Introduction to Psychology and Personality Development

Vocabulary flashcards covering prescientific and scientific history, core goals, historical figures, contemporary perspectives, and Freud's personality structures and psychosexual stages from the lecture transcript.

Psychology

The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

Behavior

Outward actions performed by an individual.

Mental Processes

Internal experiences, thoughts, feelings, and mental activity.

Goals of Psychology

The four main objectives of psychological study: describe behavior, explain behavior, predict behavior, and change behavior.

Basic Psychology

The study of psychological issues for the sake of gaining knowledge.

Applied Psychology

The branch of psychology dedicated to finding solutions to practical problems.

Rene Descartes

Prescientific thinker who proposed that nerve pathways function like hydraulic pumping systems.

Sir Isaac Newton

Prescientific thinker who suggested that nerves transmit vibrations from the senses to the brain.

Wilhelm Wundt

The founder or father of psychology who studied reaction time and believed the mind could be studied through objective introspection.

Structuralism

An early school of psychology focused on the study of sensations and personal experiences by breaking them down into basic mental elements.

Edward Titchener

Psychologist who focused on self-reflective introspection, such as studying emotions and sensations to determine what the mind is made of.

Functionalism

A school of psychology focusing on what mental functions do in real life and how thoughts, feelings, and behaviors help humans adapt.

William James

Functionalist influenced by Charles Darwin's concept of survival of the fittest, who explored how the mind allows people to function in the real world.

Mary Calkins

Researcher in memory and consciousness who became the first female president of the APA in $1905$.

Margaret Washburn

The first woman to receive a PhD in psychology, awarded in $1894$ at Cornell University.

Gestalt Psychology

A perspective focused on perception and organization, founded on the principle that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

Psychodynamic Approach

A contemporary psychological perspective focused on understanding how unconscious forces from childhood shape personality.

Id

The component of personality driven by the pleasure principle, seeking immediate gratification of basic drives and urges.

Ego

The mediator of personality that operates on the reality principle and develops from the id to balance desires with reality.

Superego

The voice of conscience that provides a conscious sense of right or wrong, moral regulation involving guilt, and an ideal standard.

Oral Stage

Freud's psychosexual stage from ages $0$ to $1$ (or birth to $2\text{ years}$), centered on pleasure from oral stimulation like tasting and sucking, where fixation leads to dependency, aggression, smoking, or eating issues.

Anal Stage

Freud's psychosexual stage from ages $1$ to $2$ ($15\text{ months}$ to $3\text{ years}$), focused on toilet training and bowel/bladder control; fixation causes anal-expulsive (messy, destructive) or anal-retentive (orderly, rigid) traits.

Phallic Stage

Freud's psychosexual stage from ages $2$ to $5$ ($3$ to $6\text{ years}$), focused on genitals, gender differences, the Oedipus complex, and penis envy; fixation can cause sexual deviancies or confused sexual identity.

Latency Stage

Freud's psychosexual stage from ages $5$ to $12$ ($6\text{ years}$ to puberty), where sexual desires are dormant and focus shifts to intellectual pursuits, social skills, and self-confidence.

Genital Stage

Freud's psychosexual stage starting at age $12+$ (puberty through adulthood), marked by renewed sexual desires and the ability to relate to the opposite sex and seek relationships.