PS102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Gustav Fechner, Wilhelm Wundt, Psychology Today
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Chapter 1 Overview
● What is psychology?
● Psychology’s Early Roots- Philosophy
● The early days of Psychology
● Twentieth Century approaches
● Psychology today
Psychology definition: the scientific study of mental processes and behaviour
-Mental Processes= things happening in our minds that no one else would be able to observe
E.g. using language, accessing memory, problem solving, using language, etc.
-Behaviour= actions that can be observed by someone else
E.g. talking, singing, eating, sleeping, studying, etc.
What is Psychology?
FOUR goals of Psychology:
1. Description of what one observes
a. What is depression?
2. Explanation of these observations
a. What causes depressive symptoms?
3. Prediction of the circumstances that lead to the expression of a specific behaviour
a. When are we more likely to see depressive symptoms?
4. Controlling behaviour
a. How can we prevent depressive symptoms in the future?
LEVELS of Analysis
❖ Mental processes and behaviour can be studied at multiple levels of analyses
➢ The Brain- brain structure and function
■ How is the neurotransmitter serotonin related to depression?
➢ The Person- individual thoughts and feelings
■ How do our thought patterns influence our feelings of depression?
➢ The Group- family, friends, culture
■ How does having a social support system influence depression?
“How bright does a light have to be for us to see it?” “How much louder does tone B have to be
than tone A for there to be a noticeable difference?”
Psychology’s Early Roots
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Psychology’s early roots were in philosophy and psychophysics.
➔ Philosophy= the study of knowledge and reality
◆ Ancient Greek philosophers- approx. 400 B.C.E.
● Socrates, Plato, Hippocrates, Aristotle
◆ By the 1600’s, modern science began to thrive
● Bacon, Descartes, Locke
➔ Psychophysics= the study of the relationship between physical stimuli and their
psychological effects
◆ Pioneered in the 1800’s
● Herman von Helmholtz, Gustav Fechner
The Early Days of Psychology
● Wilhelm Wundt
○ Opened the first psychology lab in 1879
○ Studied consciousness
● G. Stanley Hall
○ Credited with many firsts
■ First psychology lab in North America (1883); launched the first
psychology journal (1887); helped establish the APA (1892)
● James Mark Baldwin
○ First psychology lab in Canada (1890)
Battle of the ‘schools’ of traditional psychology- what should be the focus?
● Structuralism- led by Edward Titchener
○ Sought to understand the basic elements of consciousness
○ Relied on introspection
● Functionalism- led by William James
○ Sought to understand the function of the mind
○ Led to the many other schools of thought
● Gestalt psychologists:
○ Said consciousness cannot be broken down into elements
○ We perceive things as whole perceptual units
■ “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”
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