PSY2012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Wilhelm Wundt, Empiricism
Document Summary
Psychology - formally defined as the study of human behavior and mental processes. Empiricism - knowledge that is gained through the senses by observation. Behavior - human actions that we can observe. Mental processes - the thoughts, feelings, and motives of humans. Despite popular belief, sigmund freud is not the father of modern psychology. The father of modern psychology is willhelm wundt. Willhelm wundt- structuralism, asks the question what?"". William james- functionalism, asks the question why?" . Charles darwin- natural selection, evolution, asks the question how?" . Structuralism uses the method of introspection to understand mental processes. Functionalism is the study of how we interact and adapt to our surroundings; how the mind interacts with the external world. Natural selection is the process of evolution in which species with advantageous heritable traits produce more offspring slowly changing the species over time.
