PSY1EFP Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Cognitive Training, Nootropic, Psychological Science

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EFP Lecture 1 Session 1 - Introduction
What is Psychological Science?
Psychology’s aim is to …
Understand behaviour (in both humans and animals), and as a secondary goal, to treat behaviours
deemed abnormal.
To do this we need to:
Describe what is known about the behaviour
Explain why people (or animals) behave that way
Predict future behaviour of people (or animals) by studying past behaviours, and
Influence (control) behaviour in some way
Thus, psychology is both a discipline and a practice
Psychological Science requires critical thinking
Critical thinking:
Systematic way of evaluating information to reach reasonable conclusions
Thinking that is purposeful, reasoned, and goal directed
Used in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions
If: too many cooks spoil the broth, yet many hands make light work, then what should you do?
Why study Psychology
To gain insight and to acquire practical information
Psychologists agree to disagree on which behaviour is important to study…
Observable behaviour - that can be measured
Unobservable behaviour – thoughts and feelings
But, the approach and the rigour of the study are consistent across topic areas
Discussion
What sorts of products or services promise to enhance their user’s intelligence/brain processing
capacity? Brain training, Meditation, Playing music, Sleep, Brain food, Drugs
What evidence supports their effectiveness?
How do you decide if you should use these?
Decision Making
Many psychologists focus on the processes and capacities of the mind and pay much less attention to
the neural underpinnings of these processes
Decisions can be influenced by the way a decision is framed
A group of shoppers presented with 80 percent lean meat is more likely to buy it than a group offered
meat that is 20 percent fat.
People are heavily influenced by differences in how their options are described
PSY1EFP is designed to
Introduce the core content areas which for some of you will be expanded upon in your second and third years of
study;
Develop students’ ability to communicate arguments clearly and succinctly;
Develop students’ skills for group work;
Introduce students to library research skills with a focus on psychological literature
Develop the skills of critical thinking and analysis; and hopefully to make you a more effective human being
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
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Document Summary

Understand behaviour (in both humans and animals), and as a secondary goal, to treat behaviours deemed abnormal. Explain why people (or animals) behave that way. Predict future behaviour of people (or animals) by studying past behaviours, and. Thus, psychology is both a discipline and a practice. Systematic way of evaluating information to reach reasonable conclusions. Thinking that is purposeful, reasoned, and goal directed. Used in solving problems, formulating inferences, calculating likelihoods, and making decisions. To gain insight and to acquire practical information. Psychologists agree to disagree on which behaviour is important to study . But, the approach and the rigour of the study are consistent across topic areas. Brain training, meditation, playing music, sleep, brain food, drugs. Many psychologists focus on the processes and capacities of the mind and pay much less attention to the neural underpinnings of these processes. Decisions can be influenced by the way a decision is framed.

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