psychology exam 1 study guide

is the analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind

Wilhelm Wundt developed this perspective

• 1) believed that psychology should study consciousness-(mind)
• 2) believed that scientific laboratory was the best method to use to study the mind

3) borrowed from chemistry, in trying to break consciousness down into elemental sensations and feelings

4) used the method of introspection,which involved the research participants self reporting their own experience upon being presented with a stimulus (such as a color or sound)

5) the fundamental problem with his perspective is that the observations couldn't be replicated

the study of the what purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment

William James developed this prespective

1) he agreed with wundt, that psychology should be studying the consciousness-mind

2) he believed that it should be studied using the rational method - setting out to understand the functions of mental processes and what they served

3) he borrowed from biology, he used Darwin's principle of natural selection, and reasoned that mental abilities must have evolved because they were adaptive, and helped people solve problems and increased their chances of survival....

4) he reasoned that consciousness must serve an important biological function and that the task for psychologist was to understand what those functions are.

studied rats brain development with rats raised in different environments (different levels of stimulation) 

rats that had more stimulation had heavier brains, ( cerebral cortex)

studied whether the opposite hemisphere was able to respond to the stimulus being presented without the presence of the corpus callosum.

the belief that accurate knowledge can be acquired through observation 

the tendency to lay down principles as incontrovertibly true, without consideration of evidence or the opinions of others.

a hypothetical explanation of a nature phenomenon

"could be an act of god"

a falsifiable prediction made by a theory

a testable theory

the extent to which a measurement and a property are conceptually related

Causality

the tendency for a measure to produce the same measurement whenever it is used to measure the same thing

consistency

the ability of a measure to detect differences 

Accuracy

a description of a property in concrete, measurable terms

measurements of time, distance, etc. (60 seconds to a min, 12 inches to a foot)

these aspects of an observational setting that cause people to behave as they think they should

stanford prison experiment guards acting as they thought, they were expected to act