PSYC101 Lecture Notes - Pineal Gland, Language Production, Empiricism
10 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
History of psychology
Many early philosophers framed the questions that we still discuss today
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What is the relationship between the mind and the body?
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Are we born with a certain amount of knowledge, or do we have
to learn everything ourselves?
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Is behaviour a product of free will or automatic responses?
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Are the mind and body the same?
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Descartes believed them to be separate but can influence each other
Body cannot think
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Mind initiates the body through the pineal gland (“animal spirits” transmit
information)
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Descartes was largely incorrect – Modern psychologists believe the mind and body are
the
same
Pineal gland relates to hormones
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Links between brain damage and loss of cognitive abilities
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Language production and comprehension
Broca’s aphasia (production, broken down slow speak but can understand
and knows what she wants to say)
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Wernicke’s aphasia (comprehension, can produce words easy but can not
understand the question)
§
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Medication for body can influence mind
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Mind = what the brain does
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Where does knowledge come from?
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• Empiricism(e.g., Aristotle, John Locke); Experiences shape you (nurture)
• Nativism(Eg.,Descartes)contrasts with empiricism; Innate you are born with it (nature)
Are our behaviours voluntary or involuntary?
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Empiricism vs nativism: nurture vs nature
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Theory of evolution(Charles Darwin,1809-1882)
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All living things are a product of evolution and natural selection
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• Baby’s cry
Behaviours are selected for that overcome difficulties/problems
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Lecture Week 2
Monday, 27 February 2017
7:02 PM
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Behaviours are selected for that overcome difficulties/problems
Adaptive traits that further reproduction and survival
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Persist from one generation to the next
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Darwin argued that behaviours and psychological traits can be passed from parent
to child
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• Influential to psychologists
Theory of evolution
More recently, psychologists believe we are influenced by genes but environment plays
a large role
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Nature plus nurture:
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• Nature imposes limitations on what nurture can do
• Nurture may trigger some genetic predisposition (mental disorders)
• We are the product of an interaction between the two
First schools of psychology
Foundations of psychology
Wundt made psychology an independent discipline
Medical doctor
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Seen as the father of modern psychology
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Firstformallaboratoryin1879
University of Leipzig
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First time you could major in psychology
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Wundt believed psychology should be a science
Scientific approach
Controlled observations
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Explore consciousness (awareness of experience)
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“Principles of Physiological Psychology” (1874)
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Introspection and reaction times
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Explored attention, memory and sensory processes
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Structuralism
Wundt believed that sensations and feelings were key
• Identify elements
• Explore how they combine
Titchener (1892) coined the term structuralism
• Examine how elements of consciousness are related(e.g., sensations, feelings and
images)
Limitations
Not possible to directly observe workings of the mind
Subjective experiences
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Document Summary
Many early philosophers framed the questions that we still discuss today. Descartes believed them to be separate but can influence each other. Mind initiates the body through the pineal gland ( animal spirits transmit information) Descartes was largely incorrect modern psychologists believe the mind and body are the same. Links between brain damage and loss of cognitive abilities. Broca"s aphasia (production, broken down slow speak but can understand and knows what she wants to say) Wernicke"s aphasia (comprehension, can produce words easy but can not understand the question) Where does knowledge come from: empiricism(e. g. , aristotle, john locke); experiences shape you (nurture, nativism(eg. ,descartes)contrasts with empiricism; innate you are born with it (nature) All living things are a product of evolution and natural selection: baby"s cry. Darwin argued that behaviours and psychological traits can be passed from parent to child: influential to psychologists. More recently, psychologists believe we are influenced by genes but environment plays a large role.
