PSYC 4600 1st Edition Exam 1 Study Guide Chapters 1 3 Ch 1 Terms to Know Zeitgeist intellectual and cultural climate or spirit of the times Behaviorism watson science of behavior which dealt solely with observable behavioral acts that could be described in objective terms Functionalism concerned with the mind as it is used in an organisms adaption to its environment Gestalt psychology focuses largely on learning and perception suggesting that combining sensory elements produces new patterns with properties that did not exist in the individual elements Historiography the principles methods and philosophical issues of historical research Humanistic psychology emphasizes the study of conscious experience and the wholeness of human nature Naturalistic Theory the view that progress and change in scientific history are attributable to the zeitgiest which makes a culture receptive to some ideas but not to others Personalistic Theory the view that progress and change in scientific theory are attributable to the ideas of unique individuals Structuralism titcherners system of psychology which dealt with conscious experience as dependant on experiencing persons Association the notion that knowledge results from linking or associating simple ideas to form complex ideas Creative synthesis the notion that complex ideas formed from simple ideas take on new qualities the combination of the mental elements creates something greater than or different from the sum of the original elements Derived and innate ideas derived produced by the direct application of an external stimulus innate arise from the mind or conciousness independent of sensory experiences or external stimuli Ch 2 Determinism the doctrine that acts are determined by past events Empiricism the pursuit of knowledge through observation of nature and the attrubution of all knowledge to experience Materialism the doctrine that considers the facts of the universe to be sufficiently explained in physical terms by the existence and nature of matter Mechanism the doctrine that natural processes are mechanically determined and capable of explanation by the laws of physics and chemistry Mentalism the doctrine that all knowledge is a function of mental phenomena and dependent on the perceiving or experiencing person Mind body problem t he question of the didstinction between mental and physical qualities Positivism doctrine that recognizes only natural phenomena or facts that are objectively observable Primary Secondary Qualities primary qualities are characteristics such as size and shaspe that exist in an object whether or not we perceive them secondary qualities are characteristics like color and oder that exist in our perception of the object Reductionism doctrine that explains phenomena on one level such as complex ideas in terms of phenomena on another level such as simple ideas Repetition notion that the more frequently two ideas occur together the more readily they will be associated Simple and complex ideas simple ideas are elemental ideas that arise from sensation and reflection complex ideas are derived ideas that are compounded of simple ideas and thus an be analyzed or reduced to their simpler or reduced to their simpler components Clinical method posthumous examination of brain structures to detect damaged areas assumed to be responsible for behavioral conditions that existed before the person died Absolute threshold the point of sensitivity below which no sensations can be detected and above which sensations can be experienced Differential threshold the point of sensitivity at which the least amount of change in a stimulus gives rise to a change in sensation Electrical stimulation a technique for exploring the cerebral cortex with weak electric current to observe motor responses Just noticeable difference the smallest difference that can be detected between two physical stimuli Extirpation technique for determining the funtion of a given part of an animal s brain by removing or destroying it and observing the resulting behavior changes Two point threshold threshold at which 2 points of stimulation can be distinguished as such Psychophysics scientific study of the relations between mental and physical processes Ch 3 Until the work of Muller experimentation was not the preferred method in physiology In his research Flourens localized specific functions to 4 brain areas Gall produced the theory of cranioscopy Gavani was credited with the finding or conclusion that nerve impulses are electrical within the neuron Helmholtz devised the theory of color vision as well as conducted research on audition Weber developed both the two point threshold and the concept of the just noticeable difference Fechner s Law as one variable increases arithmetically the other variable increases geometerically