PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Psy, Edward B. Titchener, Psychoanalytic Theory

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Mark Dallas

Document Summary

Psychology: the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. 3 different approaches: scientific: answering questions objectively based on facts, data and established methods, behaviour: observable actions, mental processes: thoughts, feelings, sensations, perceptions, motivations, dreams, subjective experiences. Philosophy: philosophers asked questions about human existence: Rene descartes: dualism, the idea that the mind and body are separate entities that interact. Plato: nativism, the idea that certain kinds of knowledge are inborn or innate: when we are born, we are filled with knowledge and we just need to write it into our teenage years (one extreme) Aristotle: philosophical empiricism, the idea that all knowledge is acquired through experience: (other extreme-opposite of plato) tabula rasa- we are a blank slate when we"re born and must acquire knowledge as we get older. Physiology: branch of biology that studies the functions and parts of living organisms: 1600s: physiologists begin to study the working of the brain and its relation to behaviour.