PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 7: Pineal Gland, Monism, Operational Definition

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

Document Summary

The body can be said to be separate from the soul: the soul can have some spiritual/religious significance. Consciousness can be said to be separate from the body. Ren e des cartes came up with the idea of dualism: suggested that the pineal gland was central to consciousness (wrong) Dualism the idea that the body and soul are separate. Operational definition: awareness of subjective experience. Has difficult measuring this definition numerically: can report own mental state. What does it take to report a subjective experience: have the experience, remember the experience (long enough to report it, report the experience. Example: those who have cerebral achromatopsia (colour blindness) cannot physically see colour and cannot imagine colour. What is the cost/benefit ratio? (for the subject) It is more ethical to injure unconscious/less conscious entities (i. e. , carving initials in the bark of a tree does damage to a living organism, but is not considered unethical)