PSY 105 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Reward System, Psychoanalysis, Neurology

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 105
• Professor: Dana Williams

Document Summary

Psychology: scientific study of behaviour and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism"s physical state (biological approach), mental state (cognitive and psychodynamic approach) and external environment (social and behaviorist approach) Goals of a psychologist: description, explanation: cause and effect, prediction: does a present behaviour predict a future behaviour, control: of behaviour. Can look at these goals in three levels: brain: neural transmitters, person: emotions, thoughts and ideas and personality, group: peer group, family, culture, etc. Your own psychology effects your theories and how you do research. Talk about sensation and perception: perception: select, organize, interpret sensations, sensations: passively go into brain, brain: selective attention, prior experiences and expectations influence what you perceive. Called confirmation bias: there isn"t one right or wrong perspective. Psychology is a combination of two disciplines that came before that: philosophy and natural science.