do some historians say modern psychology was born and by whom?

In December 1879, at the University of Leipzig by Wilhelm Wundt, when he and his students performed an experiment about the workings of the brain, using the lag time between when a person heard a sound and reacted to it by pressing a telegraph key.

When did western philosophy come of age? By whom?

In ancient Greece, in the fourth and fifth centuries B.C.E. by Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, and others who debated the nature of thought and behavior including the possible link between the mind and the body.

What do socioculturalists argue about their approach to psychology?

That understanding a person's behavior requires knowing about the cultural context in which the behavior occurs.

What does the sociocultural approach focus on?

The comparisons of behavior across countries but also on the behavior of individuals from different ethnic and cultural groups within a country.

Clinical and Counseling Psychology

The most widely practiced field of study that specializes in diagnosing and treating people with psychological problems. For example, working with people to help solve practical problems of life or psychopathology.

Philosophy

The rational investigation of the underlying principles of being and knowledge.

Psychology of Women

A field of study that considers the psychological, social, and cultural influences on women's development and behavior. It stresses the integration of information about women with current psychological knowledge and beliefs and applies that information to society and its institutions.

Social Psychology

A field of study that deals with people's interactions with one another, relationships, social perceptions, social cognition, and attitudes. Interest is in the influence of groups on individuals' thinking and behavior and in the ways that the groups to which we belong influence our attitudes.

Cross-Cultural Psychology

A field of study that studies culture's role in understanding behavior, thought, and emotion. Psychologists compare nature of psychological processes in different cultures with a particular focus on whether psychological phenomena are universal or culture-specific.

Behavioral Neurosciene

A field of study whose focus is on biological processes, especially the brain' role in behavior.

Physiological Psychology

A field of study whose interest is in the physical processes that underlie mental operation such as vision and memory. They may use animals, such as rats, to study processes that are difficult or impossible to study in the same way in humans, such topics as the development of the nervous system.

Humanistic Approach

An approach to psychology emphasizing a person's positive qualities, the capacity for positive growth, and the freedom to choose any destiny.

Cognitive Approach

An approach to psychology emphasizing the mental processes involved in knowing: how we direct our attention, perceive, remember, think, and solve problems.

Behavioral Approach

An approach to psychology emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavioral responses and their environmental determinants.

Psychodynamic Approach

An approach to psychology emphasizing unconscious thought, the conflict between biological drives (such as the drive for sex) and society's demands, and early childhood family experiences.

Curiosity

An attitude of asking; who, what, where, when, why and how.

Objectivity

An attitude of personal neutrality in conducting research. Seeing things as they really are using the empirical method.

Skepticism

An attitude of questioning assumptions, accepted facts and theories.

Charles Darwin (1809-1882)

British naturalist whose Origin of Species (1859) proposed the theory of evolution based on his biological research and observation of finches on the Galapagos Islands. He noticed that each island supported its own form of finch which were closely related but differed in important ways.

Psychoanalysis

Involves and analyst's unlocking a person's unconscious conflicts by talking with the individual about his or her childhood memories, as well as the individual's dreams, thoughts, and feelings.

Functionalism

James's approach to mental processes, emphasizing teh functions and purposes of the mind and behavior in the individual's adaptation to the environment.

Introspection

Looking inside our own minds, by focusing on our own thoughts (literally, "looking inside").

What does psychologist, David Buss and others like him, argue about the evolutionary approach to psychology?

That just as evolution molds our physical features, such as body shape, it also influences our decision making, level of aggressiveness, fears, and mating patterns. Thus, the way we adapt is traceable to problems early humans faced in adapting to their environment.

What was at the heart of Wundt's experiment?

That mental processes could be measured.

What do humanistic psychologists stress?

That people have the ability to control their lives and are not simply controlled by the environment. They theorize that rather than being driven by unconscious impulses (as the psychodynamic approach dictates) or by external rewards (as the behavioral approach emphasizes), people can choose to live by higher human values such as altruism.

What do psychologists who use the psychodynamic approach believe?

That sexual and aggresive impulses buried deep within the unconscious mind influence the way people think, feel, and behave.

What do neuroscientists believe about thoughts and emotions?

That that have a physical basis in the brain.

In addition to philosophy, psychology has roots in what other field?

The natural sciences of biology and physiology.

Psychopathology

The scientific study of psychological disorders and the development of diagnostic categories and treatments for those disorders.

Neuroscience

The scientific study of the structure, function, development, genetics, and biochemistry of the nervous system, emphasizing that the brain and nervous system are central to understanding behavior, thought, and emotion.

What makes introspection a scientific method?

The systematic, detailed self-report required of the person in the controlled laboratory setting.

Mental Processes

The thoughts, feelings, memories, and motives that each of us experiences privately but that cannot be observed directly.

Information Processing

The ways the human mind interprets incoming information, weighs it, stores it, and applies it to decision making.

What is one goal of positive psychology?

To bring a greater balance to the field by moving beyond focusing on how and why things go wrong in life to understanding how and why things go right.

What has neuroscience allowed psychologists to do?

Understand the brain as an amazing complex organ, that may be just as complex as the psychological processes linked to its functioning.

Structuralism

Wundt's approach to discovering the basic elements, or structures, of mental process; so called because of its focus on identifying the structures of the human mind.

What do psychologists do?

~Conduct research ~Rely on that research to provide evidence ~Examine the evidence ~Evaluate how strongly the evidence supports their hunches ~Analyze the evidence ~Carefully consider whether they explored all possible factors and explainations

What are the four attitudes at the core of the scientific approach?

~Critical Thinking ~Skepticism ~Objectivity ~Curiosity

What does research in positive psychology center on?

~Hope ~Optimism ~Happiness ~Gratitude

According to cognitive psychologist, the human brain houses what?

A "mind" whose mental processes allow us to remember, make decisions, plan, set goals, and be creative.

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

A German philosopher-physician, who integrated pieces from philosophy and the natural sciences to create the academic discipline of psychology.

Emotion

A a field study that delves into topics including the physiological and brain processes that underlie emotional experience, the role of emotional expression in health, and the possibility that emotions are universal.

B.F Skinner (1904-1990)

A behaviorist who emphasized that psychology should be about what people do—their actions and behaviors—and should not concern itself with things that cannot be seen, such as thoughts, feelings, and goals. He believed that rewards and punishments determine our behavior.

What is important to note about natural selection?

A characteristic cannot be passed from one generation to the next unless it is recorded in the genes.

Industrial and Organizational Psychology (I-O Psychology)

A field of study that centers on the workplace—both the workers and the organizations that employ them. I

Community Psychology

A field of study that concentrates on improving the quality of relationships among individuals, their community, and society at large. These psychologists are practitioner scientists who provide accessible care for people with psychological problems, such as community based mental health centers, with outreach programs, to reach people in need. They strive to create communities that are more supportive of their residents by pinpointing needs, providing services, and teaching people how to access available resources.

Sensation and Perception

A field of study whose focus is on the physical systems and psychological process that allow us to experience the world —to listen to a favorite song and to see the beauty of a sunset.

Health Psychology

A field of study that is a multidimensional approach to human health that emphasizes psychological factors, lifestyle, and the nature of the healthcare delivery system. Areas of focus are on the roles of stress and coping in people's lives.

Forensic Psychology

A field of study that applies psychological concepts to the legal system. Psychologists are hired by legal teams to provide input on jury selection and other aspects of a trial. Psychologists that have clinical training may also be called to testify in trials.

Sports Psychology

A field of study that applies psychology's principles to improving sport performance and enjoying sport participation.

Organizational Psychology

A field of study that examines the social influences in organizations, as well as organizational leadership.

Learning

A field of study that focuses on the intricate process by which behavior changes in response to changing circumstances.

Altruism

The unselfish concern for other people's well-being—and free will.

What are some examples questions psychologists have been asking for thousands of years?

~How do we learn? ~What is memory? ~Why does one person grow and flourish while another struggles.

What did Sigmund Freud theorize concerning the psychodynamic approach?

That early relationships with parents shape an individual's personality.

Cognitive Psychology

A field of psychology that examines attention, consciousness, information processing, and memory. Interest is in skills and abilities such as problem solving, decision making, expertise, and intelligence. Researchers are sometimes called experimental psychologists.

Environmental Psychology

A field of study between people and their physical environment. Psychologists explore the effects of physical settings including perceptions, cognition, learning development, abnormal behavior, and social relations. Topics range from how different building and room arrangements influence behavior to what strategies might be used to reduce human behavior that harms the environment.

Developmental Psychology

A field of study concerned with how people become who they are, from conception to death. In particular, on the biological end environmental factors that contribute to human development. The focus of study is on child and adult development as well as aging. Inquires range across the biological, cognitive, and social domains of life.

Personality Psychology

A field of study that considers personality, consisting of the relatively enduring characteristics of individuals. Study is on such topics as traits, goals, motives, genetics, personality development, and well-being. Interest is in those aspects of your psychological makeup that make you uniquely you.

What does introspection rely on?

A person's conscious reflection.

Science

The use of systematic methods to observe the natural world, including human behavior, and to draw conclusions.