Unit 1 - AP Psychology

René Descartes

Believed that all knowledge is innate.

G. Stanley Hall

1st president of the American Psychological Association and 1st to open a psychology lab.

Wilhelm Wundt

Did the reaction time experiment. (Press the button when you hear the bell ring, now press it when you're consciously aware of the sound).

Edward Titchener

Founded structuralism.

William James

Founded functionalism.

Structuralism

The belief that the structures in the brain create all thoughts and mental states.

Functionalism

The idea that the role each part of the brain plays is more important than the structure of the brain.

Mary Whiton Calkins

First female president of the American Psychological Association. Emphasized the importance of experience to the self and social roles to the self.

Margaret Floy Washburn

First woman to earn a P.h.D in psychology. Believed that the mental state of animals should be studied with their physical behavior.

John Watson

Popularized behaviorism with the "Baby Albert" experiment. This experiment also brought up discussions of ethics in psychological experiments.

Behaviorism

Human and animal behaviors can be explained without thoughts and emotions, but instead with conditioning.

Charles Darwin

Evolutionary psychology and natural selection.

John Locke

Considered experiences to be the creation of knowledge. Believed newborns as "tabula rasa." (Blank slates)

Ivan Pavlov

Classical conditioning - trained dogs to salivate at the sound of a tuning fork.

Sigmund Freud

Father of psychoanalysis. Also tried finding meaning in dreams.