Psychology Notes Chapter 1 Thinking Critically With <a href="/keyword/psychological-science/" >psychological science</a> What is Psychology? <a href="/keyword/psychological-science/" >psychological science</a> IS BORN Aristotle theorized about learning and memory, motivation, and emotion, perception, and personality. Wilhelm Wundt created an experiment measuring time lag between people's hearing a ball hit a platform and their pressing a telegraph key. Wundt measured &quot;atoms of the mind&quot; the fastest and simplest mental processes. (This was considered psychology's first experiment). Wundt was a philosopher and a physiologist. The first psychology PH.D was awarded to animal behavior researcher Margaret Floy Washburn. Until 1920, psychology was defined as &quot;the science of mental life&quot;. In the 1960's, John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner redefined psychology as &quot;the scientific study of observable behavior&quot;. Humanistic Psychology-emphasized the growth potential f healthy people; used personalized methods to study personality in hopes of fostering personal growth. Cognitive Neuroscience-the study of brain activity underlying thought. Today psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Behavior is anything an organism does. Mental processes are internal, subjective experiences we infer from behavior. PSYCHOLOGY'S BIG QUESTION Nature-nurture issue-controversy over the relative contributions of biology and experience. PSYCHOLOGY'S THREE MAIN LEVELS OF ANALYSIS Biopsychosocial approach- considers the influences of biological, psychological, and socialcultural factors. Someone working from the social cultural perspective might explore which situations produce the most anger, and how expressions of anger vary across cultural contexts. PSYCHOLOGY'S SUBFIELDS Cluster of subfields has less unity than most other sciences. Basic research-science that builds psychology's knowledge base. Applied research- solving practical problems. Psychology is a helping profession devoted to practical issues such as how to have a happy marriage, how to overcome anxiety or depression. Counseling psychologists- help people cope with challenges (including academically, vocational, or marital) Clinical psychologists- asses and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders. Psychiatrists- provide psychotherapy, provide medical drugs, treat physical causes of psychological disorders. Rehearse It! 1. The science of Psychology was born in December 189. When a psychologist and his students measured the time lag between people's hearing a ball hit a platform and their pressing a key. The psychologist who ran this experiment and established the first psychology lab was... -Edward Wundt 2. A prominent psychology text was published in 1890. Its author was... -William James 3. The definition of psychology has changed several times since the late 1800s. In the early twentieth century, ______________ redefined psychology as &quot;the science of observable behavior.&quot; -John B. Watson 4. Psychology is now defined as &quot;the scientific study of behavior and mental process.&quot; The perspective in psychology that focuses on how behavior and thought differ from situation to situation and from culture to culture is the... -Social-Cultural Perspective 5. In the history of psychology, a major topic has been the relative influence of nature and nurture. Nature is to nurture as... -Biology is to experience 6. The behavioral perspective is psychology emphasizes observable responses and how they are acquired and modified. A behavioral psychologist is most likely to study... -The effect of school uniforms on classroom behaviors 7. A psychologist who treats emotionally troubled adolescents at the local mental health agency is most likely to be a... -Clinical Psychologist 8. A psychologist who conducts basic research to expand psychology's knowledge base would be most likely to... -Observe 3- and 6- year old children solving puzzles and analyze differences in their abilities Why Do Psychology? Psychologists use the science of behavior and mental processes to better understand why people think, feel, and act as they do. Clinical Psychology a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders Psychiatry a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drugs) treatments as well as psychological therapy. WHAT ABOUT INTUITION AND COMMON SENSE? The answers that flow from the scientific approach are more reliable than those based on intuition and common sense HINDSIGHT BIAS Hindsight Bias the tendency to believe, after learning an outcome, that one would have foreseen it. (also known as the I-knew-It-All-Along phenomenon.) Common sense is not usually wrong, it just more easily describes what has happened than what will happen. OVERCONFIDENCE Humans tend to be overly confident; we tend to think we know more than we do. Hindsight bias and overconfidence often lead us to overestimate our intuition, but scientific inquiry, fed by curious skepticism, can help us sift reality from illusions. THE SCIENTIFIC ATTITUDE Scientific attitude: being skeptical but not cynical, open but not gullible; helps us to sift reality from fantasy, sense from nonsense. These attitudes of curiosity, skepticism, and humility (an awareness of our own vulnerability to error and openness to surprises and new perspectives) helped make modern science possible. CRITICAL THINKING Critical Thinking smart thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions. Rather, it examines assumptions, discerns hidden values, evaluates evidence, and assesses conclusions.