PSYC 2000 Chapter : Chapter 1 Notes
Document Summary
Chapter 1, part 1: psychology and its history. Psychology: scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Behavior: any action: ex: talking, laughing, movement. Mental processes: internal activity of our minds: ex: perceptions, thoughts, feelings, latent constructs: cannot be observed directly. Describe: observing a behavior and noting everything about it. Explain: find an explanation: theory: general explanation of a set of observations or facts, explanation builds the theory. Predict: determine what will happen in the future. Control: focus is to change a behavior from an undesirable one to a desirable one. Max wertheimer: believed in gestalt psychology, gestalt psychology: how we experience the world, whole is greater than the sum of its parts , looked at whole component, not individual parts. Sigmund freud: worked with patients whose complaints had no identifiable physical cause thought cause must be in the mind. John watson: behaviorism: study of observable behavior.
