Psychology Concepts and Historical Foundations

Vocabulary flashcards covering foundational theories, philosophical perspectives, and subfields of psychology based on the lecture transcript.

Psychology

The scientific study of mind and behavior.

Philosophical dualism

The view that mind and body are fundamentally different things (promoted by René Descartes).

Philosophical materialism

The view that all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena (promoted by Thomas Hobbes, who argued that "the mind is what the brain does").

Philosophical realism

The view that perceptions of the physical world are faithful copies of information captured by sensory organs (promoted by John Locke).

Philosophical idealism

The view that perceptions of the physical world are the brain's best interpretation of the information it receives through sensory organs (promoted by Immanuel Kant).

Philosophical empiricism

The view that all knowledge is acquired through experience (promoted by John Locke, who described the mind as a tabula rasa or "blank slate").

Philosophical nativism

The view that some knowledge is innate rather than acquired (promoted by Immanuel Kant, who argued basic concepts are "factory installed").

Reaction time

The amount of time taken to respond to a specific stimulus (measured by Hermann von Helmholtz and Wilhelm Wundt to assess mental processing speed).

Structuralism

An approach to psychology that attempted to analyze the basic elements that constitute the mind (developed by Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener).

Introspection

The subjective observation of one's own experience (used as a research method by Wilhelm Wundt and structuralists).

Functionalism

An approach to psychology that focused on how mental processes enable people to adapt to their environments (developed by William James).

Natural selection

The features of an organism that help it survive and reproduce are more likely than other features to be passed on to subsequent generations (Charles Darwin's principle, which influenced William James's functionalism).

Unconscious

The part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness but influences conscious thoughts, feelings, and actions (emphasized by Sigmund Freud).

Psychoanalytic theory

An approach that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behavior (developed by Sigmund Freud).

Psychoanalysis

A therapeutic approach that focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness to better understand psychological disorders (developed by Sigmund Freud).

Behaviorism

is defined as an approach that advocates that psychologists restrict their scientific inquiry to observable behavior.  (like running, crying, or pressing a button). (developed by John Watson)

Principle of reinforcement

The consequences of a behavior determine whether it will be more or less likely to occur again (developed by B. F. Skinner).

Gestalt psychology

A psychological approach that emphasizes that we often perceive the whole rather than the sum of the parts (founded by Max Wertheimer).

Developmental psychology

The study of the continuity and change of psychological phenomena over the lifespan (pioneered by Jean Piaget in children's cognitive development).

Social psychology

The study of the causes and consequences of sociality (developed by Kurt Lewin and Solomon Asch).

Cognitive psychology

The scientific study of human information processing (pioneered by figures like George Miller and Donald Broadbent using the computer as a model for the human mind).

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 (influenced by John Garcia).

Cognitive neuroscience

The field of study that attempts to understand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity (studied primarily in humans using neuroimaging like fMRI).

Behavioral neuroscience

An approach to psychology that links psychological processes to neural activity in the brain and other parts of the nervous system (studied primarily using animal models).

Cultural psychology

The study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members (associated with researchers like Richard Nisbett).