Ch 1 Psych

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the term psychology literally means....

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latin root words pysche-"soul" and logos-"mind"
therefore: the study of the mind or soul

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how doest kalat define psychology?

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the systematic study of behavior and experience

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what is determinism and how does it differ from free will?

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determinism is the assumption that everything that happens has a cause, or determinance, in the observable world
it is different from free will because free will is the belief that behavior is caused by a person's independent decisions

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what is the mind-brain problem and what is dualism (and monism)?

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the mind-brain problem is the philosophical questio of how experience relates to the brain
dualism is that the mind is separate from the brain but somehow controls the brain and therefore the rest of the body. this contradicts the law of conservation of matter and energy
monism is the view that concsious experience is inseperable from the physical brain. most all brain researchers and philosophers favor this view.

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what is the nature-nurture issue?

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the nature-nurture issue (or heredity-environment issue) is: how do differences in behavior relate to differences in heredity and environment?

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what are learning psychologists?

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they study how behavior depends on the outcomes of past behaviors and current motivations
ex. we learn what not to eat by associating it with feeling sick

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cognitive pyschologists

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they study the processes of thought and knowledge
ex. vegetarians and how they refuse meat based on the principle

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biopsychologists( or behavioral neuroscientists)

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try to explain behavior in terms of biological factors, such as electrical and chemical activities in the nevous system, the effects of drugs and hormones, genetivs, and evolutionary pressures
ex. salt cravings because of a faulty adrenal gland

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evolutionary psychologists

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try to explain behavior in terms of the evolutionary history of the species including reasons evolution might have favored a tendency to act in particular ways
ex. why people and animals favor foods that taste sweet and avoid bitter ones?

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social psychology

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how an individual influences other people and how the group influences an individual
ex. we eat more in a group

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cross-cultural psychology

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compares the behavior of people from different cultures
ex. eating different foods

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clinical psychology

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have an advanced degree in psychology, with a sepcialty in understanding and helping people with psychological problems
try to understand why a person is having problems and then help that person overcome them

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psychiatry

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branch of medicine that deals with emotional disturbances
can perscribe drugs

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psychoanalysts

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therapy proiders who rely heavily on the theories and methods pioneered by Freud

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clinical social worker

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similar to a clinical psychologist but with different training
has a master's degree rather than a PhD

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counseling psychologists

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help people with educational, vocational, marriage, health-related, and other descisions

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forensic psychologist

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provide advice and consultatios to police, lawyers, courts, or other parts of the criminal justice system

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Wundt and introspection

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Wilhem Wundt- 1897, set up the first psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany
fundamental question was "what are teh components of experience, or mind?"
believed that experience is composed of elements or compounds (ie lights, textures, sounds)
introspect- look within oneself
asked people to introspect and report the intensity and quality of sensations when exposed to various kinds of lights etc.

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Edward Titchener and structuralism

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student of Wundt
asked people to analyze a stimulus into its separate features (ie a lemon- shape, yellowness)
structuralism is an attempt to describe the structures that compose the mind
problem is that it is too hard to test

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William James and functionalism

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focused on what the mind does rather than what it is
fuctionalism is learning how people produce useful behaviors

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studying sensation because...

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they wanted to understand mental experience and experience consists of sensations and
sensations are easily testable

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psychophysical function

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mathematical description of the relationship between the physical properties of a stimulus and its percieved properties
ex. pendulum experiment

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comparative pyschologists

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specialists who compare different animal species

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behaviorism

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John B. Watson
behaviorism- a feild of psychology that concentrates on observable, measurable behaviors and not on mental processes
studies of learning, for example, a rat in a maze
lost popularity because behaviors that seem simple can be incredibly complex