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Wilf Wundt Psychology

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Diana Keo
AP Psychology
26 August 2017

Unit One Questions & Answers:

What is Psychology?

Page1-Page 8
Q1. How do we elaborate on behavior and mental processes regarding the definition of psychology?
We elaborate on behavior and mental processes regarding the definition of psychology by studying people, their behaviors, their thoughts and feelings, and trying to predict their next move.
Q2. Explain John Locke’s argument that the mind at birth is a blank slate, and how did that contradict some of the earlier philosophers such as Plato and Rene Descartes.
John Locke’s argument is that everybody is born with a tabula rasa, meaning a ‘blank slate’ on which experiences wires. Whereas, for Plato and Descartes, they believe that knowledge is born within us or innate.
Q3. Describe Wilhelm Wundt’s first experiment and why is it considered the first experiment in the field of psychology.
Wilhelm Wundt’s first experiment involved using a machine that measured the time lag between a person hearing a ball hit a platform, and a person pressing a telegraph key. They also decided to test to press a key when they were consciously aware of perceiving a sound. Overall, he conducted a series of studies dealing with the elements of consciousness, becoming the first experiment in the field of psychology because of the reliance, psychologists had on his invention.
Q4. Explain how the two early schools of psychology, structuralism and functionalism differed from each other, and which

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