PSYC 2330 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Observational Techniques, Empiricism, Pineal Gland

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 2330
• Professor: Francesco Leri

Document Summary

1 background and rationale for the study of learning and behaviour. Behaviour is the result of learning (for the most part: ex. we learn to read, write, count, etc, ex. we learn when to relax and when to become anxious. Learning facilitates our survival and promotes our well-being. We learn things from our social and physical environments, even without special instruction. Automatic procedural learning does not require awareness. Declarative learning is more accessible to conscious report. Before descartes the prevailing view was that human behavior is entirely determined by conscious intent and free will. He recognized that people do many things automatically in response to external stimuli, but he also knew free will and conscious control existed: so he came up with cartesian dualism. Dualism there are two classes of behavior: involuntary and voluntary involuntary = automatic reactions to external stimuli and is mediated by a special mechanism called a reflex.