PSY 202 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Margaret Floy Washburn, Cognitive Psychology, Edward B. Titchener
2 Jul 2018
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Week 1 Class 2
Introduction
Why study psychology
● psychology is about you and about us
○ psychology is the most popular major at many colleges and universities
○ psychology is personally relevant
○ psychology is relevant to us all
Why do psychology?
● How can we differentiate between uninformed opinions and examined conclusions?
● The science of psychology helps make these examined conclusions, which leads to our
understanding of how people feel, think, and act as they do!
Intuition and Common Sense
● many people believe that intuition and common sense are enough to bring forth answers
regarding human nature
● examples:
○ opposities attract
■ someone would maybe want an opposite/someone different from them when
they’re looking for a short-term relationship
○ birds of a feather flock together
● intuition and common sense may aid queries, but they are not free of error
○ they’re based on individual experiences which are flawed
○ psych takes these common sayings and tests them
Hindsight Bias
● “I-knew-it-all-along” phenomenon
● After learning the outcome of an event, many people believe they could have predicted that
very outcome
● Example:
○ We only knew the dot.com stocks would plummet after they actually did plummet
7 Themes of Psychological Science
1. Psychology is an empirical science
○ The scientific method: objective, systematic procedures used to understand what is
being studied
○ Understanding how science is conducted makes it possible to tell which studies are
credible and which are not
2. Nature and nurture are inexorably entwined
○ are psychological characteristics a product of nature or nurture?
■ biologically innate or acquired through education, experience, and culture
○ psychologists now widely recognize both as important
3. The brain and mind are inseparable
○ Rene Descartes’ theory of dualism
■ maintained the distinction between mind and body
■ assigned the body many mental functions previously considered the mind’s
domain
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
○ Psychological scientists largely reject dualist thinking
■ mind is what the brain does
○ Story of Phinease Gage
■ rod shoved through his head
■ damaged his brain and completely changed his personality
4. A new biological revolution is energizing research
○ growth in understanding mental activities’ biological bases
■ interest in biology permeates psychological science
○ Example:
■ mice should run away from cats, after damaging parts of the brain of the mice
some of them reacted differently
5. The mind is adaptive
○ the brain has evolved over millions of years to solve problems related to survival and
reproduction
○ mind is adaptive in biological and cultural terms
■ genetic mutations
○ evolutionary theory:
■ determining whether human mechanisms are adaptive
■ need to be aware of the challenges of our ancestors in order to understand
our current behavior
■ preference as humans for sweet and fatty foods
■ mating preferences (attraction)
■ males look for youthful appearing female in order to pass their
genes in the future. Females, on the other hand, look for
maturity, dominance, affluence and boldness in males.
■ Solving adaptive problems
■ At about 9 months we develop stranger anxiety, we begin walking
■ Humans may have “cheater detectors”
■ Visual cliff: Infants won’t crawl over the cliff, even if their mothers are
standing on the other side encouraging them to do so
■ Adaptive mechanisms enhance our chances of survival
■ ex: scared of snakes and spiders, don’t like bitter tastes
(poisons)
○ culture provides adaptive solutions
■ dependency on group culture
■ cultural evolution has been much faster than biological evolution
■ there is evidence that people from different cultures possess different minds
6. Psychological science crosses levels of analysis
○ four levels of analysis reflect the most common research methods for studying
behavior
■ biological
■ the physical body contributes to mind and body
■ neurochemical and genetic processes
■ individual
■ difference in personality
■ mental processes that affect how people perceive the world
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Psychology is about you and about us. Psychology is the most popular major at many colleges and universities. The science of psychology helps make these examined conclusions, which leads to our understanding of how people feel, think, and act as they do! Many people believe that intuition and common sense are enough to bring forth answers regarding human nature. Someone would maybe want an opposite/someone different from them when they"re looking for a short-term relationship. Intuition and common sense may aid queries, but they are not free of error. They"re based on individual experiences which are flawed. Psych takes these common sayings and tests them. After learning the outcome of an event, many people believe they could have predicted that very outcome. We only knew the dot. com stocks would plummet after they actually did plummet. 7 themes of psychological science: psychology is an empirical science. The scientific method: objective, systematic procedures used to understand what is being studied.
