PSYC 100 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Behavioral Medicine, Humanistic Psychology, Human Factors And Ergonomics

• School: Queen's University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100
• Professor: Dr.Ada Mullett

Document Summary

What is psychology?- science of behavior, thought and experience. Ancient greek philosophers such as plato and socrates examined questions like do people have free will? or are people inherently good or evil? . Rationalism- the pursuit of truth through reason and logic. Materialism- holds that the only things that exist are matter and energy, all things are composed of material and are the result of material interactions. Functionalism- belief in the practical application, the theory that all aspects of society serve a function and are necessary for the survival of that societ. Many psychologists took an empirical approach instead (experiments) this approach was applied to the questions regarding why people do the things they do. Psychophysics (sensation and perception) measures the relationship between changes in psychical stimulus and our sensation of the changes in the stimulus. Founding fathers of psychology are william james and wilhelm wundt and they focused on the smaller elements that made up the human experience.