The Little Book of Psychology Quotes

“Psychoanalysis: In-depth case studies considering multiple factors are often used in psychoanalytic research. Freud often conducted case studies of his patients to inform his theories. However, his theories were ultimately reductionist. For example, the simplification of the human psyche into the Id, Ego, and Superego.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Cognitive psychology: The human mind acts like a computer, with input from the environment, internal mental processes, and behavioral output.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Behaviorism: Behavior is a learned response to a stimulus, and can be explained by examining simple environmental factors.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Biopsychology: Depression is caused by an imbalance of the neurotransmitter serotonin, and can be treated using drugs such as selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Psychologists will identify a behavior or phenomenon they would like to investigate, then design research that attempts to find correlations or cause-and-effect relationships with other factors.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Psychology has gone through “phases,” in the same way all fields of research do, but often psychologists are expanding on, or reacting to, the work of their predecessors.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“The fourth principle emphasizes the need for integrity in the study of psychology.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“The third principle demands that psychologists act responsibly.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“The second principle concerns the competence of those conducting the study.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“The first principle concerns respect for all persons.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“In the UK, ethical guidelines in psychology are advised by the British Psychological Society (BPS); and similar organizations exist in other countries.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Maslow’s approach appealed to another American psychologist and fellow future president of the APA, Carl Rogers (1902–1987), who went on to develop this work further.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908–1970), who went on to become president of the American Psychological Association, is commonly credited with sparking the humanistic approach with the publication of his “hierarchy of needs” theory in 1943.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“It is no coincidence that the first works linked to this approach were published in the 1940s, not long after B. F. Skinner first published his descriptions of operant conditioning in 1936 (see page 54), especially as Skinner later went on to argue that free will is an illusion.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“The humanistic approach rebels against these ideas and argues that each person is a unique individual, with a subjective experience of life and free will over their choices and behavior.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“American psychologist Philip Zimbardo (1933–) went on to examine the effect that a very specific environment has on a person—that of a prison.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“It seemed that an authority figure could indeed influence a person to commit horrendous acts, simply by stating their authority and suggesting that they would take ultimate responsibility for what took place.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“The experiment on obedience that Stanley Milgram (1933–1984) carried out during the 1960s is one of the most controversial studies in this area of psychology.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“In the 1950s, a Polish psychologist working in the United States, Solomon Asch (1907–1996), conducted a classic piece of research to investigate this behavior, known as “conformity.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“The work of cognitive psychologists has inspired many successful therapies, such as cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), a therapy with a high success rate, which teaches a person how to recognize and dispute their own negative thoughts.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Cognitive psychology is concerned with how these processes (and many, many others!) develop, but to study that, researchers must try to work out when they first start to develop.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Our memories can be altered by suggestion and, as was shown in one famous study by American psychologists Elizabeth Loftus (1944–) and John Palmer (date of birth unknown), a single word can dramatically alter our recall of even a very memorable event.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Lev Vygotsky (1896–1934), who thought that children develop through interaction with others.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Equilibrium: The child now has a more accurate schema for a duck as well as one for birds.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Accommodation: The child accommodates this new information into their schema. Birds all have wings, feathers and beaks, but the grey birds are pigeons and not ducks. Ducks are the ones on the water who make the “quacking” noises.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Disequilibrium: A child sees another animal with wings, feathers, and a beak. It’s a pigeon. They say to their parent, “Look! A duck.” Their parent tells them no, that is a different type of bird called a pigeon. The child is experiencing disequilibrium—their schema for a duck didn’t work this time.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Assimilation: A child experiences seeing a duck, and their parent says, “Look! A duck.” The child has now built a schema for a duck, which may include the facts that a duck has feathers, wings, and a beak.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Organization is our ability to coordinate existing schemas and combine them into more complex behaviors.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“Explaining how these cognitive processes develop was the life’s work of psychologist Jean Piaget (1896–1980). Born in Switzerland, Piaget was fascinated by biology and nature as a child.”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know

“There is no shortage of information coming into our brains from the outside world (referred to as “external stimuli)”, and some cognitive psychologists would argue that the brain deals with this information like a computer, receiving input (external stimuli), processing it (cognition), and then producing output (behavior or emotions).”
― Emily Ralls, The Little Book of Psychology: An Introduction to the Key Psychologists and Theories You Need to Know