PSY 102 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Freudian Slip, Cognitive Neuroscience, Critical Thinking

• School: Ryerson University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 102
• Professor: Kosha Bramesfeld

Document Summary

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind, the brain, and behaviour. We can"t understand psychology by focusing on only one level of analysis, as each level tells us something different and gives us knowledge from different vantage points. This means that we each respond in different ways to the same objective situation (insult from a boss). It is difficult to come up with explanations of behaviour that apply to everyone: people often influence each other, making it difficult to isolate influences. For example, an outgoing person makes less outgoing people around him more outgoing, which in turn makes him even more outgoing. Called reciprocal determinism, the fact that we mutually influence each other"s behaviour, making it difficult to know what"s causing what: out behaviour is often shaped by our culture. Culture differences, like individual differences, place limits on the generalizations that psychologists can draw about human nature. Why we can"t always trust our common sense.