Chapter 1 Psychologists are interested in understanding how people think, perceive and act in a wide range of situations. Prejudice influences people's beliefs and expectations about others which leads to racial behaviour. A collection of techniques known as &quot;brain imaging&quot; involves assessing changes in metabolic activity in the brain, such as noting where blood flows as people process information. This shows what part of the brain is involved in certain behaviours or mental activities. A part of the brain called the &quot;amygdale&quot; is involved in detecting threat, it indicates a fear response. Psychology has been around for over 100 years and taught us about basic metal processes as learning, memory, emotion, and perception. The goal for psychology today is to understand people but considering both individual factors, and contextual factors (societal beliefs and the way we behave toward those other people). <a href="/keyword/psychological-science/" >psychological science</a> = the study of mind, brain, and behaviour. Mind refers to mental activity (thoughts, feelings, sight, smell, touch, taste, and hearing). The mind results from biological processes within the brain. Behaviour= describes a wide variety of action, from the subtle to the complex that occur in organisms from ants to humans. What are the themes of <a href="/keyword/psychological-science/" >psychological science</a> ? We have strong desires to figure people out, and to understand their motives, thoughts, desires, intentions, moods, actions etc. People that do this everyday for a living are known as &quot;psychological scientists&quot;. They use methods to understand how people think, feel and act. The Principles of <a href="/keyword/psychological-science/" >psychological science</a> and Cumulative. 1st theme is the research on mind, brain, and behaviour has accumulated over time to produce the principles of <a href="/keyword/psychological-science/" >psychological science</a> . Science builds on the foundation our shared knowledge. It is easier to recognize old information that it is to recall old information. A New Biological Revolution is Energizing Research: 2nd theme is: a new biological revolution of profound significance is in progress at the dawn of the 21st century, bringing with it a deeper understanding of the human mind and behaviour. Interests are in locating the neural o brain, correlates of how we identify friends to discovering the neurochemical problems that produce various psychological disorders. 3 developments have set for a new biological revolution contributing to our understanding psychological phenomena. 1. Brain Chemistry: The brain works through the actions of chemicals called &quot;neurotransmitters&quot;. They communicate messages between nerve cells. People have better memories when they are aroused rather than when they're calm because chemicals involved in responding to stimuli influence the neural mechanisms involved in memory. 2. The Human Genome: This is the understanding the influence of genetic processes. It helps develop techniques that allow us to discover and link between genes and behaviour. No one specific gene is responsible for memory. Some physical and mental characteristic are inherited. It is the expression of genes that helps give rise to mind and behaviour. 3. Watching the working brain: The principles of how cells operate in the brain to influence behaviour have been studied with increased effectiveness for more than a century. Knowing that there are consistent patterns of brain activation associated with specific mental tasks. Many different brain regions participate to produce behaviour and metal activity. The Mind is Adaptive: The 3rd theme of <a href="/keyword/psychological-science/" >psychological science</a> is that the mind has been shaped by evolution. Humans are products of biological and cultural evolution and they influence how people think and behave. Evolutionary theory perspective: the brain is an organ that has evolved over millions of years to solve problems related to survival and reproduction. Random gene mutations endowed some of our ancestors with physical characteristics, skills, and abilities known as &quot;adaptation&quot;. 3 aspects of evolutionary theory are particularly helpful in this regard. 1. Solving Adaptive Problems: Adaptive behaviours have been built into our bodies and brains. The body contains specialized mechanisms that have evolved to solve problems that required adaptation. Evolutionary theory is useful for thinking about adaptive problems that occur regularly and have the potential to affect whether one survives and reproduces, such as mechanisms for eating, sex, language and communication, emotions, and aggression. Evolutionary theory can be examples of remembering where food was abundant, recognize dangerous objects, understanding the basic laws of physics etc. the brain needs no special training for this theory. 2. Modern Minds in Stone Age Skulls: We must understand the challenges that faced our ancestors to understand much of our current behaviour, whether adaptive or maladaptive. Reading books, driving cars, watching TV have recently become part of human experience and rather than being adaptations such behaviours can be considered &quot;by-products&quot; of adaptive solutions to earlier adaptive problems. Culture Provides Adaptive Solutions: The most demanding adaptive is dealing with other people. Challenges in selecting mates, cooperating in hunting and gathering, forming alliances, competing for scarce resources, and even warring with neighbouring groups. Living in groups gives rise to culture. Culture= the beliefs, values, rules and customs that exist within a group of people who share a common language and environment and that are transmitted through learning from one generation to the next. Commentators suggest that we may be witnessing the rise of a global culture as a result of this newest form of globalization. Cultural rules are learned as norms which specify how people have to behave in different contexts. Material aspects of culture are in media, technology, healthcare, and transportation. Evidence shows that the mind is adaptive in both biological and cultural terms providing survival and reproductive challenges as well as strong framework for a shared social understanding of how the world works. <a href="/keyword/psychological-science/" >psychological science</a> Crosses Levels of Analysis: 4th theme is that mind and behaviour can be studied on many levels of analysis. &quot;Interdisciplinary&quot; effort shares the common goal of understanding the mind and behaviour. Psychologists have to break down the components of behavioural phenomena in order to understand them. Then we can understand how biological, individual, and social components influence our specific behaviours. 3 categories of analysis: Cultural Social Interpersonal Norms, beliefs, values, symbols, ethnicity Groups, relationships, persuasion, influence, workplace Personality, gender, developmental age groups, self-concept Thinking, decision making, language, memory, seeing, hearing Observable actions, responses, physical movements Neuroanatomy, animal research, brain imaging Neurotransmitters and hormones, animal studies, drug studies, Gene mechanism, heritability, twin and adoption studies Individual Individual differences Perception and cognition Behaviour Biological Brain Systems Neurochemical Genetic The Nature-Nature Debate Considers The Impact of Biology and Environment: Since the time of the Greeks there has been a debate about whether psychological characteristics are more due to nature-nature; whether they are biologically innate or acquired through education, experience or culture. &quot;Schizophrenia&quot; is a disorder in which people have unusual thoughts, such as believing they are god, or experience unusual sensations, such as hearing voices. &quot;Bipolar disorder&quot;= a person has dramatic mood swings, from feeling extremely sad to feeling perfect. People thought these disorders were due to bad parenting or other environmental circumstances. Many mental disorders are from the way the brain is wired. Many mental disorders happen from events that have happened in peoples lives. The Mind-Body Problem Has Challenged Philosophers and Psychologists: Most people have a subjective sense that our mind is floating somewhere around our head. The mind has been known to be all over the body and not just in the head. The mind body problem is whether the mind and body are separate and distinct, or whether the mind is simply the subjective experience of the physical brain. Descartes believed that the body was none other than a machine. To him the mental functions such as memory and imagination were the result of bodily functions. Evolutionary Theory Introduces Natural Selection: Was based on Charles Darwin. Called the mechanism for evolution &quot;natural selection&quot;... the process by which random mutations in organisms that are adaptive are passed along and mutations that hinder reproduction are not. How Did Scientific Foundations Of Psychology Develop? In 1843 John Stuart Mill published &quot;system of logic&quot; which he declared that psychology should leave the realm of speculation and philosophy and become a science of observation and experiment. Experimental Psychology Begins with Structuralism: 1879 Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology lab.and institute in Leipzig. He realized that psychological processes in the brain take time to occur. He would present a subject with 2 psychological tasks. He would then measure the speed the subjects complete the tasks at. By subtracting the easier task from the more complex task he would know how much time a particular mental even took to occur. He wanted to measure conscious experiences. He developed a method of introspection: a systematic examination of subjective mental experiences that required people to inspect and report on the content of their thoughts. He would ask the people to compare their subjective experiences as they contemplate a series of objects. The basic idea of structuralism is an approach to psychology based on the idea that conscious experience can be broken down into its basic underlying components or elements. This would provide the scientific basis for understanding the mind. Functionalism Addresses the Purpose of Behaviour: Main critics of structuralism was William James. Touch psychology at Harvard in 1873. he believed that the mind could not be broken down into its elements because the mind was much more complex than its elements. He was influenced by Darwinian thinking. His approach to psychology became known as &quot;functionalism&quot; concerned with the adaptive purpose or function of mind and behaviour. The mind works the way it does because it is useful for preserving life and passing along genes to future generations. Gestalt Psychology Emphasizes Patterns and Context in Learning: Gestalt school founded by Max Wertheimer in 1912. Gestalt theory: the whole of personal experience is much greater than simply the sum of its constituent elements (the whole is greater than the sum of the parts). Gestalt psychologists relied not on trained observers but on the observations of ordinary people in investigating subjective experiences. The experience was called the &quot;phenomenological&quot; approach. The perception of objects is subjective and dependent on context. 2 people can look at an object and see different things. The lesson is the mind perceives the world in an organized fashion that cannot be broken down into its constituent elements. The Unconscious Influences Everyday Mental Life: 20th century psychology was influenced by Sigmund Freud. Worked with people who had neurological disorders. He believed their cause was by psychological factors. He believed that the unconscious mental forces were often in conflict which produced psychological disorders. He developed Psychoanalysis= a method to bring the contents of the unconscious into conscious awareness so that conflicts can be revealed. Most Behaviour Can Be Modified By Reward and Punishment: John B. Watson, an American psychologist who developed the approach known as behaviourism= emphasizes the role of environmental forces in producing behaviour. If psych wanted to be science then it had to stop trying to study mental events that could not be directly observed. He believed that understanding the environmental stimuli was all one needed to predict a behavioural response. Behaviourism was concerned with animal's acquired new behaviour which is known as learning. Behaviourists continue to be viewed as critical to understanding the mind, brain, and behaviour. How People Think Affects Behaviour: How people perceived situations could influence behaviour and that learning was not as simple as the behaviourists believed. Animals could learn by observation. Cognitive psychology is concerned with higher-order mental functions such as intelligence, thinking, language memory and decision making. Information processing theories of cognition viewed the brain as hardware that ran the mind as software. Social Situations Shape Behaviour: Social psychology focuses on the power of situation and how people are shaped through their interactions with others. Psychological Therapy is Based on Science: 20th century a humanistic approach was used to treat disorders led by Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. It stressed how people can come to know and accept themselves in order to reach their unique potentials. It was a session of questions and listening during therapy. Sub disciplines Focus on Different Levels of Analysis: Psychological scientist= those who use the methods of science to study the brain, the mind, and behaviour. Psychological Practitioners= apply the findings of <a href="/keyword/psychological-science/" >psychological science</a> in order to do such things as help people in need of psychological treatment, design safe and pleasant work environments, counsel people on career paths, or help teachers design better classroom curricula.