PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Margaret Floy Washburn, Wilhelm Wundt, B. F. Skinner

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Robert Brown

Document Summary

Prologue: the story of psychology (p. 1- 17) Psychology: the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes. Socrates and plato concluded that the mind is separate from the body and knowledge is innate. Aristotle believed that soul is not separate from the body, and knowledge grows from experiences. Rene descartes agreed with socrates and plato. He dissected animals and concluded fluid in brain"s cavities contained animal spirits , which flowed from the brain through nerves to muscles, provoking movement. He also believed that some ideas were innate. Francis bacon: the human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds. John locke believed we were born a blank slate, believed in empiricism. Empiricism: the view that a) knowledge comes from experience via the senses, and b) science flourishes through observations and experiments.