PSYC 1000 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: B. F. Skinner, Jean Piaget, Meritocracy

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 1000
• Professor: Benjamin Giguere

Document Summary

Quest to understand mental processes, behavior are shaped by experience by using a scientific approach. Aristotle (4th century bce) questioned to understand the relationship between body and psyche. First one to think of human as independent internal beings (within frame of own body) Assumptions of casualty: william wundt (1832-1920) added two key elements to make psychology science, carefully measured observation, experiments. Also relied on self-report , data and introspection. Had people report on sensations + other elements of expirence in reaction to stimuli. Tried to use these introspective reports to build a view of minds structure. Opposed structuralism focus on introspection and search for smallest elements. Developed functionalism: focus on outcome of mental processes and behaviour. Focus on behaviour as way to derive general principals of psychology. Return to mental processes but using other approach in introspection. Search for cause of mental processes and behaviour. Needed systematic approach to understand causes of mental behaviour.