PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Emergence, Behaviorism, Cognitive Revolution

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Jordan Poppenk

Document Summary

Psychology is the scientific study of behaviour, thought and experience. Social sciences- to understand interactions we have to understand the people. Law- a standard, a typical person with ordinary powers of self control. Economics- an assumption- people maximise their needs and desires. Sociology- an emergent property- is group behaviour logical. Introduced an idea, to start studying behaviour we need to study the smallest bits of behaviour to build up from there, more accessible. William james- researched the purpose of conscious behaviour. Experiment- present dog with ringing of bell before food was placed. Many repetitions, ring the bell and the dog will salivate. General statements (universals) cannot be a result of finite observations. Hypothesis educated guess , specific testable situations, concern observable process. Theories, describe body of data, integrate data into a whole, not all theories are equal. Good theories explain many observations, generate new predictions, must be falsifiable, parsimonious theories win. Example: your grandma tells you a detailed life story.