Escolar Documentos
Profissional Documentos
Cultura Documentos
blank slate
France: - Rene Descartes believed dualism - mental activity coordinated w/ physical behavior; mind + body separate Commented [2]: if they're 2 different substances, then
- suggests body = material is physical container of the soul = spiritual; fx thru pineal gland how do they interact? (not possible)
- Thomas Hobbes believed mind = what brain does; mind + body together
- Franz Joseph Gall believed phrenology - specific mental abilities + characteristics localized in specific brain
regions (so controlled by size, instead of by gland) = FALSE
- thought bumps/indents on skull → reflect region’s size → can conclude level of brain fx
Germany: - Hermann von Helmholtz tested for speed of nerve impulse on frog’s leg then human toe
- applied stimulus - sensory input from envt → recorded reaction time - time to react to
specific stimulus
- compared diff toe + thigh reaction → mental processes don’t occur instantaneously
- 1st to use reaction to study psych & physiology - study of human biological processes
- Wilhelm Wundt → taught 1st psych course; opened 1st psych lab
- focused on consciousness - subjective experience of the world + the mind
- founded structuralism - analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind (structure)
- includes introspection - subjective observation of one’s own experience Commented [3]: different interpretations, no replicable
observation, so method faded
U.S: - Edward Titchener → Wundt’s student; focused on mind’s basic elements instead of just relationship btwn
those elements of consciousness; brought structuralism to U.S.
- William James → founded functionalism - study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to
adapt to their environment (fx); dominant 1920s
- influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory: natural selection - organism’s feat. that help it survive + Commented [4]: suggests mental abilities must evolve
to adapt + solve new problems, so can increase
reproduce are more likely to be passed onto future generations than other feat. chance of survival.
- G. Stanley Hall → set up 1st American psych lab, journal, + professional org (APA); studied development + edu
from evolutionary perspective
- believed mental capacities repeat evolutionary history → ppl now develop same way as ancestors
- John Garcia found rats associate nausea w/ food instead of light (1981) → in rat’s + its ancestors’
learning history
- Sociobiology by E.O. Wilson → presented evolutionary thinking as important role in psych Commented [10]: suggests brain can't easily learn
everything but has been adapted to learn certain basic
skills easily while other specialized ones are harder
BEYOND THE INDIVIDUAL: SOCIAL + CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
- Social psychology - study of causes + consequences of sociality
- Norman Triplett observed bikers perform diff when with others → others’ presence influence performance
- rise of Nazi (1930s) → German refugees like Asch + Kurt Lewin → conduct expt to test social theories
- Lewin → field theory - internal (personality, beliefs) + external (culture) forces = social behavior (1936)
- Solomon Asch found ppl combined small info about 1 person to make a full impression of personality (1946)
- Asch expt → 3 ppl + 3 lines → conformity Commented [11]: the processes that help us
categorize elements is the same as those erroneously
- during Holocaust, problems of conformity + obedience influencing others to behavior irrationally rose to attention categorizing entire groups
- Gordon Allport studied stereotyping, prejudice, + racism Commented [12]: culture = shared values, traditions, +
- suggested prejudice = inevitable error in perception (1954) beliefs among a group of ppl
1. Race/ethnicity
- The Emergence of Cultural Psychology 2. age (youth culture)
3. sexual orientation (gay culture)
- Cultural psychology - study of how cultures reflect + shape the psych processes of ppl (1980s/90s) 4. religion (Buddhist culture)
5. occupation (academic culture)
- try to understand which phenomena are universal, which vary by time or area
- Margaret Mead + Gregory Bateson traveled the world + discovered practices that would be shocking
+ bizarre to us but are normally done by the indigenous ppl (1965)
- Absolutism - culture makes little/no difference on human behavior phenomena Commented [13]: now psych phenomena can be
- Relativism - psych phenomena vary across culture so should only be studied based on cultural context categorized under both bc some are 1. completely
determined by culture
- most universal phenomena are closely associated w/ human bio, while least is associated with social practices/cultures 2. somewhat affected by it
3. completely unaffected
- Social + cultural psychology expand discipline by examining not just individuals but groups of ppl + their interactions
Cognitive dissonance - the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes to behavior + attitude change
- Festinger + Carlsmith → $1 and $5 expt