Psychology Ch1-5 Notes - Ch 1 What is Psychology Psychology...

Ch 1- What is Psychology?
Psychology : the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
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Science - systematic methods
o
Goal: describe, predict, explain behavior and mental processes (sometimes to control or
change them)
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Scientist’s tool kit:
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Critical thinking - think deeply, ask questions, evaluate evidence
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Skepticism - question what people “know to be true”
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Objectivity - strive to be moved by the evidence, not desires
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Curiosity - the drive to ask questions
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Behavior - everything we do that can be directly observed
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Relatively easy to observe and measure (it can be counted or described qualitatively)
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Mental processes - thoughts, feelings, motives; cannot be observed directly
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Psychologists have to be clever- make inferences about mental process from observable
behavior
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Pseudoscience - pseudo= fake; info that is couched in scientific terminology but is not supported by
sound scientific research (ex: astrology)
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Personality psychology - examines traits that differentiate you from somebody else
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Objectivity - waiting to see what the evidence tells us rather than going w/our hunches
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Best way to be objective is to apply the empirical method
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Empirical method - gaining knowledge through observation of events, collection of data, and
logical reasoning
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Positive psychology - emphasizes human strengths (topics on hope, optimism, happiness, and
gratitude)
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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
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When thinking of psych, people think of Sigmund Freud :
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Believed human behavior caused by dark, unpleasant, unconscious impulses pressing for
expression
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Socrates , Plato , Aristotle debated nature of thought & behavior, including the possible link btwn
mind & body
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Used reason and personal observations
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Rene Descartes “I think, therefore I am”
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The only certainty is that one has a mind, therefore it must be separate from the body
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Descartes- emotion; Aristotle- happiness
Recent History
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)- founding father of modern psych William James (1842-1910):
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Philosopher/physician
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Combined philosophizing about the
mind with empirical study
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First reaction time experiment in 1879
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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)
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Philosopher/Psychologist
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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
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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
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Structures= basic elements or
processes not physical structures
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Method = introspection; present
stimulus  subjects document the