Chapter 002 (History of Psychology)

philosophy + physiology = psychology (FINAL eligible)

a way to summarize the fact that psychology emerged in 1879 from philosophical questions and physiological (scientific) methods.

structuralism (FINAL eligible)

the first school of thought in psychology. Fans of this school wanted to uncover the building blocks of human thought and perception, using techniques like introspection.

introspection

a technique used by structuralists to try to uncover the nature of human thought and perception. It involved trying to report basic percepts (e.g., round, red) without labels. It proved to be highly unreliable.

functionalism (FINAL eligible)

the second major school of thought in psychology. It was based on evolutionary ideas like natural selection. It still exists today -- as evolutionary psychology.

psychoanalysis

a school of thought in psychology that emphasizes the role of unconscious desires & motives. It focuses a lot on sex & conflict. It was founded by psychiatrist Sigmund Freud.

unconscious

that of which we are unaware. Freud believed that much of what we think, feel, and do is determined by invisible, largely inaccessible thoughts and desires.

defense mechanisms

according to Freud, these are the mostly unconscious mental gymnastics we use to feel safe, competent, and accepted (to avoid fear & anxiety). Examples are repression and reaction formation.

repression

a Freudian defense mechanism that involves banishing uncomfortable thoughts to the unconscious. It's deeper than suppression or denial because it can wholly remove threatening thoughts from the conscious mind.

reaction formation

a Freudian defense mechanism that involves replacing a threatening thought or feeling with its opposite. Shakespeare foreshadowed this, methinks, with "The lady doth protest too much."

pleasure principle

Freud's idea that the id (the selfish, childish part of everyone's personality) is driven solely by the desire to experience reward, even if it comes at the expense of others.

id (FINAL eligible)

according to Freud this is the selfish, greedy, childish part of your personality that only looks out for your own needs. It thus is like the metaphorical devil on your shoulder; it obeys the pleasure principle & contrasts sharply with the superego.

superego (FINAL eligible)

according to Freud, this is the parent-like, rule following part of your personality. It's like the metaphorical angel on your shoulder that nudges you to do what is right and unselfish.

ego (FINAL eligible)

according to Freud, this is the rational, thoughtful part of your personality; it resolves conflicts (often unconscious ones) between your selfish id and your devout but overly rigid superego.

behaviorism (FINAL eligible)

a school of thought in psychology that emphasizes reward, punishment, and learning. Much of it can be summarized by the Law of Effect.

"black box"

This is how the behaviorist B.F. Skinner's described the mind and the brain. Skinner was emphasizing that we do NOT know for sure what happens in people's heads. In contrast, we can often say for sure how people behave.

humanism (FINAL eligible)

a school of thought in psychology that emphasizes personal growth, self-acceptance, and connectedness. For example, Maslow's pyramid of human needs includes the need for love and belongingness as a basic human need.

unconditional positive regard

accepting someone no matter what they do. Humanist Carl Rogers said we seek this kind of extreme acceptance from our caregivers as kids and keep desiring it in adult relationships. Humanist therapists try to offer this to their patients.

self-actualization

Humanist Abe Maslow defined this as the desire "to become everything that one is capable of becoming". He said we all try to become self-actualized but only after filling more basic needs (like safety needs & the need for acceptance).

cognitive psychology (FINAL eligible)

a modern psychological school of thought that seeks to understand how we perceive, represent, reason about, and remember the world.

partial report technique

a technique created by one of the first cognitive psychologists to uncover the exact nature of the rapidly decaying form of short-term visual memory known as iconic memory.

iconic memory

very short-term memory for visual information. It means that when you see something that quickly disappears, you can hold onto a "mental image" of it for a couple of seconds.

behavioral neuroscience (FINAL eligible)

the modern school of thought in psychology that emphasizes the role of the nervous system (especially the brain) in determining how we think, feel, and behave.

Mary Whiton Calkins

the first female PhD student of Harvard psychologist, William James. She was also the first female president of the American Psychological Association. She studied human memory and created the paired-associates memory paradigm. Read about why she refused to accept her PhD after completing her doctoral work.

paired-associate memory paradigm

a technique for studying memory. People are presented with many pairs of words (e.g., canoe-green, apple-dark), and later asked to remember the second word in each pair - with the first word serving as a memory cue. This greatly influenced modern memory research.