PSYC85H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 6: The Emotions, Computer Data Storage
Document Summary
Observed that humans are creatures of habit and that the formation of habits depends on plasticity. Plasticity: the ability of an organism to alter its behaviour as circumstances change. One function of a habit is to make our behaviour more efficient, because once a behaviour has become habitual, we no longer need to pay as much attention to it. He regarded habit as a socially conservative force and called it the great flywheel of society". Introspection: reporting what we discover after we look into our own minds. Psychologist"s fallacy: to confuse his own standpoint with that of the mental fact about which he is making his report"; no theory should stand between the psychologist and the observations they make. He argued psychology was a natural science and that minds were objects in the natural world. Wasnt much for experimental method, but believed in comparative methods: gathering data on other species and cultures to throw light on others.
