Psy 1101

PSY 1502

CHAP 1

Roots

“Psyche” + “logia”

• Psych (named after Greek goddess): Breath, spirit, soul
• Logia: Study of

Early thought in psychology:

• Philosophers asked questions about the mind
• Physiologists detailed the anatomy of the brain.

Psychology = philosophy + physiology

Subject of matter

Psychology is the scientific study of both behavior and mind

1. Scientific study: Knowledge is discovered through empirical

observation

2. Behavior: Any kind of observable action, including words, gestures, responses, and biological activity

3. Mind: The contents of conscious experience, including sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and emotions

Aristotle

Introduced the concept “tabula rasa” (or blank slate), to describe it as the mind, in which our experiences are written.

How do we study psychology?

[pic 1]

Nature vs Nurture

Nature

• Genes and biology

• Some psychologists believe we are born with some knowledge

• The panda illustrates the Gestalt psychologists’ law of closure

Ex: Panda illustrated in lecture. Understanding that this is a panda not because it is illustrated so, but because of the way the foreground (black) is super imposed on the background (white). This is one of the examples of closure.

Nurture

• Environnement (direct experience, passive or active participant)

• Knowledge we have from direct experience

Evolution and behaviour

Natural Selection

• The basic principle that traits which improve the likelihood of survival en route to reproduction are more likely to be passed down through generations

• Every generation carries genes from the previous generations, these can be random, they do not reflect on the ones you got from your parents.
• These variations have caused animals to adapt to the demands of their environment (hostile force of nation) (ex: drought)
• Evolutionist psychologists (why men and women adopt different mating strategies)

First psychology laboratory

Who?

• Wilhelm Wundt

• “Father of Modern Psychology”

• Advocate for using scientific techniques to study the mind

Where and when?

• 1879 – University of Leipzig, Germany

• First setup of psychology laboratory.

What?

• Studied immediate conscious experience

Structuralism (school of thought)

Who?

• Edward Titchener What?

• Can study the structure of the mind by breaking it down into elementary parts

How?

• Systematic introspection via self-reports (writing things down)

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