Psychology is the mental process and behaviour. ⁃ it is not physical due to its reliance on Empirical Evidence
Critical Thinking: helps people evaluate conflicting findings on psychological issues that are personally and socially important
Founder of Psychology was Willem Wundt. He developed structuralism (the structure of the mind)
Structuralism: emphasized the analysis of immediate experience into basic elements.
Functionalism: founded by Charles Darwin ⁃ emphasized the purpose of behaviour
Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis psychoanalysis emphasized the unconscious causes of mental and emotional problems, the idea of unconscious
Points of View of Psychology
1. Biological: bodily events associated with actions, thoughts and feelings, and genetic contributions to behaviour. 2. Learning: how the environment and a person's history affects behaviour. 3. Cognitive: Mental processes in perception, problem solving, belief formation, etc. 4. Socio Culture: how social contexts and cultural rules affect an individual's beliefs and behaviours. 5. Psychodynamics: unconscious motives, conflicts and desires. ▪ Two movements do not fit in the 5 : feminist psychology and humanist psychology.
Applied Psychology: the practical use of psychological knowledge Basic Pyschology: the knowledge for it's own sake Pyschotherapist: unregulated term for people who perform therapy. Clinical Pyschologist : has a PhD and EdD or PsyD Psychiatrist: has an MD Pyschoanalyst: licensed social workers, councillors etc.
Chapter 2
Ideal Scientist i. states hypotheses and predictions precisely ii. skeptical of claims, solely on faith or authority iii. relies on empirical evidence iv. resists confirmation bias v. complies with the principle of falsifiability vi. open about methods and results so findings can be replicated
Descriptive methods: all psychologists use to describe and predict behaviour but not necessarily to choose one explanation over other.
Case studies: are detailed descriptions of individuals used typically by clinicians. Are also valuables in exploring new research topics. Typically sources rather that tests of hypothesis.
Observational studies: researchers systematically observe and record behaviour without interfering in any way with the behaviour
Pyschological tests: used to measure and evaluate personality traits, emotional states, aptitudes etc.
Survey: questionnaire or interview that asks people directly about their experiences, attitudes and opinions.
Correlations: studies that look for relations between phenomena. a measure of the strength of a positive or a negative relation between two variables and is expressed by the coefficient of correlation.
Experiments: dependent + independent variables ➜ controlled condition, random assignment.
Placebo: a fake treatment
Single-blind procedure: the experimenter knows who is in which group; participant does not.
Double-blind procedure: Neither experimenter or participate knows who is in which group.
• descriptive statistics ➜ summarize data • inferential statistics ➜ how impressive data is • significance tests ➜ how likely the results are by chance
Concerns in Cross-Culture
cross sectioned: studying 2 groups, (old + young) longitudinal study: styling the same age group over many years.
Chapter 3
• Evolutionary pwsychologists: study our commonalities • behavioural genetics: study our differences • genes: basic unit of heredity located on chromosomes (DNA) • Linkage studies: looks for patterns of inheritance of the genetic markers whose locations of the genes are already known • the ability to take the surface structure of any utterance and apply rules of syntax to infer its underlying deep structure must depend on an innate faculty for language.
Features Common to all Languages: ⁃ parents do not correct their