PSYCHOLOGY: THE SCIENCE OF BEHAVIOUR The Nature of Psychology 1.
Define psychology and indicate what kinds of behaviours it studies. b. Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour and the factors that influence it. c. Behaviour included the actions that we can observe directly and to inner processes –mental events- such as thoughts, feelings, images and physiological reactions. 2. How
do the goals of basic research and applied research differ? b. Applied research is designed to solve specific practical problems. 3.
How do the Robbers Cave experiment and the jigsaw classroom program
illustrate the relation between basic and applied science? b. The jigsaw program required children to cooperate with each other as each child held a unique piece of information required to enable the group to succeed. They had become dependent on each other. The feeling of being appreciated was thus created. A practical problem was solved. (Applied research) 4.
What are the four goals of psychology? How are these goals linked
to one another? If
we understand the causes of behaviour and know when the causal factors
are present or absent, then we should be able to successfully predict
when the behaviour will occur. 5.
How were the four goals of scientific psychology illustrated in the
Robbers Cave study? c. They had enough understanding that they could predict how the groups would behave after the ‘conflict’ elements were introduced, and how the introduction of the jigsaw experiment would/should alleviate this conflict. d. By introducing the jigsaw experiment, control was exerted over the group and mutual appreciation was created, thus reducing/eliminating the hostilities. 6.
At what three levels of analysis were possible causes for Charles
Whitman’s violent outburst explored? b. Psychological; A study of his past showed that he had a fascination and a rewarding experience with guns, as well as exposure to a brutally abusive father who often beat his mother and siblings. c. Environmentally; His letter described the stresses he was under and the fear that his violent thoughts would be converted to action. His exposure to guns and the accompanying feeling created an environment were the use of guns could be viewed as a tool to reduce these violent feelings. 7. What are perspectives on behaviour? Cite four ways in which they can influence psychological science. Perspectives are diverse viewpoints or vantage points for analyzing behaviour and its biological, psychological and environmental causes. a.
Biological (Of, relating to, caused by, or affecting life or living
organisms) 8.
Contrast the positions of dualism and monism as they apply to the ‘mind-body’ problem. 9.
What three classes of causal factors does the biological perspective
focus on? a.
Brain 10.
What were the importance of Galvani’s discovery for (a) the
body-mind puzzle, and (b) the development of psychology as a science? b.
Experiments on electrical nerve conduction followed and the brain was ‘mapped’ in
animal studies e.g. electrical impulses on specific areas of the exposed
brain resulted in specific reactions. 11.
What subsequent technical developments were important in the study
of brain-behaviour relations? b. The electron microscope which is a device that uses electrons instead of light to form images of very small objects, such as individual parts of small living things. c. Computer-based imaging techniques which allow observing electrochemical activities that are the bases for thought, emotion, and behaviour. 12.
What is meant by natural selection? What is its role in physical
and behavioural evolution? b. Evolutionary psychology is the study of the psychological adaptations of humans to the changing physical and social environment, especially of changes in brain structure, cognitive mechanisms, and behavioral differences among individuals. c. Behavioural evolution is a type of behaviour that is used to adapt to another type of behaviour or situation. This is often characterized by a kind of behaviour that allows an individual to substitute an unconstructive or disruptive behaviour to something more constructive. These behaviours are most often social or personal behaviours. 13. According to evolutionary psychology, how do biological and behavioural evolutions influence one another? a.
Biological evolution is the process which responded to and enables
living organisms to adapt, both biological and behaviorally, to a changing
and often hostile environment. 14. According to sociobiology, what is the ultimate importance of evolved social behaviours? On what bases has this position been criticized by other theorists? a. Natural selection favours behaviour that increases the ability to pass on one’s genes to the next generation e.g. aggression, competition, and dominance in males and nurturing and cooperative tendencies in females. b. Critiques of sociobiology argued that cultural and social learning factors were ignored or minimized greatly and that innate biological factors are emphasized too much. 15. What methods do behaviour geneticists use to investigate the role of genetic factors in animal and human behaviour? a. Behaviour genetics is the study of how behavioural tendencies are influenced by genetic factors. b.
Animals can be bred selectively not only for physical traits, but
also for behavioural traits such as aggression or intelligence. 16. What is the conception of human nature advanced by the cognitive perspective? a. Cognitive perspective views humans as information processors and problem solvers whose actions are governed by thought and planning. b. The cognitive perspective causes us to ask how mental processes influence our motives, emotions, and behaviour. 17. Compare the goals of structuralism and functionalism. a. Structuralists like Wilhelm Wundt wanted to model the study of the mind after the learning model employed by the physical and biological sciences e.g. analyzing the mind on terms of its basic element. (the whats) b. Functionalism replaced structuralism by advocating that the functions -or whys- of consciousness should be studied. c. Psychology based on the assumption that all mental process are useful to an organism in adapting to the environment. 18. What does Gestalt mean? How does this meaning relate to the goals and finding of Gestalt psychology? a.
Gestalt = German for form but also interpreted as ‘whole ‘or
organization. b. Perceptions and other mental processes are organized so that the whole is not only grater than, but also quite different from the sum of its parts. (We don’t concentrate on a single note (tone) of music at the time but rather hear the sum of its parts. (music) c. Inside learning in as much as certain functions, movements, actions lead to new found information which is translated into new actions leading to problem solving and intelligence. 19. What were the methods used and conclusions reached by Piaget in his studies of cognitive development? a. Jean Piaget studied how children think, reason, and solve problems. He developed the theory of cognitive development. b. Primary technique was to carefully observe children as they tried to solve problems. He then tried to imagine how they must have experienced the situation in order to respond as they did. c. Piaget concluded that new and specific stages of cognitive development unfold naturally as children mature, and that these abilities cannot be explained by the accumulation of past experiences. 20. How have Beck and Ellis advanced our understanding of emotional problems? a. Distress and maladaptive (not adapting to the expected) behaviour are caused not by external situations, but by the ways we think about those situations, and by developing ways of helping people to change self-defeating thought habits. 21. What is studied in the cognitive science areas of artificial intelligence and cognitive neuroscience? a. Artificial intelligence is the ability of a computer or other machine to perform those activities that are normally thought to require intelligence. b. In cognitive neuroscience sophisticated electrical recording and brain-imaging techniques are used to ‘listen in’ on the brain as people engage in mental activities. 22. What do social constructivists say about the nature of “reality”? a. What we consider reality is in large part our own mental creation. b. Shared reality is what society; groups, etc believe is to be true. If not shared then although the situation may be exactly the same, the perceived ‘reality’ of the individuals may differ greatly. 23. What casual factors are the focuses of the psychodynamic perspective? a.
Psychodynamic perspectives are the interaction of various conscious
and unconscious mental or emotional processes, especially as they
influence personality, behavior, and attitudes. b. The psychodynamic perspective searches for the causes of behaviour within the workings of our personality, emphasizing the role of unconscious processes and unresolved conflicts from the past. 24. What observations convinced Freud of the importance of unconscious and childhood determinants of adult behaviour? a. Freud claimed that we have inborn sexual and aggressive drives, and he believed that our adult personality is strongly influenced by early childhood experiences and by ways in which we cope with the normal forces that govern our behaviour as we grow up. 25. In what sense, according to Freud is the human in continuous conflict? a. To cope with certain anxieties we develop psychological mechanisms called repressions, which protect us by keeping anxiety-arousing impulses, feelings, and memories in the unconscious depths of the mind. b. These repressions are a source of energy which seeks continually release. All behaviour, whether it is normal or abnormal, is a reflection of the never-ending and largely unconscious internal struggle between the conflicting psychological struggle of the impulses and the defenses. This ongoing internal struggle is called psychodynamic. 26. What influence does Freud’s theory have on contemporary psychology? a.
Freud’s psychodynamic concepts (understanding and treating
clinical disorders) is used by between 20 to 30 % of all US clinical
psychologists and many other practitioners make also use of it. 27. What are the important casual factors in behaviour within the behavioural perspective? How was this school of thought influenced by British empiricism? a. The behavioural perspective focuses on the role off the external environment in shaping and governing our actions. b. Behaviour is jointly determined by learned habits formed by previous experiences and by stimuli received from their immediate environment. c. British empiricism held the belief that all ideas and knowledge are acquired through ones senses. 28. What is cognitive behaviorism? How does it differ from radical behaviourism? a. Cognitive behaviourism is an attempt to bridge the gap between the behavioural and cognitive perspectives e.g. learn new behaviours by observing the actions of others and storing this information in memory. b. Radical behaviourism as applied in behaviour modification was proposed by many in the field of behaviourism and B.F. Skinner was perhaps the most active. Skinner held the ‘radical’ view that if human beings are to be changed, or even saved, we must manipulate our environment that controls behaviour through reward and punishment. 29. How does the humanistic conception of human nature and motivation differ from that advanced by psychoanalysis and behaviourism? a. Humanistic perspective has its origin in philosophy where free will, innate tendencies toward growth, and the quest to find meaning in ones existence. Humanistic theorists believe that in every human being there is an active force toward growth and self-actualization. b. The method of psychological therapy originated by Sigmund Freud in which free association, dream interpretation, and analysis of resistance and transference are used to explore repressed or unconscious impulses, anxieties, and internal conflicts, in order to free psychic energy for mature love and work.
a. According to terror management theory all humans have an innate desire for continued life, combined with the awareness of the inevitability of death. This creates an anxiety called existential terror 31. Define culture and norms. What function does a culture serve? a. Culture refers to the enduring values, beliefs, behaviours, and traditions that are shared by a large group of people and are passed on from one generation to the next. b. Norms are rules that specify what acceptable and expected behaviour is for members of that group. c. Cultures introduce order and a particular world view into a social system, thus creating predictability, guidelines for thought and behaviour, and a kind of map for living our lives. 32. Contrast individualistic and collectivistic societies. a. Individualism places emphasis on personal goals and a self-identity based primarily on one’s own attributes and achievements. Individualism is predominant in Northern Europe, and North America. b. Collectivism, in general, is a term used to describe a theoretical or practical emphasis on the group, as opposed to the individual. It is thus directly opposed to individualism. 33. Why is the distinction between originating and present causes important in the nature-nurture focus on evolutionary and cultural factors in behaviour? a. The nature emphasis was predominate in the early 1900’s. Many scientists believed that human characteristics are genetically determined. Extremists of this thinking formed a movement called Eugenics, promoted the idea of selective breeding of the most desirable people with one another to improve the human race. b. The nurture position was embraced in the 50’s and 60’s where the believe that humans are a product of their environment was widely accepted.. c. Evolutionary theorists have asked why there are certain behavioural differences between men and women, such as tendencies toward greater aggressiveness in men and greater emotional expressiveness and tenderness in women. Their answer is that these differences result from males’ predominant role of hunter/protector and women’s role as caretaker of children. These roles, both of which helped the species survive, over the course of evolution have created genetically based differences in men and women through a process of natural selection that predisposes men to be more aggressive and women to be more nurturing and emotionally expressive. 34. In what sense has psychology come “full circle” from its early focus on mental event? a. As psychology has now more sophisticated methods at their disposal for investigating mental events, radical behaviourism was pushed in the background. Biological psychology has increased in predominance due to the introduction of highly advanced technical equipment e.g. brain scanner which can ‘observe’ the functions of the brain in real time. 35. What three levels of analysis allow us to incorporate causal factors suggested by each of the perspectives? a. The tree levels of analysis describe various aspects of behaviour and classifying causal factors as biological, psychological and environmental. 36. What does the biological level of analysis tell us about the causes of depression? a.
Genetic factors 37. What kinds of psychological causal factors have been identified in depression? a. Depression is associated with a thinking style where the person interprets events in a pessimistic way. They take blame for any negative thing that occur but are unable to take credit for anything good happening to them 38. What causal factors in depression are seen at the environmental level of analysis? a.
Depression can be a reaction to a non-rewarding environment. 39. What is meant by the interaction of causal factors? a. Cause of depression is rarely caused by just one factor. It interacts with the three levels of analysis; Biological, Psychological and Environmental. 40. Summarize six important themes in contemporary psychology. a.
As a science, psychology is empirical e.g. favours direct observation. |