PSY 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Blood Pressure, Classical Conditioning, Spirit Possession
5 Jun 2018
School
Department
Course
Professor
Introduction to Psychology I- First Class September 6, 2017
Where does psychology belong?
Economics Philosophy
Psychology
Sciences Arts and Humanities
Write do oe eaple of…
A colour- blue
Fruit- cherries
A bird- hawk
A fish- salmon
A tree- oak
• Its eas to predit the aerage resposes of large groups of people
• Its uh harder to predit a oe partiular persos idiidual respose
What is Psychology?
• The scientific study of the mind and of behaviour
o An academic discipline – a major subject of scientific study in colleges and
universities, aimed at discovering how the mind works and what determines how
people behave.
o A profession – which applies the results of scientific study to the healing of
individuals (adapting people to the world), making the world easier for people to
function within (adapting the world to people).
o Psychology is a science that tries to figure out how the human mind works, and
ultimately, how it enables us to do all the remarkable things that we do
What Psychology has in common with physics, biology and chemistry: The scientific method
(1) Observe some phenomenon.
(2) Construct a hypothesis regarding its cause.
(3) Use the hypothesis to make predictions.
(4) Test the predictions with further observations and (repeatable) experiments.
(5) Modify your hypothesis to account for new facts.
(6) Repeat steps 3-5 until no discrepancies remain.
Psychology, biology, chemistry, physics: Applying the scientific method at different levels.
• Psychology (Humans and human interactions)
• Biology (Cells and cellular interactions)
• Chemistry (Molecules and molecular interactions)
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Introduction to Psychology I- First Class September 6, 2017
• Physics (Particles, atoms and atomic interactions)
Ist Psholog all just oo sese?
• Psholog deals ith people ad their ehaiour. We all ko people. Were all
interested in how they behave. We all form theories…hoeer, ost of us eer test
them (using the scientific method). Psychology does.
• The purpose of psyhology is to gie us a opletely differet idea of the thigs e
ko est. Paul Valéry
Testig our assuptios aout ho people ork…
• A common intuition - Beauty is i the eye of the eholder
(1) When we test a large enough group of people, we find general agreement on
ho does, ad ho doest hae a eautiful fae.
o People find symmetry attractive
(2) This agreement crosses cultures.
(3) Even infants can tell who is beautiful.
• Psychology says – No it’s ot! Atually, eauty is ot all i the eye of the eholder
sujetie.
Psychology is a science:
• So, rather than simply accepting something as true because it seems correct (intuition),
or because it seems reasonable (logic), psychology requires evidence gathered from
repeatable experiments (science).
• Psychology formalizes and then tests our assumptions about how people work, using
data to decide between alternative hypotheses. It bases conclusions on data from
experiments.
Ooh, psholog, eh? “o, a ou read id the?
• No – Psychology is not so much about finding out what people are thinking, but more
about how the mind enables us to think (how minds enable us to learn language, for
example). That is, Psychology helps us to find out how people are able to think, not
what they are thinking about.
• Psychology is also about predicting behaviour (but, only in general, not in any one
persos partiular ase.) It is easy to predict the average responses of large groups of
people. It is uh harder to predit a oe partiular persos idiidual respose.
Ooh, psholog, eh? Ca ou tell e hats rog ith e / rother/ sister /
father / at the?
• Clinical psychologists treat depression, anxiety, schizophrenia, etc.
• Counselling psychologists treat marital and family dysfunction.
• These two groups make up more than half of all psychologists.
• However, psychologists also come in other flavours.
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Introduction to Psychology I- First Class September 6, 2017
Applied psychologists:
• School psychologists
• Teacher training, behaviour management, working with children with disabilities,
delays, or special talents.
• Industrial/organisational psychologists
• Selecting and training new recruits, improving morale, communication, and satisfaction.
• Forensic psychologists
• Apply research to criminal justice and rehabilitation systems (e.g. Eyewitness testimony
or line-ups).
• Human factors psychologists
• Apply research to the design of new products (e.g. their shape, function, colour and
feel).
Research psychologists
• Conduct experiments and collect systematic observations to discover the basic
principles of behaviour and mind (on which therapy and application are based!).
• Many different kinds, including:
o Developmental psychologists
o Personality psychologists
o Social psychologists
o Health psychologists
o Peace psychologists
The relationship between research and applied psychologists:
• Research Psychologists
o (Design studies, collect data,
o and try to work out how the mind works.)
• Applied Psychologists
o (Take the results of those studies and use them
o to help children learn more effectively, design
o better products, or help treat people who are
o experiencing mental health problems.)
• The majority of your psychology professors will be either:
o Research psychologists
o Clinical psychologists (who have chosen to do teaching and research, as well as
clinical work)
A rough guide to studying the mind (or mental operations):
(1) Ask people to report their ipressios of ho their ids ork…
…soe etal operatios are not available to conscious awareness.
(2) Ope up peoples heads ad take a look at their rais…
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
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