Ch 1- What is Psychology?
Psychology
: the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
•
Science
- systematic methods
o
Goal: describe, predict, explain behavior and mental processes (sometimes to control or
change them)
o
Scientist’s tool kit:
Critical thinking
- think deeply, ask questions, evaluate evidence
Skepticism
- question what people “know to be true”
Objectivity
- strive to be moved by the evidence, not desires
Curiosity
- the drive to ask questions
•
Behavior
- everything we do that can be directly observed
o
Relatively easy to observe and measure (it can be counted or described qualitatively)
•
Mental processes
- thoughts, feelings, motives; cannot be observed directly
o
Psychologists have to be clever- make inferences about mental process from observable
behavior
•
Pseudoscience
- pseudo= fake; info that is couched in scientific terminology but is not supported by
sound scientific research
(ex: astrology)
•
Personality psychology
- examines traits that differentiate you from somebody else
•
Objectivity
- waiting to see what the evidence tells us rather than going w/our hunches
o
Best way to be objective is to apply the empirical method
•
Empirical method
- gaining knowledge through observation of events, collection of data, and
logical reasoning
•
Positive psychology
- emphasizes human strengths (topics on hope, optimism, happiness, and
gratitude)
o
Goal: to bring a greater balance to the field by moving beyond focusing on how and why
things go wrong in life to understanding how and why things go right
Ancient History
•
When thinking of psych, people think of Sigmund Freud
:
o
Believed human behavior caused by dark, unpleasant, unconscious impulses pressing for
expression
•
Socrates
, Plato
, Aristotle
debated nature of thought & behavior, including the possible link btwn
mind & body
o
Used reason and personal observations
•
Rene Descartes
“I think, therefore I am”
o
The only certainty is that one has a mind, therefore it must be separate from the body
o
Descartes- emotion; Aristotle- happiness
Recent History
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)- founding father of modern psych
William James (1842-1910):
•
Philosopher/physician
•
Combined philosophizing about the
mind
with empirical study
•
First reaction time experiment in 1879
•
Meas. reaction time
inferred speed
of brain and nerve activity (meas time
lag btwn the instant a person heard a
sound and the moment he/she pressed
a telegraph key to signal he/she heard
it)
•
Philosopher/Psychologist
•
Less interested in
what
the mind is but
interested in
why
the mind works the
way it does; not looking inside the
mind but the outside world
•
Didn’t believe in structures; mind
characterized by constant change in
response to a continuous flow of info
from the world- “stream of
consciousness
”
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•
Wundt’s Structuralism
: geared towards
understanding the “structures” of the
mind
o
Structures= basic elements or
processes not physical structures
o
Method = introspection; present
stimulus
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- Winter '11
- Mastronarde
- Psychology, mental processes, btwn brain activity
-
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