AP Psych Unit 0

Dualism

divides the world and all things in it into two parts: body and spirit

Rene Descartes

Early modern philosopher, dualist, all creatures (except humans because they have minds) are machines that behave in observable, predictable ways

John Locke

Philosopher, even the mind is under the mechanism ideas, empiricism

Empiricism

acquisition of truth through observations and experiences

Tabula Rasa

Latin for “Blank slate”, Locke used it to describe an infant

Thomas Hobbes

Ideas of a soul, spirit, or mind, are meaningless. Materialist. Believes that the only things that exist are matter and energy.

Charles Darwin

Created the ideas of Natural Selection and Evolutionary Theory

Wilhelm Wundt

Founder of the science of psychology.

Edward Titchener

Brought the science of psychology to the US

Structuralism

looking for patterns in thought

Introspection

Interview process where a subject describes their conscious experience

William James

American Psychologist opposed the structuralist approach. Functionalist

Functionalism

Function-oriented approach

Biological approach

anatomy, physiology, directly applying biological experimentation to psychological problems.

Behavioral Genetics approach

genetically based psychological characteristics, biological predispositions, influence of the environment on the manifestation of the trait

Behaviorist approach

observable behavior, mental or mind events are unimportant, classical conditioning, operant conditioning, learned habits

Cognitive Approach

Understand people’s behavior by understanding how they think, focuses on learning, memory, problem solving, decision making, language, and intelligence

Humanistic approach

focuses on the roles of consciousness, free will, awareness of the human condition. Personal values and goals and how they influence behavior, self actualization → full potential, accepting yourself, knowing your limits and strengths

Psychoanalytic/Psychodynamic approach

looks at the interactions between conscious mind, unconscious mind, early childhood experiences, relationships with parents, and unconscious conflicts

Sociocultural Approach

looks at how the environment influences out behavior and perceptions. Considers the roles and factors such as socioeconomic status, education, occupation, and demographics.

Evolutionary approach

looks through the ideas of Charles Darwin, and how behavior is influenced by how adaptive that behavior is to our survival / evolutionary response

Biopsychosocial approach

looks at how interaction of biological, psychological, and social factors influence behavior and mental processes

Domain

Broad area of psychological research