Origins of Psychology:
● Physiology & Philosophy
● Psychology is the study of the soul
● Psyche can also be our mind
● Aristotle & Plato:
-Nature/Nurture Debate
● Descartes:
-Mind/Body Problem- 'Dualism'- the mind and body are separate yet intertwined
● Phineas Gage:
-famous case study about how the brain affects behavior
-had a pole sent through his skull, damaging his frontal lobe
-it was said that his personality changed
● Angelo Mosso discovered that blood flowed to the brain during mentally taxing tasks through a balance machine
1.1-1.6:
1.1- Psychology helps us understand mental activity, behavior, and brain processes- the 3
critical aspects of psychology
Mental Activity & Behavior-
● Behavior is based off of how your mind processes information. Once you see/do/experience something, you take in that
information, have certain feelings about it, and act based off of that.
Brain Processes-
● Your brain is the reason you are able think, feel emotions, and behave in different ways.
Empiricism- using an objective, evidence based approach in psychology- this approach allows psychologists to gain insight to more th
one person
Objective-
● Impersonal, science-based insights around the world
Subjective-
● Personal thoughts or beliefs about how the world works
1.2- Psychology uses the science of learning to help you study better
-There are 6 important learning strategies- IMPACT:
Improving-
, ● Having a growth mindset and believing you can change and improve in certain areas
Monitoring-
● Self-regulated studying helps you set goals and keep track of work
Practicing-
● Answering questions and practicing repetition helps improve scores
Attending-
● Focusing your attention and eliminating distractions will help
Connecting-
● You can use cues to connect things you're learning to previous knowledge
Thinking Deeply-
● By elaborating, you use the active process of explaining and giving examples to help you learn better
1.3- Psychology develops your critical thinking skills
Critical Thinking- evaluating information in depth, not just surface level- this helps to truly learn the information
Step 1- Is the source of this claim believable?
● Keep an open mind, but don't accept it at face value
● Determine who is providing this claim and if they are known/reputable
Step 2- Is there strong evidence to support the claim?
● Be cautious of accepting a claim because of your own opinions and intuition
Step 3- Do other believable sources agree with the claim?
● A good way to find other sources are to look at the sources cited by the original. If there are none, they probably aren't
believable in the first place.
● Some beliefs are based on personal experience, some are based on something we've heard, and some are based on evidenc
1.4- Psychology improves your life personally and professionally
Personally-
● Learning how your brain processes information will help you understand how you respond to certain things, improving how
you react to/around others
● Psychology can also help you understand other people, how they think, feel, and behave.
Professionally-
● Having a growth mindset will help you reach your goals
● Most jobs include interactions or thinking about how others would react- psychology will help you know how other people'
brains work
● Physiology & Philosophy
● Psychology is the study of the soul
● Psyche can also be our mind
● Aristotle & Plato:
-Nature/Nurture Debate
● Descartes:
-Mind/Body Problem- 'Dualism'- the mind and body are separate yet intertwined
● Phineas Gage:
-famous case study about how the brain affects behavior
-had a pole sent through his skull, damaging his frontal lobe
-it was said that his personality changed
● Angelo Mosso discovered that blood flowed to the brain during mentally taxing tasks through a balance machine
1.1-1.6:
1.1- Psychology helps us understand mental activity, behavior, and brain processes- the 3
critical aspects of psychology
Mental Activity & Behavior-
● Behavior is based off of how your mind processes information. Once you see/do/experience something, you take in that
information, have certain feelings about it, and act based off of that.
Brain Processes-
● Your brain is the reason you are able think, feel emotions, and behave in different ways.
Empiricism- using an objective, evidence based approach in psychology- this approach allows psychologists to gain insight to more th
one person
Objective-
● Impersonal, science-based insights around the world
Subjective-
● Personal thoughts or beliefs about how the world works
1.2- Psychology uses the science of learning to help you study better
-There are 6 important learning strategies- IMPACT:
Improving-
, ● Having a growth mindset and believing you can change and improve in certain areas
Monitoring-
● Self-regulated studying helps you set goals and keep track of work
Practicing-
● Answering questions and practicing repetition helps improve scores
Attending-
● Focusing your attention and eliminating distractions will help
Connecting-
● You can use cues to connect things you're learning to previous knowledge
Thinking Deeply-
● By elaborating, you use the active process of explaining and giving examples to help you learn better
1.3- Psychology develops your critical thinking skills
Critical Thinking- evaluating information in depth, not just surface level- this helps to truly learn the information
Step 1- Is the source of this claim believable?
● Keep an open mind, but don't accept it at face value
● Determine who is providing this claim and if they are known/reputable
Step 2- Is there strong evidence to support the claim?
● Be cautious of accepting a claim because of your own opinions and intuition
Step 3- Do other believable sources agree with the claim?
● A good way to find other sources are to look at the sources cited by the original. If there are none, they probably aren't
believable in the first place.
● Some beliefs are based on personal experience, some are based on something we've heard, and some are based on evidenc
1.4- Psychology improves your life personally and professionally
Personally-
● Learning how your brain processes information will help you understand how you respond to certain things, improving how
you react to/around others
● Psychology can also help you understand other people, how they think, feel, and behave.
Professionally-
● Having a growth mindset will help you reach your goals
● Most jobs include interactions or thinking about how others would react- psychology will help you know how other people'
brains work
