PSY20: Week 1 Lecture

Notes from Synchronous Sessions Only

Introduction

3 Pillars in Understanding Who We Are

● Religion
○ Operates on the idea of authority
● Philosophy
○ Focused on the idea of rationalism
● Science
○ Discoveries and re-discoveries
○ Scientific thinking revolutionized the method of analysis
■ Analyzing: deconstructing what you are studying into basic units
○ Wilhelm Wundt: Man is composed of something material (body) and immaterial
(religion and philosophy), then how can we study this immaterial aspect of man in
a scientific way?
■ Mind, instead of soul/spirit
■ Study of mind
■ Deconstructing the mind to analyze it
■ School of Structuralism (Wundt, then Titchener brought
Structuralism in the U.S.)

3 Theories in Science that Questioned Religion

● Heliocentric Theory
○ Prior to this, many believed that the Earth is the center of the universe
○ We are still special because we are created in God's image. However, …
● Theory of Evolution
○ Proposed that everything had to do with survival
■ Characteristics of a creature depended on their environment
○ Influenced the study of the mind
■ Why do we have memories?
■ Why do we have consciousness?
■ Maybe there's an adaptive function for each structure of the mind.
■ School of Functionalism (James)
■ First psychologist in the U.S.
■ Titchener was a philosopher
○ We are still above animals because we are rational. However, …
 ● Freud’s Theories
○ Proposed that humans are not completely rational

Conclusion
● Knowledge evolves. It is not stagnant. It is changing.

What is Science?

2 Types of Reality
● Material reality
○ Physical
○ Objective
○ External
● Immaterial reality
○ Virtual
○ Subjective
○ Internal

Positivist Science
● Associated with physical sciences
○ Physics
○ Chemistry
○ Biology
● Became the model of what "science" is
● Only ideas in external reality could be studied scientifically
○ External reality: outside our 5 senses
○ Thus, it can be observable or describable
○ Empiricism: able to describe using the 5 senses
● Observability
○ Description is the first step to understanding
○ Using
■ Words
■ Confounded by subjectivity
■ Numbers (measurement)
■ For objectivity
● Discoverability
○ Can only be done if phenomena can be observed
● Regularity
○ There must be consistent patterns that are discoverable
 ○ Example: mathematical formulas
● Explanation
○ Determinism: cause and effect relationship

Why was Psychology snubbed, and how was it accepted?

● For the previous goals of science, psychology was snubbed.
● To overcome these challenges, John B. Watson proposed an alternative to studying the
mind.
○ Advocated that psychology should study observable human behavior
■ Could be measured in frequency, duration, etc.
■ Could be observed in consistent patterns
■ Could be explained with cause and effect/stimulus and responses
■ Stimulus
■ Possible external factors
■ Responses
■ Physical
■ Physiological
■ Causal relationship can be tested using experimental methods
■ Stimulus and response can vary depending on what is
experimented on
○ Became the president of the American Psychological Association
○ Birthed the School of Behaviorism

Post-positivism

Gestalt Psychology
● Assumption in behaviorism
○ 1:1 - S:R ratio
● Argument by Gestalt
○ 1:2 - S:R
■ Rubin's Vase
○ There must be something in between S to R.
■ No answer
■ Thus, it was referred as the "black box challenge"
■ We will never know what it might be
● We will never know what internal reality is

Assumptions re: the "Black Box"

● Internal in nature
● Innate, inherent, inborn
○ Cannot be zero
○ All things are of some capacity
● Remains unknown
● The most we could do is hypothesize/theorize or form an idea as to what it could be
○ How can we be confident with our hypothesis? Context.