PS101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Gustav Fechner, Wilhelm Wundt, Tabula Rasa
Document Summary
The scienti c study of mental processes and behaviour. Mental processes: activities of our brain when engaged in observing, and using. Prediction of the circumstances that lead to the expression of a speci c behaviour. How can we prevent the expression of aggression. Mental processes and behaviours can be studied at multiple levels of analysis: The brain brain structure and function. Philosophy: the study of knowledge and reality. Ancient greek philosophers asked questions about the human mind approx. It wasn"t just what they asked, hut how they developed scienti c meathods. By the 1600"s modern science began to thrive: Francis bacon created empiricism the view that all knowledge comes from experience. Descartes contemplated mind-body dualism mind as distinct from the body and connected to the body via the pineal gland. John locke argued we are born with a tabula rase and that we learn from experience.
