Psychologists & Theories
Which perspective focuses on observable behaviors shaped by the environment?
What is behaviorism?
Structuralists relied on this primary research method—termed "internal perception"—which required trained observers to examine their own immediate sensations.
What is Introspection?
Positive punishment often fails as an effective teaching tool because it only highlights what not to do out of fear, whereas this alternative method actively models desired behaviors and builds intrinsic motivation.
What is Positive Reinforcement?
Which theory relies on subjective theories and abstract concepts—such as self-actualization and congruence—that are unscientific and difficult to test or verify empirically, and are therefore a weakness?
What is Humanism?
A flock of birds flying together in unison demonstrates this principle, where objects moving in the same direction are perceived to belong together as a single unit.
What is common fate?
Carl Rogers emphasized that effective therapy requires this key practice, defined as offering total support and acceptance to an individual without judgment.
What is Unconditional Positive Regard?
Considered the first psychologist, he founded Structuralism with the goal of breaking down conscious experience into its basic building blocks.
Who is Wilhelm Wundt?
During "The Human Training Lab," trainers who made a continuous noise that stopped the exact second a peer moved toward the target behavior were applying this specific operant conditioning technique.
What is negative reinforcement?
This practice is most important because it generates hypotheses for further, more generalizable research.
What is Structuralism?
Gestalt psychology defines a overall perceptual structure as being greater than this.
What is the sum of its parts?
Influenced by Darwinian evolution, this founder of Functionalism sought a practical understanding of how mental processes help humans adapt to and navigate their environment.
Who is William James?
William James used this iconic phrase to describe thought as a continuous, fluid, and ever-changing flow rather than a collection of static visual building blocks.
What is Stream of Consciousness?
In John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner’s "Little Albert" experiment, a white rat initially acted as this type of stimulus before being repeatedly paired with a frightening loud clanging noise.
What is a neutral stimulus (NS)?
A major limitation of Functionalism is its tendency toward conservatism, as it prioritizes social stability and overlooks power dynamics and conflicts within society. (such as poverty or civil rights)
What is inequality (or exploitation/power differences)?
Visual cues like contrast, blurriness, size, and separation allow the brain to divide a scene into these two distinct elements.
What are figure ground?
Carl Jung used this term to describe the public or social mask an individual wears to navigate the external world, which contrasts with the repressed, darker aspects of the psyche known as the shadow.
What is the persona?
Which perspective asks questions that aren’t always easy to measure—but has shaped how psychology thinks about motivation, identity, and the unconscious?
What is the Psychodynamic approach?
What form of operant conditioning fails to teach effectively due to fear, loss of trust, and confusion?
What is Positive Punsihment?
A major weakness of behaviorism is that it overemphasizes "nurture" and environmental factors while completely ignoring genetic predispositions and these internal cognitive processes.
What are mental processes (or thoughts, feelings, and internal states)?
When your brain automatically groups visual elements together because they share matching colors, shapes, or sizes, it is utilizing this Gestalt principle.
What is similarity?
Abraham Maslow proposed that individuals must first satisfy lower-level physiological and safety needs before attempting to reach this apex of his pyramid, representing one's full potential.
What is self-actualization?
Which early theory is concerned with behaviors being influenced by the unconscious?
What is Psychodynamic approach?
Using the "Two-Step Method" for operant conditioning, removing an annoying seatbelt chime when you buckle up represents this consequence because an unpleasant stimulus is removed to increase a behavior.
Negative Reinforcement
Introspection is described as having this practical advantage because it requires no specialized lab equipment and can be performed anytime, anywhere.
What is economical (inexpensive) & easy?
Gestalt psychologists developed their framework as a direct pushback against this perspective, arguing that perception involves active mental organization rather than just rigid stimulus-response links.
What is behaviorism?