Exam 1
Chapter 1: Psych as a Science
1.1 A Brief History of Psychology
● Dualism: belief that the mind didn’t cease to exist when the body died and that thoughts and ideas
could exist separately from the body(Socrates & Plato)
● Empiricism: the view that knowledge originates from experience(John Locke)
● Structuralism: a school of psych concerned with studying the individual elements of
consciousness(Wilehlm Wundt & Edward Titchener)
● Introspection: an examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings(Edward Titchener)
● Functionalism: how organisms use their learning and perceptual abilities to function in their
environment(William James & Wilhelm Wundt)
● Natural selection: characteristics that provide a survival advantage are more likely to be passed
along to subsequent generations and “selected” over time
● Gestalt psychology: people seek out patterns, or wholes, in the sensory info available to
them(Max Wertheimer)
1.2 Contemporary Perspectives in Psychology
● Psychodynamic approach: based on the belief that behaviors are motivated by internal factors
unavailable to the conscious mind
- Sigmund Freud: believed that humans are motivated by primitive sexual desires,
forbidden desires, & traumatic childhood memories unavailable to the human mind
- “Freudian slips”: how repressed urges surface
● Behavioral approach: concentrates on observable behavior that can be directly measured &
recorded
- John B. Watson
- Little Albert experiment with child and rate
- Peoples actions are learning responses to various stimuli
- BF Skinner: reinforcement
● Humanistic approach: belief that people are innately good & that mental & social problems result
from deviations from the natural tendency
- Abraham Maslow
- Carol rogers
- Emphasized self-esteem, self-expression, & self-actualization: reaching one’s own
potential
● Cognitive approach: focused on the working of the human brain and sought to understand how we
process info we collect from our environments
- Neurological processes
● Biological approach: study of biological bases of behavior & focuses on the structure of the
nervous system as well as function of the nervous system
- Behavior is a direct result of biological events in body
● Evolutionary approach: ways in which patterns of human behavior may be beneficial to people’s
survival
- Darwin’s theory of natural selection
, ● Sociocultural perspective: the influence of social & cultural factors on human behavior & mental
processes
● Eclectic approach: draw on multiple different perspectives & theories to gain an understanding of
human behavior/mental processes
1.3 Careers in Psychology
● Clinical psychology: diagnosis/treatment of people with specific mental/behavioral problems
- Neuropsych, counseling, psychiatrists, etc
● Applied psychology: use of psych theory & practice to tackle real-world problems
- IO psych, sports psych
● Academic psychology: divide time between supervising & teaching, completing administrative
tasks & carrying out psych research
- Development psych, abnormal, personality, social
1.4 The Steps of the Scientific Method
● Hindsight bias: a person’s erroneous belief that he/she knew something all along after an event
has occurred
● False consensus effect: a person’s tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share
his/her beliefs & behaviors
● Scientific method: a process for conducting an objective inquiry through data collection &
analysis
1. Identify the problem
2. Conduct background research
3. Formulate a hypothesis(an educated guess)
4. Test the hypothesis
5. Analyze your results(use replication)
6. Report your results
1.5 The Importance of Critical Thinking
● Critical thinking: a way of processing info in which we examine assumptions, evaluate evidence,
look for hidden agendas, and assess conclusions
1.6 Naturalistic Observations
● Descriptive study: enables researchers to observe & describe behaviors without investigating the
relationship between specific variables
● Naturalistic observation: the study of people or animals in their own environment(s)
- Jane Goodall
- Disadvantages: possibility of reactivity, observer bias(blind observers), can be exactly
repeated
● Laboratory study: in location specifically set up to facilitate collection of data & allow control
over environmental conditions
- Difficult to generalize “real world”
1.8 Surveys
● Surveys: a series of questions about people’s behavior/opinions, in the form of a
questionnaire/interview
● Random sampling
● Representative sample
Chapter 1: Psych as a Science
1.1 A Brief History of Psychology
● Dualism: belief that the mind didn’t cease to exist when the body died and that thoughts and ideas
could exist separately from the body(Socrates & Plato)
● Empiricism: the view that knowledge originates from experience(John Locke)
● Structuralism: a school of psych concerned with studying the individual elements of
consciousness(Wilehlm Wundt & Edward Titchener)
● Introspection: an examination of one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings(Edward Titchener)
● Functionalism: how organisms use their learning and perceptual abilities to function in their
environment(William James & Wilhelm Wundt)
● Natural selection: characteristics that provide a survival advantage are more likely to be passed
along to subsequent generations and “selected” over time
● Gestalt psychology: people seek out patterns, or wholes, in the sensory info available to
them(Max Wertheimer)
1.2 Contemporary Perspectives in Psychology
● Psychodynamic approach: based on the belief that behaviors are motivated by internal factors
unavailable to the conscious mind
- Sigmund Freud: believed that humans are motivated by primitive sexual desires,
forbidden desires, & traumatic childhood memories unavailable to the human mind
- “Freudian slips”: how repressed urges surface
● Behavioral approach: concentrates on observable behavior that can be directly measured &
recorded
- John B. Watson
- Little Albert experiment with child and rate
- Peoples actions are learning responses to various stimuli
- BF Skinner: reinforcement
● Humanistic approach: belief that people are innately good & that mental & social problems result
from deviations from the natural tendency
- Abraham Maslow
- Carol rogers
- Emphasized self-esteem, self-expression, & self-actualization: reaching one’s own
potential
● Cognitive approach: focused on the working of the human brain and sought to understand how we
process info we collect from our environments
- Neurological processes
● Biological approach: study of biological bases of behavior & focuses on the structure of the
nervous system as well as function of the nervous system
- Behavior is a direct result of biological events in body
● Evolutionary approach: ways in which patterns of human behavior may be beneficial to people’s
survival
- Darwin’s theory of natural selection
, ● Sociocultural perspective: the influence of social & cultural factors on human behavior & mental
processes
● Eclectic approach: draw on multiple different perspectives & theories to gain an understanding of
human behavior/mental processes
1.3 Careers in Psychology
● Clinical psychology: diagnosis/treatment of people with specific mental/behavioral problems
- Neuropsych, counseling, psychiatrists, etc
● Applied psychology: use of psych theory & practice to tackle real-world problems
- IO psych, sports psych
● Academic psychology: divide time between supervising & teaching, completing administrative
tasks & carrying out psych research
- Development psych, abnormal, personality, social
1.4 The Steps of the Scientific Method
● Hindsight bias: a person’s erroneous belief that he/she knew something all along after an event
has occurred
● False consensus effect: a person’s tendency to overestimate the extent to which others share
his/her beliefs & behaviors
● Scientific method: a process for conducting an objective inquiry through data collection &
analysis
1. Identify the problem
2. Conduct background research
3. Formulate a hypothesis(an educated guess)
4. Test the hypothesis
5. Analyze your results(use replication)
6. Report your results
1.5 The Importance of Critical Thinking
● Critical thinking: a way of processing info in which we examine assumptions, evaluate evidence,
look for hidden agendas, and assess conclusions
1.6 Naturalistic Observations
● Descriptive study: enables researchers to observe & describe behaviors without investigating the
relationship between specific variables
● Naturalistic observation: the study of people or animals in their own environment(s)
- Jane Goodall
- Disadvantages: possibility of reactivity, observer bias(blind observers), can be exactly
repeated
● Laboratory study: in location specifically set up to facilitate collection of data & allow control
over environmental conditions
- Difficult to generalize “real world”
1.8 Surveys
● Surveys: a series of questions about people’s behavior/opinions, in the form of a
questionnaire/interview
● Random sampling
● Representative sample
