Chapter 1
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Psychology: the scientific study of behaviour and the factors that influence it, psychology is whatever psychologists do
Basic Research: the quest for knowledge purely for its own sake
Applied Research: the quest from information designed to solve specific practical problems Jigsaw Program: a program that requires children to cooperate with one another rather than compete against each other - Example: Robbers Cave
Perspectives: vantage points for analyzing behaviour and its biological, psychological and environmental causes
Mind-Body Dualism: the belief that the mind is a spiritual entity not subject to the physical laws of the body
Monoism: holds that the mind is not a separate spiritual entity from the body. Most modern scientists hold the view that mind and body are one
Repression: mechanism protecting us by keeping anxiety-arousing impulses in the unconscious depths of the mind
Explanations of Behavior
- Behavior can be explained on at least 3 different levels
- Each level addresses different mechanisms
- The levels are not exclusive
- No level is better than the other, just a different aspect or focus of study
- Biological Factors: ex. brain mechanisms, neurotransmitters
- Environmental Factors: ex. noise levels, heat levels, cultural factors
- Psychological Factors: ex. what is is about an individual, learning perspective, interpretation perspective
Goals of Psychology
1. Describe how people and other animals behave
2. Explain and understand the causes of these behaviours 3. Predict how people and animals will behave under certain conditions
4. Influence or control behaviour through knowledge and control of its causes to enhance human welfare
Example of this method: Robbers Cave
6 Biological Perspectives:
Biological: focuses on the physical side of human nature. It emphasizes the role of our highly developed brain, biochemical processes that underly thoughts, emotions, and actions, and genetics.
- Karl Lashley
- School: Evolutionary Psychology: focuses on the role of evolution in the development of behaviour and mental mechanisms
- Sociobiology: holds that complex social behaviours are also built into the human species as products of evolution
- Behaviour Genetics: the study of how behavioural tendencies are influenced by genetic factors
Cognitive: views humans as information processors and problem solvers whose actions are governed by though and planning. It is concerned with ageless questions about how information is perceived and then organized in our minds.
-School: Structuralism: the analysis of the mind in terms of its basic elements.
Structuralists believe that sensations are the basic elements of consciousness and use introspection (looking within). - Wundt
- School: Functionalism:
-Focus on the function or significance of behavior- evolutionary mechanism.
-How does a behavior help us to adapt
-Functionalism is primarily biological.
Example: psychobiology, neuroscience, ethology
- School: Gestalt Psychology:
- Focus on perception and experience
- Look at how we experience the world
- Look at how people think and remember- construct our experience from our perceptions - Consider everything in context, more than just the separate parts of what things are made up of
- Both biological and environmental
Examples: cognition, information processing
- Cognitive development in children: Piaget and Baldwin
- Social Constructivism: proposes that what we consider reality is in