PSYA01H3 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Scientific Literacy, Biopsychosocial Model, Statistical Hypothesis Testing
Chapter 1;
Psychology: scientific study of behaviour, thought and experience and how they can be
affected by physical, mental social and environmental factors
• To understand how each factor can influence our well-being and could contribute to
psychological disorders
Scientific Method:
• Ways of learning about the world
• Collecting observations
• Using theories to explain them
• Using theories to make predictions
• Dynamic interaction between hypothesis testing and construction of theories
Scientist: a person who carefully follows a system of observing, predicting and testing in the
fields of chemicals, physiology, human memory, or social interactions
Hypothesis: (Making predictions) is a testable prediction about processes that can be observed
and measured
• Can be rejected or supported (hypothesis does not need to be proved)
• Must be testable (Falsifiable, meaning hypothesis is precise enough that it could be
proven false)
• Support or rejection occurs after scientists have tested the hypothesis
Pseudoscience: An Idea that is present as science but does not actually utilize basic principles of
scientific thinking or procedure
Theories: an explanation for a broad range of observations that also generates new hypothesis
and integrate numerous finding into a coherent whole
• Are built from hypothesis (repeatedly tested + confirmed)
• Must be falsifiable
• Theories are not the same as opinions or beliefs
• All theories are not equally plausible
• The quality of a theory is not related to the number of people who believe it to be true
Biopsychosocial model: is a means of explain behaviour as a product of biological,
psychological and sociocultural factors
• Biological influences on our behavior involve our brain structures and chemicals,
hormones and external substances such as drugs
• Psychological influences our memories, emotions and personalities and how these
factors shape the way we think and respond to different people and situation
• Social factors influence the behaviour with family, peers, ethnicity and culture
Scientific literacy: the ability to understand, analyze and apply scientific information
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• Scientific explanation
• Critical thinking
• Application
• Knowledge and gathering
Principle of parsimony: the most parsimonious of a phenomenon should be the one we accept
1.2; How psychology became a science
“iee is a philosoph of koledge that’s stes fudaetal eliefs
1. Empiricism: a philosophical tenet that knowledge comes through experience
• Knowledge about the word is based on careful observation, not common sense
or speculation
2. Determinism: is the belief that all events are governed by lawful, cause + effect
relationship
Hippocrates (460-370 BCE):
• Ancient Greek physician
• Developed worlds 1st personality classification scheme
• 4 humors or fluids flowed throughout our body and influenced both health and
personality
• blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm
• different combinations of fluids lead to specific mood and behaviors
Galen of Pergamon (127-217):
• Roman PHYSICIAN
• Refined Hippocrates work
• The four humors combined to create temperaments or emotions and personality
characteristic remains stable throughout lifetime
1. Blood (sanguine): tendency to be impulsive
2. Yellow bile (choleric): tendency to be ambitious, energetic, a bit aggressive
3. Black bile (melancholic): tendency to be independent, perfectionistic, a bit introverted
4. Phlegm (Phlegmatic): a tendency to be quiet, relaxed, and content with life
* the work of both physicians moved to understand the human behaviour by categorizing
personalities
Zeitgeist (German word): General set of beliefs of a particular culture at a specific time in
history, spiit of the ties
Materialism: Belief that humans, and other living being are compose exclusively of physical
matter, we are nothing more than complex machine that lack a self-conscious, self-controlling
soul
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Document Summary
Psychology: scientific study of behaviour, thought and experience and how they can be affected by physical, mental social and environmental factors: to understand how each factor can influence our well-being and could contribute to psychological disorders. Scientific method: ways of learning about the world, collecting observations, using theories to explain them, using theories to make predictions, dynamic interaction between hypothesis testing and construction of theories. Scientist: a person who carefully follows a system of observing, predicting and testing in the fields of chemicals, physiology, human memory, or social interactions. Pseudoscience: an idea that is present as science but does not actually utilize basic principles of scientific thinking or procedure. Scientific literacy: the ability to understand, analyze and apply scientific information: scientific explanation, critical thinking, application, knowledge and gathering. Principle of parsimony: the most parsimonious of a phenomenon should be the one we accept. * the work of both physicians moved to understand the human behaviour by categorizing personalities.
