Hominid Evolution and Psychological History

A collection of 130 flashcards covering hominid evolution, the history of mental health treatment, and major schools of psychological thought including Behaviourism, Cognitive Psychology, and Gestalt Principles.

Selective Pressures (Savannah)

Environmental factors requiring scavenging, fire use, and base camps, favoring those with learning, social, and communication skills.

Bipedalism

The adaptation of walking on two limbs, appearing approximately $6\text{mya}$, which led to anatomical changes enabling speech.

Ardipithecus ramidus

An early hominid species from $4.4\text{mya}$ with a brain size of approximately $20\text{\%}$ relative to modern humans.

Australopithecus afarensis

A hominid species from $3.4\text{mya}$ with a brain size of approximately $35\text{\%}$ relative to modern humans.

Homo habilis

Existing $2.4-1.4\text{mya}$, this hominid had $50\text{\%}$ brain size and is associated with the first stone tools.

Homo erectus

Existing $1.89\text{mya}$, this hominid had $60-70\text{\%}$ brain size and utilized fire and base camps.

Neanderthals

Hominids existing $400,000-40,000\text{ya}$ who possessed larger brains than previous ancestors.

Savage-Rumbaugh (1990s)

Researcher who demonstrated language precursors by teaching chimpanzees sign language.

Innate Language Theory

Chomsky's (1950s-60s) proposal that humans possess innate mechanisms and a universal grammar for language.

Stone chopping tools

The earliest stone tools in the archaeological record, dating back to $2.5\text{mya}$.

Hand axes

More complex stone tools that appeared in the hominid timeline approximately $1.2\text{mya}$.

Standardized hand axe

A refined version of stone tool technology that appeared approximately $700,000\text{ya}$.

Cultural Evolution

The ability to adapt using a genetically evolved capacity for learning, allowing both vertical and horizontal transmission.

Genetic Evolution

Transmission of traits only vertically from parent to offspring via biological inheritance.

Philippe Pinel (1745-1826)

French reformer who removed restraints from asylum patients and introduced moral treatment and behavior management.

Moral Treatment

An approach treating mental patients with respect, conversation, and routine rather than physical restraint.

William Tuke (1732-1822)

Founder of the York Retreat, which provided a peaceful farm-like environment and meaningful work for the mentally ill.

Benjamin Rush (1745-1813)

The father of modern psychiatry who promoted the medical model involving bloodletting and the tranquilliser chair.

Thomas Kirkbride (1809-1883)

An advocate who believed hospital building design, including light and fresh air, could improve mental health.

Dorothea Dix (1802-1887)

Social reformer who documented asylum abuse and led to the creation of dozens of state mental hospitals.

Clifford Beers (1876-1943)

Former patient who wrote "A Mind That Found Itself" (1908) and founded the National Committee for Mental Hygiene.

Emil Kraepelin (1856-1926)

German psychiatrist who developed a classification system including manic-depressive psychosis and dementia praecox.

Dementia Praecox

The term used in Kraepelin's 6th edition to describe the condition now known as schizophrenia.

Manic-depressive psychosis

The term used in Kraepelin's 6th edition to describe the condition now known as bipolar disorder.

Lobotomy

A surgical procedure involving the severing of connections between the frontal lobes and lower brain areas.

Rosenhan Study (1973)

An experiment where healthy volunteers were admitted to mental hospitals after fining auditory hallucinations.

Oedipal complex

A concept Freud developed after rejecting his seduction hypothesis, concluding childhood abuse was often imagined.

Josef Breuer

A physician who worked with Freud on the case of Anna O and the study of hysteria.

Anna O

A famous patient case that formed the basis of psychoanalysis through the "talking cure" and catharsis.

Catharsis

The release of emotion achieved by talking through traumatic memories.

Transference

A phenomenon in psychoanalysis where patients project feelings from past relationships onto the therapist.

Witmer's Psychological Clinic

Established in $1896$, it was the first clinic focused on solving real-life problems like school performance.

Army Alpha & Beta tests

Yerkes' (1917) mass testing program for soldiers that promoted the large-scale testing of mental abilities.

AAAP

The Association of Applied Psychologists, created by practitioners before the APA reorganized in $1943$.

Boulder Model (1949)

The scientist-practitioner model of training clinical psychologists as experts in diagnosis, therapy, and research.

Eysenck Study (1952)

A meta-analysis that challenged the effectiveness of psychotherapy, claiming it resulted in low recovery rates.

Mary Cover Jones (1924)

A pioneer in behavior therapy who used direct conditioning to remove fears in children like "Little Peter."

Systematic Desensitisation

Wolpe's (1958) technique where a fear response is weakened using a hierarchy of anxious situations and relaxation.

Progressive Relaxation

Jacobson's (1929) method used in behavior therapy where patients relax while imagining anxious scenarios.

Torres Strait Expedition (1898)

A study by Haddon and Seligman aimed at distinguishing universal psychological traits from cultural ones.

Seligman Error

The rejection by Western scientists of findings that mental illness is culturally shaped rather than universal.

Western-centric Psychology

The critique that psychology imposes Western epistemologies and marginalizes non-Western knowledge systems.

Thomas Kuhn (1964)

Philosopher who argued that science is shaped by cultural, historical, and social paradigms rather than developing independently.

Indigenous Psychologies

Psychological systems born out of specific cultures to match the beliefs and values of those communities.

Decolonising Therapy

Approaches promoted by Dr Thema Bryant and others that incorporate African traditions and spirituality.

Islamic Psychology

A historical paradigm for understanding the self and mental illness developed by scholars like Al-Kindi and Al-Balkhi.

Ilaj-un-Nafs

The historical term for clinical psychology practiced within Islamic medical traditions by the $15\text{th}$ century.

Ihsaan therapy network

A UK charitable organization providing psychological therapies based on an Islamic model of the self.

Cultural Dissonance

The inner conflict non-Western students face between psychology curricula and their own cultural or religious beliefs.

Wissenschaft and Bildung

German educational philosophies emphasizing academic freedom and research-based degrees in the $19\text{th}$ century.

Psychophysics

The study of the relationship between physical stimuli and the psychological experience they produce.

Weber's Law

The principle that the just noticeable difference (JND) is proportional to the size of the original stimulus.

Weber's Constant ($K$)

The ratio used in psychophysics; for weight detection, it is approximately $1/10$ or $10\text{\%}$. Greatly varied by sense.

Gustav Fechner (1860)

Author of "Elements of Psychophysics" who established methods for determining sensory thresholds.

Method of Limits

A psychophysical method where the experimenter controls the presentation of stimuli to find thresholds.

Method of Constant Stimuli

A psychophysical method often used in hearing aid calibration to determine detection thresholds.

Method of Adjustment

A psychophysical method where the participant personally controls the stimulus level.

Absolute Threshold

The lowest detectable level of a physical stimulus.

Difference Threshold

The smallest noticeable difference between two stimuli, also known as the JND.

Principles of Physiological Psychology (1873-1874)

Wundt's seminal text that laid the vision for psychology as an experimental science.

Wilhelm Wundt (1879)

The founder of the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig.

Immediate Conscious Experience

Wundt's primary research area in the lab, studied through precise experimental control and trained self-report.

Mental Chronometry

The measurement of the time required for mental processes through reaction time experiments.

Donders' Subtraction Method

A technique to calculate times for mental steps by subtracting the time of simpler tasks from more complex ones.

Assumption of Additivity

The oversimplified belief that mental processes occur in sequential stages that simply add up in time.

Voluntarism

The conception of the mind as an active agent, associated with the "new view" of Wundt's work.

Völkerpsychologie

Wundt's ten-volume work focused on the study of culture, language, and social behavior outside the lab.

Hermann Ebbinghaus

Researcher who conducted the first experimental investigations of memory using nonsense syllables.

Distributed Practice

The finding by Ebbinghaus that spreading out study sessions is more effective than cramming.

G.E. Müller

Researcher at Göttingen who invented the memory drum and distinguished between active and passive processing.

Jost's Law

The principle stating that if two memories are of equal strength, the older one will decay more slowly.

Retroactive Inhibition

The phenomenon where new learning interferes with the ability to retrieve previously learned material.

Cognition

Mental processes including perception, memory, and thinking that involve taking in, transforming, and using information.

Stroop Effect

A phenomenon where automatic reading interferes with the task of naming the ink color of a word.

Jenkins and Dallenbach (1924)

Researchers who found that sleep protects memories from interference and aids consolidation.

Sensorimotor Stage ($0-2$)

Piaget's first stage of development, where children explore the world through senses and motor contact.

Preoperational Stage ($2-7$)

Piaget's stage characterized by the use of symbols and images without logical reasoning.

Concrete Operational Stage ($7-11$)

Piaget's stage where children begin to think logically and learn rules like conservation.

Formal Operational Stage ($11+$)

Piaget's final stage involving abstract reasoning and the ability to think about hypothetical situations.

Frederick Bartlett

Psychologist who argued that memories are not reproduced but actively constructed and organized into schemata.

Schemata

Mental organizations of past experiences that influence how we perceive and remember new information.

The War of the Ghosts (1932)

Bartlett's study showing how participants altered a Native American folktale to fit their own cultural schemata.

Serial Order Problem (1948)

Lashley's argument that complex behavior sequences like speech are pre-planned systems, not simple S-R chains.

Computer Metaphor

The influential 1940s idea that the brain functions like a computer through a sequence of Input, Internal Process, and Output.

Atkinson-Shiffrin Model

A two-stage model of memory processing representing information flow from input to output.

Language Acquisition Device

Chomsky's proposed innate human mechanism that allows children to learn complex grammar spontaneously.

Deep Structure

The underlying meaning of a sentence in Chomsky's grammatical rule system.

Surface Structure

The spoken or written form of a sentence in Chomsky's grammatical rule system.

Nim Chimpsky

The subject of a language study intended to challenge Chomsky's claim that grammar is uniquely human.

The Magic Number Seven

George Miller's bit of research suggesting immediate memory capacity is approximately $7 \times \text{bits}$ ($5-9$ items).

Chunks

The process of recoding information into meaningful units to expand the capacity of immediate memory.

Dichotic Listening Task

Broadbent's experimental method of playing different messages into each ear to study selective attention.

Selective Filter Model

Broadbent's model suggesting unattended information is blocked early in a sensory buffer.

Ulric Neisser (1967)

Author who established cognitive psychology as a valid scientific field focused on mental processes.

Ecological Validity

Neisser's goal of ensuring psychological research reflects real-world tasks and environments.

Explanatory Fictions

B.F. Skinner's term for hypothetical mental concepts like "mind" or "intent" that he rejected.

Structuralism

The school of psychology aiming to analyze the structure of human consciousness through systematic introspection.

Functionalism

A school of psychology focused on the purpose and application of mental processes and how they aid adaptation.

Positivism

Comte's philosophical view that certainty is only found in knowledge gathered through objective observation.

Thorndike's Puzzle Box

An experimental setup that demonstrated trial-and-error learning and stimulus-response connections in cats.