Exam Prep

• Psychology

  Discipline that emerged in the late 1800s, uses scientific methods to investigate the mind
• Wilhelm Wundt

  Established Psychology as a separate discipline from philosophy and Physiology, believed Psychology should focus on studying consciousness
• Wundt opened the first Psychology research lab at the University of Leipzig in Germany

  1879
• Structuralism

  • Idea that Psychologist's job is to breakdown consciousness into its component parts and look at the relationship between them, used the method of introspection
• Functionalism


  • Idea that Psychologists should look at the purpose or function of consciousness instead of its structure, studied things like parents of development in children, the effectiveness of educational practices and behavioural differences in the sexes
• Psychoanalytic

  • Focuses on unconscious behavioural factors in an effect to explain personality, motivation and mental disorders, emphasized the fact that humans are governed by their unconscious behaviours
• Behaviourism

  • Idea that only observable behaviour should be studied because the consciousness is not observable and can not be studied scientifically
• Continuation of Behaviourism

  • Emphasized the role of environmental factors in influencing behaviour, suggested that free will is an illusion
• Humanism

  • Provided a more positive view of humans while emphasising human potential and personal growth, argued that studying animals isn't relevant because humans have a sense of self
• The history of Psychology in South Africa dates to before World War II with Jan Smuts and H.F. Verwoerd playing key roles in establishing psychology in South Africa
• The first Psychology department at the University of Stellenbosch was established in 1917
• The white-only South African Psychological Association established in 1948 at first refused admissions of Black Psychologists and only allowed their admission in 1962 to appear as if the organisation is does not support the Apartheid regime
• The international academic community actively boycotted South Africa's academic community, to force the South African government to stop the Apartheid regime
• Psychology was a racially segregated discipline in South Africa
• After the first democratic elections, the non-racial Psychological Society of South Africa was formed in 1994
• Goals of the scientific approach in Psychology

  • Describe how both humans and animals behave
  • Understand and explain the causes of these behaviours
  • Predict how both animals and humans will behave under certain circumstances
  • Control behaviour through knowledge and control of its causes
• Aims of the scientific approach in Psychology

  • Make observation about phenomenon to help improve the quality of human lives
  • Use direct observation as opposed to using instincts or reasoning to collect data about human behaviour
  • Researchers can be on humans or animals
• Steps in Scientific investigation

  • Identity a problem (problem statement)
  • State the rationale
  • Develop a research question
  • Formulate a hypothesis
  • Develop a research design
  • Collect data
  • Analyse Data
  • Research report
• Qualitative research approach

  • Involves the understanding and interpretation of social interactions, looks at the quality of people's life, through analysing patterns and themes within a small sample size, involves open-ended questions, field notes, interviews and observations
• Qualitative research designs


  • Observational design
  • Case study design
  • Phenomenology design
• Qualitative data collection methods

  • Interviews (face-to-face, telephone, focus group, structured, unstructured, semi-structured)
  • Naturalistic Observation (Field Study)
  • Laboratory Observation
  • Documents
• Quantitative research approach


  • Aims to test a hypothesis to assess a cause-and-effect relationship and make predictions on phenomenon, makes use of data based on numbers and statistical analysis, involves a larger sample size and is objective
• Quantitative research designs


  • Experimental research design
  • Quasi-experimental research design
  • Descriptive research design
  • Survey design
  • Correlation research design
• Quantitative data collection methods

  • Standardised test
  • Questionnaires
• Research ethics

  • Voluntary Participation
  • Informed consent
  • Confidentiality
  • Debriefing
  • Deception
• Nervous System


  Organised group of cells, neurons, that coordinates actions and sends and receives sensory information by transmitting signals to and from different parts of the body
• Parts of the Nervous System

  • Central nervous system (CNS) (brain and spinal cord)
  • Peripheral Nervous System (PNS) (Somatic Nervous System, Autonomic Nervous System)
• Central Nervous System (CNS)

  Consists of the brain and the spinal cord, responsible for control of all actions and processes in the body, integrates information from inside and outside the body, coordinates the bodies actions as well as higher order thought processes
• Parts of the Brain

  • Hindbrain (cerebellum, pons, medulla)
  • Midbrain (Brainstem, reticular formation)
  • Forebrain (cerebrum, limbic system, thalamus, hypothalamus)
• Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)


  Part of the nervous system that extends to the periphery (outside) of the body, consists of all nerves that lay outside the brain and the spinal cord
• Parts of the Peripheral Nervous System (PNS)

  • Somatic Nervous System (SNS)
  • Autonomic Nervous System (ANS) (Sympathetic division, Parasympathetic division)
• Sensation

  Process when the body takes in information from external stimuli through sensory receptors
• Transduction


  Process of converting a stimulus into a neural impulse/signal that the nervous system can understand
• Perception


  Process of making sense of the information/stimulus that was received
• Threshold


  Point at which a stimulus triggers a respond
• Absolute threshold

  Smallest amount of stimulus that can be detected
• Signal detection theory

  Measures the ability to differentiate between information-bearing patterns and random patterns that distracts from the information
• Structures of the human eye

  • Cornea
  • Iris
  • Pupil
  • Lens
  • Retina
  • Fovea
  • Optic nerve
• Structures of the human ear

  • Pinna
  • Auditory canal
  • Tympanic membrane
• Absolute threshold


  The smallest amount of stimulus that can be detected