Study Guide for Midterm
Unit 1
PSY375
Philosophical Casual Law: A statement indicating how classes of empirical events are causally
Theories and related.
Laws Ex: A child opens the gate, falls into the pool, and drowns. The
homeowner's negligent action caused the accident ; therefore, causation
could be established.
Correspondence theory of truth: The basic idea of the correspondence theory is
that what we believe or say is true if it corresponds to the way things actually are –
to the facts.
Ex: My belief is there is a table in the room is true, if only there is ACTUALLY a
table in the room
Correlational Law: investigates relationships between variables without the
researcher controlling or manipulating any of them.
Ex: For example, you decide you want to test whether a smoother UX has
a strong positive correlation with better app store ratings. And after
observation, you see that when one increases, the other does too.
double-aspect theory, also called dual-aspect theory:
ex. mental and physical phenomena and processes are not two different
kinds of things but rather different aspects of the same thing, just as a cloud
and a mist are the same thing seen from different vantage points, or the
morning star and the evening star are the same thing (the planet Venus).
Positivism:
is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is
either true by definition or positive—meaning a posteriori facts derived by
reason and logic from sensory experience.
Determinism: Is the idea that every event in the universe has a cause, but more
Terms to Know than that, those causes necessitate their effects. Given the causes the effects have
to happen.
Biological Determinism: The view that behavior is primarily caused by the
biological factors.
, Environmental determinism: The view that behavior is primarily caused by
environmental factors.(includes Sociocultural determinism)
Physical determinism: The view that the causes of behavior are
subjective.
Ex: Freud's position that unconscious motives are causes of behavior is an
example of psychical determinism because unconscious motives are not
subject to empirical observation.
Indeterminism: The view that the causes of an event cannot be accurately
measured.
nondeterminism: *OPPOSES DETERMINISM*
behavior is freely chosen.
that we act (or not) due to self-generated causes, not physical or psychical
causes.
our actions are free. With freedom, however, comes responsibility.
Confi rmable Propositions: Hypotheses deduced from a scientific theory that are
testable through experimentation.
eclectic approach: the practice of selecting doctrines from different systems of
thought without adopting the whole parent system for each doctrine.
Empirical observation: The direct observation of nature.
Epistemology: The study of knowledge.
passive mind: A mind that reflects the physical world based on sensory
experience.
radical empiricism looks to experience, postulating a passive mind that
records sensory input and reflects upon it in terms of images, recollections,
and associations. Reflection is regarded as automatic and mechanical, adding
nothing new to the experience.
public observation: In science, the relationship between two or more classes of
events must be observable for verification by any interested person
vitalism: The view that there is a special force that distinguishes living things from
inanimate objects.
, Universalism: is the philosophical and theological concept that some ideas have
universal application or applicability.
Teleology: In psychology, a doctrine that explains behavior in terms of purpose.
Deism: The belief that God created the universe but does not intervene in it.
Humanism: human potential and achievement were emphasized, creating an
atmosphere of optimism.
Animism: The belief that everything in nature is alive.
Anthropomorphism: The projection of human attributes onto nonhuman things.
Olympian: Believed life after death with no memories. Personified orderliness and
rationality, valued intelligence. consisted of a number of gods whose activities were
very much like those of upper-class Greeks.
Dionysiac-Orphic: preached that the soul was a prisoner of the body and that it
longed to be released so that it could once again dwell among the gods. Became an
integral part of our Judeo-Christian heritage.
Elementism: no matter how complex something was, it could be explained in terms
of atoms and their activity.
Reductionism: objects and events on one level (observable phenomena) in terms of
events on another level (atoms and their activity).
attempts to understand a complex phenomenon by separating it into its
simpler component parts
Zeitgeist:
would include non-psychological factors, such as politics, technology, and
economics. In general, we might say that the times make possible the
acceptance of what a person has to say. An idea may be progressive but
"ahead of its time."
Dualist and their
Positions
Unit 1
PSY375
Philosophical Casual Law: A statement indicating how classes of empirical events are causally
Theories and related.
Laws Ex: A child opens the gate, falls into the pool, and drowns. The
homeowner's negligent action caused the accident ; therefore, causation
could be established.
Correspondence theory of truth: The basic idea of the correspondence theory is
that what we believe or say is true if it corresponds to the way things actually are –
to the facts.
Ex: My belief is there is a table in the room is true, if only there is ACTUALLY a
table in the room
Correlational Law: investigates relationships between variables without the
researcher controlling or manipulating any of them.
Ex: For example, you decide you want to test whether a smoother UX has
a strong positive correlation with better app store ratings. And after
observation, you see that when one increases, the other does too.
double-aspect theory, also called dual-aspect theory:
ex. mental and physical phenomena and processes are not two different
kinds of things but rather different aspects of the same thing, just as a cloud
and a mist are the same thing seen from different vantage points, or the
morning star and the evening star are the same thing (the planet Venus).
Positivism:
is an empiricist philosophical theory that holds that all genuine knowledge is
either true by definition or positive—meaning a posteriori facts derived by
reason and logic from sensory experience.
Determinism: Is the idea that every event in the universe has a cause, but more
Terms to Know than that, those causes necessitate their effects. Given the causes the effects have
to happen.
Biological Determinism: The view that behavior is primarily caused by the
biological factors.
, Environmental determinism: The view that behavior is primarily caused by
environmental factors.(includes Sociocultural determinism)
Physical determinism: The view that the causes of behavior are
subjective.
Ex: Freud's position that unconscious motives are causes of behavior is an
example of psychical determinism because unconscious motives are not
subject to empirical observation.
Indeterminism: The view that the causes of an event cannot be accurately
measured.
nondeterminism: *OPPOSES DETERMINISM*
behavior is freely chosen.
that we act (or not) due to self-generated causes, not physical or psychical
causes.
our actions are free. With freedom, however, comes responsibility.
Confi rmable Propositions: Hypotheses deduced from a scientific theory that are
testable through experimentation.
eclectic approach: the practice of selecting doctrines from different systems of
thought without adopting the whole parent system for each doctrine.
Empirical observation: The direct observation of nature.
Epistemology: The study of knowledge.
passive mind: A mind that reflects the physical world based on sensory
experience.
radical empiricism looks to experience, postulating a passive mind that
records sensory input and reflects upon it in terms of images, recollections,
and associations. Reflection is regarded as automatic and mechanical, adding
nothing new to the experience.
public observation: In science, the relationship between two or more classes of
events must be observable for verification by any interested person
vitalism: The view that there is a special force that distinguishes living things from
inanimate objects.
, Universalism: is the philosophical and theological concept that some ideas have
universal application or applicability.
Teleology: In psychology, a doctrine that explains behavior in terms of purpose.
Deism: The belief that God created the universe but does not intervene in it.
Humanism: human potential and achievement were emphasized, creating an
atmosphere of optimism.
Animism: The belief that everything in nature is alive.
Anthropomorphism: The projection of human attributes onto nonhuman things.
Olympian: Believed life after death with no memories. Personified orderliness and
rationality, valued intelligence. consisted of a number of gods whose activities were
very much like those of upper-class Greeks.
Dionysiac-Orphic: preached that the soul was a prisoner of the body and that it
longed to be released so that it could once again dwell among the gods. Became an
integral part of our Judeo-Christian heritage.
Elementism: no matter how complex something was, it could be explained in terms
of atoms and their activity.
Reductionism: objects and events on one level (observable phenomena) in terms of
events on another level (atoms and their activity).
attempts to understand a complex phenomenon by separating it into its
simpler component parts
Zeitgeist:
would include non-psychological factors, such as politics, technology, and
economics. In general, we might say that the times make possible the
acceptance of what a person has to say. An idea may be progressive but
"ahead of its time."
Dualist and their
Positions
