PSYC 333 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: The Paradigm Shift, Agreeableness, Cognitive Psychology

• School: McGill University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 333
• Professor: Arash Abizadeh

Document Summary

Focuses on understanding basic human nature e. g. maslow"s hierarchy of needs: Lower needs (physiological) are at the bottom and higher level needs (psychological) are at the top. Basic needs must be met before the individual can pursue higher level needs. In theory, this applies to all individuals and there are no exceptions. Focuses on understanding individual differences e. g. the big five" personality traits: The idea is that people vary along these trait dimensions. Assumption: knowing where people fall on each dimension will allow to predict their behaviour across situations and overtime. Focuses on the power of the situation (to override individual differences), examples: The asch experiment: looked at the effects of group on perception and conformity. Subject and controls compare length of lines. Controls erroneously agree about length of the lines. 50-80% of subjects agree with group on trial. The stanford prison experiment (zimbardo): demonstrated the power of the situation. Participants were randomly assigned to be prisoner or guard.