TERMS AND DEFINITIONS
Psychology- the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
4 goals- describe, understand, predict and control
theory – general framework for scientific study; smaller aspects can be tested
Charles Darwin – theories led to comparative psychology, inspired early functionalists
Wilhelm Wundt- ‘father of psychology’, first scientific lab
Introspection- the process of looking into yourself and describing what is there
Structuralism- the first theoretical school in psychology, stated that all complex substances could be separated and analyzed into component elements
Sigmund Freud- psychodynamic approach, emphasis on the unconscious
Neo-Freudian - Contemporary followers of Freud who focus less on roles of unconscious impulses and more on conscious choice and self-direction.
William James- wrote ‘Principles of Psychology’, a functionalist, coined the phrase ‘stream of consciousness’
Functionalist – asked what the mind does and why, believed that all behavior and mental processes help organisms to adapt to a changing environment
John. B. Watson- behaviorist, Little Albert
Gestalt psychology –emphasized the organizational processes in behavior, rather than the content of behavior, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Eclecticism – the process of making your own system by borrowing from two or more other systems.
UNDERSTANDING DIFFERING CONCEPTIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Match each conception of psychology’s mission with its corresponding school of thought.
CONCEPTION OF PSYCHOLOGY SCHOOL OF THOUGHT
____ 1. Psychology should discover relations between
____ 2. Psychology should analyze the basic elements
of conscious experience.
____ 3. Psychology should explain the unique qualities of
human behavior.
____ 4. Psychology should discover the purposes of consciousness.
A. Structuralism environmental stimuli and overt responses.
B. Functionalism
C. Behaviorism
D. Psychoanalysis
E. Humanism
UNDERSTANDING THE IMPLICATIONS OF MAJOR THEORIES: WUNDT, JAMES, AND WATSON
Indicate who is likely to have made the statements quoted below. For each quotation, fill in the capital letter associated with the name of the appropriate theorist, choosing from the following:
(A) Wilhelm Wundt, (B) William James, and (C) John B. Watson.
____ 1. “Our conclusion is that we have no real evidence of the inheritance of traits. I would
feel perfectly confident in the ultimately favorable outcome of careful upbringing of a
healthy, well-formed baby born of a long line of crooks, murders and thieves, and
prostitutes.”
____ 2. “The book which I present to the public is an attempt to mark out a new domain of
science. . . The new discipline rests upon anatomical and physiological foundations. . .
the experimental treatment of psychological problems must be pronounced from every
point of view to be in its first beginnings.”
____ 3. “Consciousness, then, does not appear to itself chopped up in bits. Such words as
‘chain’ or ‘train’ do not describe it fitly. . . It is nothing jointed; it flows. A ‘river’ or
‘stream’ are the metaphors by which it is most naturally described.”
UNDERSTANDING THE MAJOR THEORIES: FREUD, SKINNER, AND ROGERS
Indicate who is likely to have made the statements quoted below. For each quotation, fill in the capital letter associated with the name of the appropriate theorist, choosing from the following:
(A) Sigmund Freud, (B) B.F. Skinner, and (C) Carl Rogers.
____ 1. “In the traditional view, a person is free. . . He can therefore be held responsible for
what he does and justly punished if he offends. That view, together with its associated practices, must be re-examined when a scientific analysis reveals unsuspected
controlling relations between behavior and environment.”
____ 2. “He that has no eyes to see and ears to hear may convince himself that no mortal can
keep a secret. If the lips are silent, he chatters with the fingertips; betrayal oozes out of
him at every pore. And thus the task of making conscious the most hidden recesses of
the mind is one which it is quite possible to accomplish.”
____ 3. “I do not have a Pollyanna view of human nature. . . Yet one of the most refreshing and
invigorating parts of my experience is to work with such individuals and to discover the strongly positive directional tendencies which exist in them, as in all,of us, at the
deepest levels.”