PSY-2012 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Empiricism, Human Behavior
Document Summary
Founder of american psychology: psychology and levels of analysis. Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior. Psychology is a discipline that spans multiple levels of analysis. Loss of important personal relationships, lack of social support. Decrease in pleasurable activities, moving and talking slowly, withdrawing from others. Depressed thoughts, sad feelings, ideas of suicide. Differences among people in the size and functioning of brain structures related to mood. Differences in levels of the brain"s chemical messengers that influence mood. Variations in people"s genes that predispose to depression: what makes psychology distinctive- and fascinating (1) human behavior is difficult to predict, in part because almost all actions are multiply determined (produced by many factors) We need to skeptical of single-variable explanations of behavior. Reciprocal determinism can make it challenging to isolate the causes of human behavior (5) people"s behavior is often shaped by culture.
