PSYC 2600 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Scientific Method, Ion, Psychophysiology

• School: Carleton University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2600
• Professor: Lorena Ruci

Document Summary

Words that describe traits, attributes of a person that are characteristic of a person & Thursday, july 7th, 2016 perhaps enduring over time. Traits presumed to be internal: individual carry desires, needs, & wants from 1 situation to next. Desires & needs presumed to be causal in that they explain behaviour of individual who possess them. Traits can lie dormant even when behaviours aren"t expressed. View traits as causes of behaviour = ruling out other causes. No matter where you go, there you are: *diagram in lecture slide* Meet gina & her underlying need: urge. Here"s how it works: *diagram in lecture slide* Traits as just descriptive summaries of person"s attributes: no assumption about internality or causality. Traits describing trends of expressed behaviour w/o assumption of cause: allows for role of other causes (e. g. , social situations) Most important ones are those that should guide: definition of individuals, development of measures, research to understand & predict behaviour.