PS101 Chapter 1: PS101 Chapter 1
Document Summary
What is psychology: (pg 2 + 3) study of behavior and mental process such as thought, reasoning and emotion. Seeking to describe, explain, and predict the occurrence of such behavior. Scientific methods are used to offer possible explanations and suggestions about behavior and how to manage it. Many misconceptions and myths about psychology (eg. most mentally ill people are violent) Provides a way of building knowledge that is relatively accurate. As psychology evolved, its focus, methods and explanatory models have changed. It emerged as a scientific discipline over a century ago. Aristotle"s theory of memory is still a foundation to many contemporary theories of memory. Rene descartes argued the dualism of mind and body that they were fundamentally different. Roots of psychology: started with questions posed by philosophy, psychologists used methods borrowed from the physical scientists this is the difference between philosophy and psychology. A new science is born: the contributions of wundt and hall (pg 4 + 5)
