PSYCH101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Midlife Crisis, Wilhelm Wundt, Pseudoscience

• School: University of Waterloo
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYCH101
• Professor: Barry Mc Clinchey

Document Summary

Psychology: how our physical, mental states and external environment affects our thoughts, feelings and behaviours. Pseudoscience = unsupported popular opinion, scientific sounding words (psychobabble); ex. midlife crisis, empty nest syndrome. Promises quick fixes to life"s problems and challenges. People over age of 60 report more well-being than earlier in life; midlife crisis is proven as pseudoscience. How to do psychology with critical thinking: ask questions and examine evidence. Personal experiences, generalizations: avoid intense emotional reasoning. No mathematical right or wrong; evidence on both sides. There may be more than one reason for something. Old man buys sports car; may not be midlife crisis but because he has more free money now that kids are gone. Phrenology: bumps in skull tells about personality; pseudoscience. Analyze experience into basic elements: introspection (methodology) Too subjective; everybody is different; impossible to document general knowledge: functionalism (william james) Emphasis on function and behaviour instead of analysis and description.