PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Wilhelm Wundt, Tabula Rasa, Natural Selection

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Kenneth Campbell

Document Summary

Until 1920"s study of inner mental experience: wilhelm wundt, 1879: established 1st psych. Lab: focus on introspection: self-examination of mental life, father of experimental psych. John b. watson: in usa: study only public events, father of behaviourism. Additional influences: by 1920: unconscious influences, by 1950: neurophysiology, by 1970: cognitive processes. Some major issues (debates: stability vs. change does personality (for eg. ) change as we grow older, rationality vs. irrationality. Reliance on: cognitive (thought) abilities, primitive impulses, nature vs. nurture. What guides development: nature heredity/genetics, nurture environmnet/experience. Principle of natural selection (survival of the fittest) Basic: describe & explain behaviour and mental processes. Applied: assess a real life situation to solve a practical problem. Clinical: apply principles to assess, diagnose & treat emotional & behavioural problems (and to enhance functioning) Developmental study: human developments & factors that shape it from birth to old age.