PSYCHOLOGY EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDE INTRODUCTION Aristotle Greek naturalist and philosopher who theorized about learning and memory motivation and emotion perception and personality Plato Greek philosopher who assumes that character and intelligence are largely inherited and certain ideas are inborn which experience writes ideas are innate Germany Locke Rejected Plato s notion of inborn ideas suggesting that the mind is a blank sheet on Descartes Father of Modern Philosophy Disagreed with Locke and believed that some William Wundt established first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig Structuralism an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind Functionalism a school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function how they enable us to adapt survive and flourish Natural Selection created by Darwin Says nature selects the traits that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment those that lead to increased reproduction and survival will most likely be passes on to succeeding generations Psychology the science of behavior and mental processes Biopsychology biological neurological processes They explore links between the brain and mind Clinical Counseling Psychology treat emotion and behavioral problems Help people cope with challenges and crises provide therapy counseling Cognitive Psychology experiment with how we perceive think and solve problems Developmental Psychology Physical emotional social change across lifespan Industrial Organizational Psychology work behavior productivity satisfaction Leadership how we evaluate people s performance Social Psychology exploring how we view and affect one another interactions with others Psychiatry branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders Basic research pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base Applied approach scientific study that aims to solve practical problems Physical Relationships to predict a result we need to know input and physical environment example chem Class Psychological Relationships to predict a result behavior we also need to understand the mental environment example funnier to tell jokes in different places Seinfeld Case funny In public woman sues Mental Environment Examples knowledge personality skills attitudes goals abilities perception beliefs and motivation They are NOT directly observable We infer what s in the mental environment by testing what inputs generate what behaviors under what conditions Empiricism Actively process information Distribute your study time Overlearn the material CHILD DEVELOPMENT Nature vs Nurture the controversy over the relative contributions of biology and experience o Nature inborn biological factors o Nurture experimental environmental factors Natural Selection created by Darwin Says nature selects the traits that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment those that lead to increased reproduction and survival will most likely be passes on to succeeding generations Family Studies o Children receive 50 of genes from each parent o There are similarities among family members Twin Studies o All twins share the same environment o Identical twins share same DNA o With cognitive abilities and personality identical twins are more similar Adoption Studies o Cognitive abilities more like biological family o Psychological disorders same prenatal environment o Genes play a large role in personality cognitive abilities and psychological disorders Temperament a person s characteristic emotional reactivity and intensity Heritability the proportion of variation among individuals that we can attribute to genes It describes the extent to which variation among members of a group can be attributed to genes Evolutionary psychology the study of evolution of behavior and the mind using principles of natural selection Gender role a set of expected behaviors for males and females Gender identity our sense of being male or female Social Learning Theory the theory that we learn social behavior nu observing and imitating and by being rewarded or punished Gender Schema Theory schema concepts that help you make sense of the world for your own gender Your gender schema then becomes a lens through which you viewed your experiences Social learning shapes gender schemas Brain Plasticity the ability of the human brain to change as a result of one s experience that the brain is plastic and malleable Zygote the fertilized egg enters a 2 weeks period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo 2nd month Embryo the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the Fetus the developing human organism from 9 weeks after conception of birth Teratogens agents such as chemicals and viruses that can read the embryo or fetus during prenatal development and cause harm Inborn rooting reflexes reflexes by which baby gets food When something touches their cheek babies turn toward touch and root for a nipple When found they suck which requires a sequences of reflexive tonguing swallowing breathing Habituation a decrease in responding with repeated stimulation Maturation biological growth process that enable orderly changes in behavior Activity schemas concepts or mental molds into which we pour our experiences Assimilation interpreting our new experience in terms of our existing schemas Comparing something new to something we already know Accommodation Adapting out current understandings schemas to incorporate new information To modify add schemas to make sense of new info Piaget and Theory developmental psychologist who believed a child s mind develops through a series of stages His core idea is that the driving force behind our intellectual progression is an unceasing struggle to make sense of our experiences Piaget s Four Stages of Development o Sensorimotor o Preoperational o Concrete Operational o Formal Operational 0 2 Experiencing world through senses and actions peek a boo and little experiments and out of site out of mind Object permanence and stranger anxiety 2 6 Representing things with words and images intuitive not logic Pretend play and egocentrism 7 11 Thinking logically about concrete event analogies and math transformations 12 adult Abstract reasoning Potential for mature and moral reasoning abstract logic Seriation the ability to sort objects or situations according to any
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