01:830:101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Monism, Psychological Science, Heredity

• School: Rutgers University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: 01:830:101
• Professor: Lawrence Jacobs

Document Summary

Chapter 1: what is psychology: psychology is practical. The goal of psychology is to understand, explain, and predict. What is psychology: psychology is a word deriving from greek roots: behavior. There are 3 aspects: psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes, behavior: it is everything we do that can directly be observed, mental processes: it describes thoughts, feelings, motives we experience privately, Psyche - (cid:498)soul(cid:499) or (cid:498)mind,(cid:499) logos - (cid:498)word(cid:499) can(cid:495)t be observed. Psychology(cid:495)s roots: aristotle, a naturalist and philosopher, theorized about psychology(cid:495)s concepts. The 4 goals of psychology are: description, explanation, prediction, and control. Aristotle (384-322 b. c. : psychology got its start in the 19th century. Dualism - belief that the mind is separate from the brain but somehow controls the brain, therefore the rest of your body. Monism - view that conscious experience is generated by and therefore is inseparable from the brain.