What Goes On In Your Mind? Trivia Quiz

Answer: Conditioned reflexes

Pavlov (1849-1936) is best known for his experiments on dogs, in which he showed that they could be trained to produce an innate response (salivating, a natural physiological response to the presence of food) as a reaction to an artificial stimulus (the ringing of a bell).

This is known as classical conditioning, and has formed the basis for a number of subsequent practitioners in the area of behavioural psychology, both as a way of curbing unwanted behaviours by associating them with an unpleasant object or idea, and as a way of reducing unwanted emotions by associating them with a pleasurable experience.

Answer: Id, ego and super-ego

The Viennese neurologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is famed for the development of psychoanalysis, a technique he developed for treating patients with symptoms of psychopathology through talking, to get them to explore those parts of their thoughts and emotions of which they were unaware.

While many now consider that a number of his concepts were as much a reflection of his own psychological issues as those of the patients he treated, nevertheless many of his ideas have become part of everyday language.

These include the id (the impulsive and uncontrolled part of the psyche, looking for pleasure and instant gratification of desires), the ego (the rational part of the psyche, which is most directly involved in a person's actions by balancing the demands of the id and the super-ego) and the super-ego (the moralistic and critical part of the psyche).

Answer: Intelligence testing

Alfred Binet (1857-1911) developed the first practical intelligence test, called the Simon-Binet test, at the 1904 request of the French Ministry of Education, who wanted to identify students who were incapable of handling education in a standard classroom, and should be sent to special educational institutions to provide them with appropriate support.

The scores were originally reported on a scale that divided a testee's score by the average expected score, leading to a number called the Intelligence Quotient, or IQ.

Intelligence testing has since developed in many ways, and has been applied in ways of which Binet never dreamed.

Answer: Collective unconscious

Carl Jung (1875-1961), a Swiss psychiatrist, founded the field of analytical psychology. He developed theories that included extroversion and introversion (the tendency for an individual to thrive when involved deeply with others or when in a more isolated situation), collective unconscious (areas of the unconscious mind that are shared by all members of the species, and are not exclusive to the individual), and archetypes (motifs which recur in the myths and stories across cultures because they are part of the collective unconscious).

Some commonly-referenced archetypes include The Great Mother, The Wise Old Man and The Tree of Life.

Answer: Cognitive development

The Swiss psychologist Jean Piaget (1896-1980) spent much time studying children, and noted that they commonly developed certain types of thought process in the same order, albeit at different ages. His work has been fundamental to the development of many approaches to early childhood education.

The basic stages he identified were: sensorimotor (usually lasting until about the age of two), in which the world is experienced through the senses; preoperational (lasting from the development of relatively fluent speech until about the age of seven), in which children start to develop logical connections; concrete operational (lasting until about the age of eleven or twelve), in which more complex logical relationships are made, and the child is fully aware that what they cannot see is still there, although this is still limited to physical objects; and formal operational (from about twelve years of age), in which abstract concepts are included in more highly-developed reasoning processes. The ages I give here are as per Piaget - different cultures at various times have shown the same progression, but with differing ages. And, of course, any individual may develop at a speed different from that of their surrounding culture.

Answer: Identity crisis

Erik Erikson (1902-1994) developed a theory of psychological development that involves eight stages, each one of which poses a developmental issue that must be satisfactorily resolved (an identity crisis) before the individual can progress to the next stage of maturation. Stage Seven, for example, is the second stage of adulthood, and typically occurs for people who might be described as middle aged (40-65).

In this stage, the issue is described as generativity versus stagnation, the extent to which one feels that their life is making a positive contribution to society, often in the role of a parent. If there is not a sense of contribution, the individual may feel a purposelessness in their life, and a need to make a change to feel more engaged in society.

Hence the infamous midlife crisis.

Answer: Operant conditioning

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) developed the field of operant conditioning. Unlike classical conditioning, which uses innate behaviours as the basis of conditioning, operant conditioning can be used to modify behaviours and produce unnatural behaviours. The film he made showing how pigeons had been taught to play ping pong by slowly and steadily developing the desired behaviours in incremental steps is amazing! Unlike cognitive psychologists, who consider behaviour to be the product of internal processes, Skinner considered it to be the product of all the external experiences, both positive and negative, of one's life.

Answer: Hierarchy of needs

The American psychologist Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) described what he called the process of self-actualization, the fulfillment of one's fullest capacity. This process starts with the first, fundamental needs of keeping alive - food, water, sleep, reproduction, et cetera. If those needs are met, then the individual is free to move upwards to the next stage, safety and shelter.

This progresses through a series of needs that can only be fully attained when the lower ones are satisfied, culminating in self-actualization.

Answer: Cognitive dissonance

Leon Festinger (1919-1989) focused much of his work on social psychology - the study of how we interact with each other - rather than on individual psychology as such. One of his fundamental proposals was the idea of cognitive dissonance - a sense of psychological unease which the individual will try to reduce.

This may be done in a number of ways, including the simple act of choosing to ignore any information that is liable to cause dissonance. In other words, you are more likely to share ideas with people who agree with you, or at least are expected to do so, than with those whose ideas are likely to differ.

Answer: Stages of moral development

Lawrence Kohlberg (1927-1987) developed an extension of Piaget's stages of cognitive development to apply to the development of moral decision making. He identified six stages, each more powerfully able to lead to ethical decision making than the last, which may be seen to develop through an individual's life.

Not all individuals progress to the top; in fact, many live comfortable lives operating in the middle regions, the conventional level, where the idea of moral good is defined by social norms and laws. Most adults reach this stage, but relatively few progress to the post-conventional levels, where more universal ethical principles form the basis for action.