PSYCHOLOGY EXAM 1 STUDY GUIDEINTRODUCTION 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. Locke: Rejected Plato’s notion of inborn ideas, suggesting that the mind is a blank sheet on which experience writes. Descartes: “Father of Modern Philosophy”. Disagreed with Locke and believed that some ideas are innate. William Wundt: established first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany. 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 increasedreproduction 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 andmind. 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 timeOverlearn the materialCHILD DEVELOPMENT Nature vs. Nurture: the controversy over the relative contributions of biology and experience.o Nature: inborn, biological factorso 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 increasedreproduction and survival will most likely be passes on to succeeding generations) Family Studieso Children receive 50% of genes from each parento There are similarities among family members Twin Studieso All twins share the same environmento Identical twins share same DNAo With cognitive abilities and personality, identical twins are more similar Adoption Studieso Cognitive abilities: more like biological familyo 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, thatthe brain is 'plastic' and 'malleable' Zygote: the fertilized egg, enters a 2 weeks period of rapid cell division and develops into an embryo Embryo: the developing human organism from about 2 weeks after fertilization through the 2nd month 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 requiresa 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 Developmento Sensorimotor (0-2) Experiencing world through senses and actions – peek a boo and little
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