What does the expression “uniformity of natural causes in a closed (or open) system” mean?
Open system: A personal God created a personal universe
Closed: The universe is uncreated/impersonal
What are the main approaches to the integration of Christianity and
Psychology?
- secularist hostility
- secularist indifference
- primacy of psychology
- primacy of christianity
- christianity against psychology
- humanizers of science
- perspectivalists
What are the main characteristics of secularist hostility to the integration of Christianity and Psychology?
- religion is an irrational superstition
- should be abandoned
What are the main characteristics of secularist indifference to the integration of Christianity and Psychology?
- religion is irrelevant
- not an object of valid scientific investigation
What are the main characteristics of primacy of psychology to the integration of Christianity and Psychology?
- empirical truth is more important than
religious insights - religious insights accepted as long as
consistent with scientific criteria
What are the main characteristics of primacy of Christianity to the integration of Christianity and Psychology?
- Biblical truth is more important than psychological
insights - Psychological insights accepted as long as consistent
with Christian doctrine - Emphasizes the doctrines of Fall and Redemption
What are the main characteristics of Christianity against psychology to the integration of Christianity and Psychology?
- Scripture is sufficient to explain all human behavior
- Psychology is unnecessary or harmful
- Emphasizes the doctrine of the Fall
What are the main characteristics of humanizers of science to the integration of Christianity and Psychology?
- Science is not neutral
- Apply scientific methods from a Christian
perspective - Critical of psychology’s constricted methodology
- Emphasizes the doctrines of Creation, Fall & Redemption
What is a person?
- is an agent (makes free choices, is responsible, has reasons for acting, has values, has purposes and goals)
- has unity and continuity
- is conscious (of self and others)
- lives in community
what is antithesis?
- the pairing of opposite ideas in similar form to emphasize contrast
- there is no midground
- ex. you either believe there is a God or you don’t
what is common grace?
what are the basic ideas of wilhelm wundt?
structuralism and introspection
what are the basic ideas of william james?
“consciousness stream” and functionalism
what is introspection?
the conscious examination of one’s own mind to inspect and report on personal thoughts and feelings about conscious experiences.
what is functionalism?
the study of breaking down conscious experience into its fundamental elements: sensations, feelings and images
what is functionalism?
the study of how the mind of an organism adapts to its current environment
Study the shift of focus in psychology before and after the 1920s and between the 1920s and the 1960s.
- Before the 1920s, psychology was mainly defined as the study of mental life, focusing on introspection and consciousness.
- Between the 1920s and 1960s, the field shifted toward behaviorism, emphasizing the scientific study of observable behavior and conditioning, while setting aside the study of inner thoughts and feelings.
- After the 1960s, psychology moved again to include both behavior and mental processes, leading to the rise of cognitive and humanistic approaches.
what is contemporary psychology?
the science of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings)
(nature vs. nurture, genes experience, natural selection-survival advantage) - Charles Darwin
