PSYC 100 Lecture 1: Psyc Notes Weeks 1 & 2

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

Document Summary

What is psychology: psychology = the study of how we think and behave from a specific viewpoint. Rationalism: rationalism = the pursuit of truth through reason and, through rationalism, ancient greek philosophers examined logic many questions: Do our perceptions equal reality socrates: through logical argument, socrates concluded that our, early psychologists used reasoning/logic to explain human perceptions are not always the same as reality behaviour. Relevance of psychology in rationalism and empiricism: founding fathers of psychology: Wilhelm wundt focused on the smaller elements that make up human experience. William james focused on the advantages resulting from different human attributes: both wundt and james used scientific methods & scientific thought to help them organize their research. They used introspection as one of their tools. Introspection = examination/observation of one"s own mental/emotional processes: the hallmark of the structuralists view is analysis the breakdown of things into simpler parts, which once understood, can serve to understand the whole.