Psychology Notes One

Psychology 1001.

Psychology is the study of the human mind.

Psychology is not a person who can prescribe you drugs when you are depressed.

What is Science?: Any systematic knowledge that is capable of resulting in reliable outcome or accurate prediction.

What is Psychology?: To understand the human behaviours; explain the why of individuals’ actions.

—>How do psychologists explain behaviour?

1. Describe

2. Categorize

3. Measure

Casual events: Events which cause other events.

Psychology is the study of the causes of behaviours. It is also the application of the findings of psychological research to the solution of problems.

Historical Roots of Psychology

Historical Roots of Psychology:

• Philosophy: Two main questions:

  • Are the body and the mind connected or distinct?

  • Are we born with our abilities or do we acquire them?

• Biology:

  • Doctrine of specific nerve energies: The idea that each sensory nerve has its own characteristics that informs the organism about the source of a stimulus.

  • Localization of function.

    • Ablation

    • Looking at existing brain damage.

Roots of Psychology: Philosophy. Are the mind and body connected?

Monism: The theory that they are connected. “The mind and the brain are connected”.

Dualism: The theory that they are not connected. “The mind and brain are not connected”.

Some well known dualists: Socrates, Plato.

Monists: Aristotle

Rene Descartes:

• Agrees with Socrates and Plato

  • They are distinct

• Animal spirits flow from the brain through the nerves

• Mental processes reside in the pineal gland.

Roots of Psychology: Philosophy. Are we born with our qualities?

Nativism:

• Genetic pre-programming.

• Learning is based on innate predispositions

• Experience still needs to occur.

Empiricism:

• Tabula rasa

• Learning occurs through experiences

  • Senses

• Learning occurs through associations

Roots of Psychology: Biology

Johannes Muller: Doctrine of specific nerve energies

• All nerves send an identical message

  • electrical impulse

• Different kinds of information travel on different channels

  • Visual channels

  • Auditory channels

• Important: Different brain areas have different functions

Mari-Jean-Pierre: Experimental ablation (brain disection)

• Remove part of the brain to:

  • observe which functions are lost

  • heart rate, breathing, etc.

Paul Broca: Discovered there is an area in the brain dedicated to speech.