Aug 24th

1quiz due: Sep 8th

watch new sakai syllabus

Aug 25th
Quit smoking is contagious
Psychiatrists are really medical doctors
If forget sth, its u failed to access(find) it

Aug 29th
1. What is psyc? >>>scientific study of Behavior and Mental processes.
(-science: making verifiable, objective prediction
-behavior: observable acts
-mental process: storing, recalling, using info/feeling )
2. Psyc: focus on individual Behavior>>>unlike other social sciences
Origins:
Rene Descartes
Beliefs:
Rationalist: true knowledge comes through reasoning
Nativist: Heredity provides individuals with inborn
knowledge and abilities and we use this to reason
Doubt everything>>>only way be certain about
everything
I think, therefore I am
John Locke

Saw the mind as receptive and passive, with its main

goal as sensing and perceiving
Tabula rasa>>>we are born as a blank slate(nurture)
Direct contrast to rationalist Descartes

Gustav Fechner (more scientific)

Psychophysics: he investigated relationship between
physical world and our conscious psychological world.
Just Noticeable Difference(JND) approach

Wilhelm Wundt

1st lab (1879)

focus on consciousness
find basic elements of conscious processes
discover how sensations and feelings are
connected
specify laws of connection
introspection
self-observation: seeing mental processes in
immediate experiences

Structuralism

lots of work on sensation and perception and breaking

them down into minute detail
three basic mental elements:
- images
- feelings
- sensations

Functionalism

focus on adaptation
-- apply Darwins natural selection to mental
process
William James
-- stream of consciousness
-- focus on why questions
-- consciousness is personal/selective, continuous
(cannot be cut up for analysis), and constantly
changing>>> (structuralism was foolish to search for
common elements to all minds)

Freuds Psychodynamic Theory

Conscious vs unconscious conflicts
Unconscious: motivations and memories of which we
are not aware
Mental illness arises from being overwhelmed by which
of these is in control????????
Psychoanalysis therapy: tell me about your childhood.
Behaviorism

Focus on observable behavior

J.B. Waltson

the main goal of psyc should be prediction and

control of behavior
stimulus-response theory
we respond to stimuli with behaviors, not
thoughts
Pavlovs dog studies
Reinforcement for behavior
If our behavior produces rewarding consequences,
then we will do it again

Humanistic Psychology
People have free will
Human potential
People chose who they are

Aug.31
Cognitive Psychology: conscious thoughts are important
Cross cultural research???
Evolutionary Psychology
Positive Psychology
-more at positive functioning >>like what makes people happy
*Todays theoretical perspectives
-behavioral
-psychodynamic
-humanistic
-cognitive
-neuroscience/biopsychology
psyc defined: study behavior and physiological and cognitive processes
Research in Psychology:
Goals of psychological research
-describe and measure
-establish a relationship between cause and effect
-develop theories about why people behave the way that they do
-application

Sep.2th
Empirical Research
-empirical>>>Knowledge based on direct observation
-theory>>>
set of ideas which try to explain what we observe
goal is to find support or disprove
--we can never prove
build theory:
-begin with broad questions
-narrow down
-operationalize
-observe
-analyze
-reach conclusions
-generalize back to questions
the process of doing research:
1. select a topic
good theory:
-has predictive power
-is simple and straightforward
2. search the literature
-find out what others have done that maybe
applicable to your
area of research
3. formulate hypothesis
-hypothesis: specific statement of expectation
derived from theory
-variable: can be any reasonable event,
characteristic, condition, or behavior.
4. pick research method
-experimental or correlational
-field vs laboratory
5. collect and analyze your data
methods
archival: look at existing research (can get very large samples)
naturalistic observation: watching people,it occurs in its natural setting
with no attempts at intervention on the part of the researcher (kind of
like spy)>>>avoid people change when they know they are being
observed
trace method: trace through trash of sth.

Survey researchmost popular because it is easy to collect a lot of

data
Case study research: look at subject individually, qualitative, often
used in subjects which cannot be quantified
Correlational research: eg: children with bigger feet spell
better>>>because they are older
Experimental research: researcher manipulates one variable to see
effect on another
Try to hold everything else constant
True experiments have
Random sampling
Random assignment
Disadvantage: --often artificial
--cannot explore some research Qs
because
cannot manipulated as
independent variables
*placebo effect: people tend to act
according to factors they are told

dependent variable (outcome variable)

independent variable(predictor variable)
Ethics in research
Should the study be done?
o Value vs potential cost
How do we protect people?
o Informed consent
o Confidentiality and anonymity

12th. Sep
Biology and behavior

s
The parasympathetic nervous system (PNS) controls homeostasis and the body at
rest and is responsible for the body's "rest and digest" function. Thesympathetic
nervous system (SNS) controls the body's responses to a perceived threat and is
responsible for the "fight or flight" response.
Central nervous system
Brain
2% of body weight, uses 20% of resources
composed of bunches of neurons, which form nerves
Spinal cord
complex tangle of nerves that stretch from brain to tailbone
collects and transmits info between brain and peripheral nervous
system
also initiates reflexes: automatic responses to an event
peripheral nervous system

PNS has two parts

Somatic(SNS): nerves controlling voluntary muscle movements
Automatic(ANS): controls glands, organs, blood vessels
ANS has two parts
Sympathetic: arouses body to prepare for
action (fight or flight)
Parasympathetic: slows down body to reserve
energy
14th Sep