Philosophical roots of Psychology I

Definition of psychology

study of the mind and mental processes

What are the different approaches to psychology?

Social - cultural, interpersonal — norms beliefs values, groups relationships influence

Individual — differences, perception and cognition, behaviour

Biological — brain systems, neurochemical, genetic

What is the problem of demarcation in understanding what is good and bad science

There is not a dividing line (demarcation) between what is good and bad research/science and what makes something scientific vs unscientific e.g. doctors vs magicians

What are the processes of scientific method

fact - based on direct observation, theory - an idea as to explain these facts, hypothesis -- predicitions of unknown based on known info, test - how do we test in a methodologically sound way

What is subliminal perception?

Hidden persuaders that aren’t obvious but influence behaviour/reactions, used commonly in advertising, e.g. ice cube sex

What was Karl Popper’s idea?

That you can only prove something is false rather than true — experiments need to be open to having falsifiability — there is therefore an obvious demarcation to science vs non-science

What was Thomas Kuhn’s ideas?

There is no obvious science/non-science demarcation, there are paradigm shift not just in theory but world views, this is hard to change and only are changed as anomalies show up that are hard to explain by current paradigm

What was Kuhn’s revolution?

A new paradigm emerges, from old theory — well established, many followers, politically powerful, well understood and many anomalies to new theory — few followers, untested, new concepts/techniques, accounts for anomalies, asks new questions

Are freud’s theories scientific?

According to popper no, they are pseudoscience as it is not testable

What was Molyneux’s Problem?

Asked john locke if a blind man could distringuish the feel of a sphere and cube, would he be able to recognise the difference with sight?

What are mental representations?

Objects and structures of the mind with meaningful properties (in correlation to meansings)

What is tabula rasa?

A blank state — the idea that we are born with a blank state and we gain knowledge through perception

What is a nativist approach to how we learn

Nature’ — have inborn properties not that dependent on experience to acquire knowledge

What is the empiricist approach to how we learn

Nurture — we are dependent on experience when acquiring knowledge

What is rationalism in this debate?

(a mix) see’s a role for reasoning as a source to gain knowledge with parts being innate