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7 Cards in this Set
- Front
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What is the definition of psychology, and what are three further characteristics? |
The study of behaviour and the mind. (The scientific approach to human self contemplation) 1. Psychology is a set of questions, with each subfield of psychology probing a different set of questions. 2. Psychology is a set of theoretical perspectives and procedures for asking those questions. It's the way how those questions are being asked. 3. Psychology is a product of history, building on what has been done before. |
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How was Descartes’ dualism different to the traditional and 'religious' dualism? |
Descartes (1596-1650) focused on the body, not so much on the mind. To him the body was an intricate machine that could function without the soul. Previous thinkers ascribed many functions to the soul, Descartes gave it just one function: thought. |
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How did Descartes dualism pave the way for psychology? |
He thought the soul acted on the brain. It was living in the pineal gland. He then theorized that ‘threads’ connect the soul to the body. Norway’s we would call this threads ‘nerves’.
In his view, the 'soul' was more connected to the body than was the case before.
'it is a popular theory among nonscientists even today, because it acknowledges the roles of sense organs, nerves, and muscles in behavior without violating people's religious beliefs or intuitive feelings that conscious thought occurs on a nonphysical plane.'
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How did Hobbes's materialism and the subsequent development of empiricism help lay the groundwork for psychology? |
Hobbes believes there was no soul, and all was matter and energy (materialism). The empiricists view says that all thought is a result of your experiences in the physical world, meaning: thoughts obey natural law and can be studied scientifically. |
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How did the 19th century conception of the nervous system inspire a theory of behaviour called reflexology? |
Physiologists understood how simple reflexes worked and knew how the nervous system facilitated these reflexes. Some people took it further and said that ALL human behaviour was a reflex. |
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How did discoveries of localization of function in the brain help establish the idea that the the mind could be studied scientifically? |
This is the idea that specific parts of the brain control specific mental experiences or behaviour (for instance: Broca and his patient with damage to the left frontal lobe and subsequent loss of speech). It showed there was a material basis for mental processes, and thus could be studied scientifically. |
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How did Darwin’s natural selection offer a scientific basis for functional explanations of behaviour? |
Darwin examined each part of a plant or animal for the function it served in its survival. The same principle that applies to anatomy, also applies to behaviour. Rather than focussing on the mechanism of behaviour (as physiologists were doing), Darwin was concerned with the function of behaviour - how is it helping us to survive and reproduce? |
