Chapter 1
Foundations for the Study of Psychology
Psychology = The science of behavior and the mind
- Behavior =Observable actions of a person or animal
- Mind = An individual’s sensations, perceptions, memories, thoughts, dreams, motives,
emotional feelings and other subjective experiences. This also includes unconscious
knowledge and operating rules built into the brain that provide the foundation for organizing
behavior and conscious experience.
Science = All attempts to answer questions through the systematic collection and logical analysis of
objectively observable data
The founding of Psychology as a science was in 1879 in Germany, by Wilhelm Wundt. He opened the
first psychology laboratory and wrote the first psychology textbook.
Fundamental Ideas of Psychology
- Behavioral and mental experiences have physical causes which can be studied scientifically.
- The way a person thinks, feels and behaves is modified, over time, by the person’s
experience in his or her environment.
- The body’s machinery, which produces behavior and mental experiences, is a product of
evolution by natural selection.
The Renaissance and the Enlightenment were times in which the foundational ideas of Psychology
could sprout. This is largely because of the dualist view of religion.
René Descartes stated that reflexes occur through purely mechanical means, without involvement of
the soul. However, nonhuman animals do not have souls, so for example, thought is only present in
humans. He suggested that the soul, though not physical, acts on the body at a particular location,
between the two hemispheres of the brain, after receiving input from “threadlike structures”
(nerves)
Problems with this view
Philosophy :
,How can a non-material entity have a material effect
How can the body follow natural law and yet be moved by a soul that does not
Psychology :
The whole realm of thought is out of bounds for scientific analysis if it is a product of a willful soul.
- Thomas Hobbes stated that the spirit or soul is a meaningless concept and nothing exists but
matter and energy (Materialism). Conscious thought is a product of the brain’s machinery
and is subject to natural law.
- Francois Magendie stated that the nerves entering the spinal cord contain 2 pathways. One
for carrying messages from the skin’s sensory receptors to the central nervous system and
one for carrying messages out to operate muscles.
- Scientists found brain area’s that could enhance or inhibit reflexes when active.
- Sechenov on Reflexology : All human actions are initiated by stimuli in the environment.
- Pierre Flourens performed experiments on animals that showed that damage to different
parts of the brain produces different kinds of deficit in ability to move.
These ideas gave substance to the idea of material basis for mental processes.
Empircism : The idea that human knowledge and thought derive ultimately from sensory experience.
We are machines that learn.
British empiricism : School of thought about the mind (John Locke, David Hartley, James Mill, John
Stuart Mill)
Sensory Experience -> Elementary ideas -> Complex ideas + thought
The Law of Association by Contiguity = The law that states if a person experiences 2 environmental
events at the same time or one after another, those events will become bound together in the
person’s mind, such that the sight of one event will, in the future, tend to elicit the thought of the
other.
Contiguity = Closeness in space or time
John Stuart Mill referred to this sort of analysis of the mind as mental chemistry.
, The Law of Association by Contiguity is still regarded as a fundamental principle of learning and
memory.
Nativism = The view that the most basic forms of human knowledge and the basic operating
characteristics of the mind (that provide the foundation of human nature) are native to the human
mind, so experience is not required. This is the opposite of Empiricism.
Immanuel Kant
- A priori knowledge = Knowledge, built into the human mind, needed to acquire
- A posteriori knowledge = Knowledge, gained from environmental experience.
Darwin stated that living things evolve gradually by natural selection. Individuals that are more
adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. Variation in hereditary
material produces variation in offspring that increase survival and reproduction rates. Darwin studied
the functions of behavior.
The innate mechanisms underlying human emotions, drives, etc. came about gradually to promote
survival and reproduction.
The Scope of Psychology
Level of Analysis : The level or type of causal process that is studied
Neural Brain Behavioral Biology
Neuroscience
Genetic Genes Behavioral Genetics Biology
Evolutionary Natural Selection Evolutionary Experience &
Psychology Knowledge
Learning Environmental Learning Psychology Experience &
Experience Knowledge
Cognitive Knowledge/Belief Cognitive Psychology Experience &
Knowledge
Social Other People Social Psychology Experience &
Knowledge
Cultural Individual’s Culture Cultural Psychology Experience &
Knowledge
Developmental Age-related Developmental Experience &
Psychology Knowledge
Foundations for the Study of Psychology
Psychology = The science of behavior and the mind
- Behavior =Observable actions of a person or animal
- Mind = An individual’s sensations, perceptions, memories, thoughts, dreams, motives,
emotional feelings and other subjective experiences. This also includes unconscious
knowledge and operating rules built into the brain that provide the foundation for organizing
behavior and conscious experience.
Science = All attempts to answer questions through the systematic collection and logical analysis of
objectively observable data
The founding of Psychology as a science was in 1879 in Germany, by Wilhelm Wundt. He opened the
first psychology laboratory and wrote the first psychology textbook.
Fundamental Ideas of Psychology
- Behavioral and mental experiences have physical causes which can be studied scientifically.
- The way a person thinks, feels and behaves is modified, over time, by the person’s
experience in his or her environment.
- The body’s machinery, which produces behavior and mental experiences, is a product of
evolution by natural selection.
The Renaissance and the Enlightenment were times in which the foundational ideas of Psychology
could sprout. This is largely because of the dualist view of religion.
René Descartes stated that reflexes occur through purely mechanical means, without involvement of
the soul. However, nonhuman animals do not have souls, so for example, thought is only present in
humans. He suggested that the soul, though not physical, acts on the body at a particular location,
between the two hemispheres of the brain, after receiving input from “threadlike structures”
(nerves)
Problems with this view
Philosophy :
,How can a non-material entity have a material effect
How can the body follow natural law and yet be moved by a soul that does not
Psychology :
The whole realm of thought is out of bounds for scientific analysis if it is a product of a willful soul.
- Thomas Hobbes stated that the spirit or soul is a meaningless concept and nothing exists but
matter and energy (Materialism). Conscious thought is a product of the brain’s machinery
and is subject to natural law.
- Francois Magendie stated that the nerves entering the spinal cord contain 2 pathways. One
for carrying messages from the skin’s sensory receptors to the central nervous system and
one for carrying messages out to operate muscles.
- Scientists found brain area’s that could enhance or inhibit reflexes when active.
- Sechenov on Reflexology : All human actions are initiated by stimuli in the environment.
- Pierre Flourens performed experiments on animals that showed that damage to different
parts of the brain produces different kinds of deficit in ability to move.
These ideas gave substance to the idea of material basis for mental processes.
Empircism : The idea that human knowledge and thought derive ultimately from sensory experience.
We are machines that learn.
British empiricism : School of thought about the mind (John Locke, David Hartley, James Mill, John
Stuart Mill)
Sensory Experience -> Elementary ideas -> Complex ideas + thought
The Law of Association by Contiguity = The law that states if a person experiences 2 environmental
events at the same time or one after another, those events will become bound together in the
person’s mind, such that the sight of one event will, in the future, tend to elicit the thought of the
other.
Contiguity = Closeness in space or time
John Stuart Mill referred to this sort of analysis of the mind as mental chemistry.
, The Law of Association by Contiguity is still regarded as a fundamental principle of learning and
memory.
Nativism = The view that the most basic forms of human knowledge and the basic operating
characteristics of the mind (that provide the foundation of human nature) are native to the human
mind, so experience is not required. This is the opposite of Empiricism.
Immanuel Kant
- A priori knowledge = Knowledge, built into the human mind, needed to acquire
- A posteriori knowledge = Knowledge, gained from environmental experience.
Darwin stated that living things evolve gradually by natural selection. Individuals that are more
adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. Variation in hereditary
material produces variation in offspring that increase survival and reproduction rates. Darwin studied
the functions of behavior.
The innate mechanisms underlying human emotions, drives, etc. came about gradually to promote
survival and reproduction.
The Scope of Psychology
Level of Analysis : The level or type of causal process that is studied
Neural Brain Behavioral Biology
Neuroscience
Genetic Genes Behavioral Genetics Biology
Evolutionary Natural Selection Evolutionary Experience &
Psychology Knowledge
Learning Environmental Learning Psychology Experience &
Experience Knowledge
Cognitive Knowledge/Belief Cognitive Psychology Experience &
Knowledge
Social Other People Social Psychology Experience &
Knowledge
Cultural Individual’s Culture Cultural Psychology Experience &
Knowledge
Developmental Age-related Developmental Experience &
Psychology Knowledge
