PSYC 1150 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Murder Of Kitty Genovese, Belief Perseverance, Confirmation Bias
24 Dec 2016
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Document Summary
Science vs. intuition: the scientific study of the mind, brain and behavior, founder of american psychology: william james, not easy to define, difficult to study and no simple explanations. Psychology and levels of analysis: levels of analysis are similar to rungs on a ladder, start from biological and end and range to social cultural influences. Lowest rung: biological the brain (molecular/neurochemical level; involves molecules and brain structure) Middle rung: psychological (mental/neurological level; involves thoughts, emotions and feelings) What makes psychology challenging and fascinating: 5 main challenges, human behavior is difficult to predict (actions are multiply determined) Environment: psychological influences are rarely independent (lots of factors that can influence something) Ex: anorexia could be due to perfectionism, anxiety, ocd, media: individual differences among people (you cannot generalize 100%, people influence on another (reciprocal determinism) Ex: if you"re outgoing, you"re going to make your friends more extrovert: behavior is shaped by culture.
