PSYC 102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Wilhelm Wundt, Scientific Method, Experimental Psychology
Document Summary
Psychology scientific study of behavior and mental processes: ranges from behavior of single brain cell to behavior of groups/entire cultures. Myth: psychologists are only interested in abnormal disorders/problems. Fact: actually, just as interested in normal every topics emotions, memory, relationships, etc. Idea that mind and body were separate entities that interact to produce sensations, emotions, etc. Nature vs nurture philosophers debated which was more important inborn nature of individual or its environmental influences that nurture it: today psychologists know that its impossible to detangle them. Early philosophers could only advance so much limited to intuition, observation, & logic. Psychology"s emergence was based on advances in other sciences. Physiology branch of biology that studies functions and parts of living organisms. Wilhelm wundt founder of psychology used scientific methods to study mental reaction times to stimuli from 1875-1900: ex = how long it took someone to detect sight & sound of bell ring.
