PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Materialism, Neurochemistry, Psychodynamics

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Brenda Baird

Document Summary

What event defined of scientific psychology: scientific psychology began in germany in 1879 when wilhelm wundt opened the first psychology laboratory. Why did introspection fail as method for understanding how the mind works: people"s self-reports varied, depending on the experience and the person"s intelligence and verbal ability. Structuralism used introspection to define the mind"s makeup; functionalism focused on how mental processes enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish. Behaviorism: the view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behaviour without reference to mental processes. Humanistic psychology: historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual"s potential for personal growth. Freudian psychology: emphasized the ways our unconscious thought processes and our emotional responses to childhood experiences affect our behaviour. It recaptured the field"s early interest in mental processes and made them legitimate topics for scientific study. Cognitive neuroscience: the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language).