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Course Overview
Survey course – brief coverage of all major topics
Each major topic (a course itself in upper years)

More specialization – 2nd, 3rd, 4th

Course begins with the micro – moves to macro

Human behaviour – endlessly fascinating:

examples
n  What parents teach? Lessons from them
n  1). Tell the truth –
dependably only until 4/5
Why?
n  2). Don’t talk to strangers –
93% of child sexual abuse by acquaintances/
family
Why the fear of strangers ?

n  3). Two kinds of people in the world

n  Those who prefer dogs/those who prefer cats?
n  Which are you?
n  Differences in personality between dog and cat owners
(Gosling, 2014), differences in how introverted, how lively
you are, sensitivity, and how intelligent pet owners are!
n  Dr. McCann?
n  Some dog facts
n  Major medial schools in U.S. have “resident” dogs that the
med students can borrow to take for a walk during exam
period

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Dogs and psychopathology

n  Freud – assessment/timing

Therapy/working dogs

Your psychology knowledge: How much do you

know/how sure are you?

n  a small ungraded quiz

n  Think about not only your answer but
also about how confident you are about
that answer?
n  Even if right, can you explain it?

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Little Known Facts: T or F???

n  Most people use only 10% of their brain power
n  F
n  Some people are left-brained, others are right-brained
n  F
n  The unconscious has been shown to dramatically affect people’s
behaviour
n  T
n  Playing Mozart’s music to infants boosts their intelligence
n  F
n  When dying, people pass through a universal series of psychological
stages
n  F
n  Hypnosis is useful for retrieving memories of forgotten events
n  F

n  If you are unsure of your answer when taking a test, it’s always
best to stick with your initial hunch
n  F
n  Individuals can learn things like languages while listening to
tapes while asleep
n  F
n  The polygraph/lie detector is an accurate means of detecting
dishonesty
n  F
n  It’s better to express anger (catharsis) toward another person
than to hold it in
n  F

n  Electroconvulsive Shock Therapy (ECT) is a physically dangerous

and brutal treatment for depression
n  F

n  There has been a recent dramatic increase in the incidence of

autism
n  F
n  Autism can be caused by the side effects of vaccinations
n  F F

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On the subject of autism… did you know….

n  YORK AUTISM RESEARCH ALLIANCE – (

http://healthresearch.info.yorku.ca/alliance-in-autism/)
n  Newest York researcher – Jonathan Weiss – Canada Research Chair in Autism
Spectrum Disorders Treatment and Care (http://ddmh.lab.yorku.ca/)
n  World’s first diagnosed case of autism – Donald Gray Tripplett (now 80 years
old)
n  Diagnosed in 1943 (Kanner, 1943) – “mania for spinning objects” , showed “autistic aloneness” –
“showed an abstraction of the mind that made him perfectly oblivious to everything around him….”
n  Still lives in family home by himself in Forrest, Mississippi, life is very routinized
n  Loves to drive a Cadillac around town
n  Disappears each month (travels by himself all over the world, each trip lasts exactly 6 days,

n  - More about autism in later in course

n  1010 is designed to introduce you to the subject

matter (YOU), scientific research methods, classic
and contemporary research questions, the varieties
of psychological disorder, and treatment methods for
those suffering from psychological disorder
n  And to allow you to select other courses of interest in
psychology on an informed basis