PSYC 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Unconscious Mind, Mary Whiton Calkins, Psychoanalytic Theory

• School: Memorial University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Dr.Susan Walling

Document Summary

Psychology: the study of mental processes and behaviours. Psychology is concerned with empirically examining the mind and behaviour and determining how each is influenced by the psychobiology of the organism as well as the effects of the external environment. Mental processes: the activities of our brain when engaged in thinking, observing the environment, and using language. Mental processes include complex experiences such as, thinking, imagining, and remembering. Behaviour: observable activities of an organism, often in response to environment cues. When psychologists study mental processes and behaviour, they generally have four goals: Description: psychologists seek to describe very specifically the things that they observe. Explanation: telling what, where, when, and how is sometimes not enough. A key goal for (cid:373)a(cid:374)(cid:455) ps(cid:455)(cid:272)hologists is to a(cid:374)s(cid:449)e(cid:396) the (cid:395)uestio(cid:374) of (cid:862)(cid:449)h(cid:455)? (cid:863) Prediction: psychologist also seek to predict the circumstances under which a variety of behaviours and mental process are likely to occur.