Psychology – Chapter 1

• Psychologists study a diverse set of topics including language, and how we recognize words
o Psycholinguistics – area within cognitive psychology that deals with language

The Nature of Psychology

• Scientific study of the behaviour and the mind

• Behaviour – actions and responses that we can directly observe
• Mind – internal processes (thoughts and feelings) that can’t be seen directly, but inferred
from
• Clinical psychology – study and treatment of mental disorders
• Cognitive psychology – study of mental processes, especially from a model that describes
the mind as a information processor
o They study topics such as problem solving, decision making, memory, attention, and
consciousness
• See page 3 for subfields of psychology
• Subfields of psychology often overlap, ex. Decision-making in a group, as a kid, etc.

Psychology’s Scientific Approach

• Science – a common theme researchers share in this field

o It’s a process that involves systematically gathering and evaluating empirical
evidence to answer questions and test beliefs about the natural world
o Empirical evidence – evidence gained through experience and observation from the
controlled manipulation with things

Understanding Behaviours: Pitfalls of Everyday Approaches

• There is a pitfall to our everyday approaches

• Different sources (like internet, books, media, etc.) promote a misconception
• This forms inaccurate beliefs
• Our experiences everyday are empirical evidence, but more so casual rather than
systematic
• EX. Taking mental shortcuts – judging someone based on stereotypes
• EX. Confirmation bias – selectively paying attention to things that promote our beliefs even
further, while downplaying or ignoring information inconsistent with them

Using Science to Minimize Everyday Pitfalls

• Psychologists can minimize biases and problems that lead to inaccurate conclusions by
adopting a scientific approach
• Ex. They will use precise instruments for evidence (like brain imaging)
• Ex. Several researchers will independently study something and then compare their findings
to ensure their reliability
• They examine behaviour under highly controlled experiments, where they attempt to keeps
factors constant while manipulating one to determine its influence
• The collective approach of scientists criticizing other scientists work ensures the bias does
not exist
• Science is ideally suited to examining testable questions about the natural world
o So not questions like “is God real?”
• Science is ultimately a self-correcting process

Thinking Critically About Behaviour

• Critical thinking – taking an active role in understanding the world around you rather than
merely receiving information
o Evaluating the validity of something presented to you as fact

Of Astrology and Asstrology: Potential Costs of Uncritical Thinking

• Misconceptions (such as believing the jumbled paragraph thing) can add up and contribute
to an increasingly misguided view of the world
• Pseudoscience – looks like science, but it lacks credible scientific evidence
o ex. Astrology, graphology, rumpology

Psychology’s Goals

1) describe how people and animals behave

2) explain and understand causes of behaviours
3) predict how people and animals behave under certain conditions
4) influence or control behaviour through knowledge and control of its causes to enhance
human welfare
• if we understand the causes of a behaviour and know when the causal factors are present
or absent, then we should be able to successfully predict when the behaviour will occur
• if we can control the causes, then we should be able to control the behaviour
• successful prediction and control are the best ways for us to know whether we truly
understand the causes of behaviour
• prediction can have important practical uses that don’t require a complete understanding of
why some behaviour occurs

Psychology as a Basic and Applied Science

• basic research – quest for knowledge purely for its own sake
o goal is to describe how people behave and to identify the factors that influence or
cause a particular type of behaviour
o research carried out in a lab or real-world settings
• applied research – designed to solve specific practical problems
o uses principles discovered through basic research to solve practical problems
• SEE PRACTICE PROB ON PAGE 8
Psychology’s Broad Scope: A Simple Framework

• Levels of analysis: framework that simplifies the diversity of factors that influence
behaviour, thoughts, feelings, etc.
o Biological level – brain processes, genetics
o Psychological level – thoughts, feelings, motives
o Environmental level – past and current physical and social environments to which we
are exposed

Mind-Body and Nature-Nurture Interactions

• Mind-body interactions – relations between mental processes in brain and functioning of

other bodily systems
o Focus our attention on the interplay between biological and psychological levels of
analysis
o Ex. Picturing food makes you hungry, dwelling on negative thoughts releases stress
hormones
• Is our behaviour shaped by nature (our biological endowment) or nurture (our environment
and learning history)? – swung back and forth btw these in the past, currently thought it is a
balance btw the two
o Modern research shows that nature and nurture interact
o Just as our biological capacities affect how we behave and experience the world, our
experiences influence our biological capacities
o Looking at behaviour from multiple levels enhances our understanding

Perspectives on Behaviour

• Psychology has its roots in such varied areas such as philosophy, medicine, biological and
physical sciences
• Because of this, different ways of viewing people, called perspectives, became part of
psychology’s intellectual traditions
• In science new perspectives are engines of progress – advances occur as existing beliefs
are challenged, a debate occurs, and scientists seek new evidence to resolve the debate

Psychology’s Intellectual Roots

• Debate: is the mind - the inner agent of consciousness and thought - a spiritual entity
separate from the body, or part of the body’s activities?
• Mind-body dualism – was a belief that the mind is a spiritual entity not subject to physical
laws that govern the body
o But if the mind is not composed of physical matter, how could it become aware of
bodily sensations, and how could its thoughts exert control over bodily functions?
o Rene Descartes, French philosopher + scientist, proposed that the mind and body
interact through brain’s pineal gland – although he placed the mind within the brain,
he maintained that the mined was a spiritual, non-material entity
 o Dualism – implies no amount of research on the physical body (including the brain)
could ever hope to unravel the mysteries of the nonmaterial mind
• Monism – monos means “one” in Greek
o Mind and body are one and that the mind is not a separate spiritual entity
o To monists, mental events correspond to physical events in the brain, a position
advocated by English philosopher, Thomas Hobbes
o Monism implies that mind can be studied by measuring physical processes within the
brain
• John Locke and other philosophers from the school of British empiricism held that all ideas
and knowledge are gained empirically – this is, through senses
o According to empiricists, observation is a more valid approach to knowledge than
pure reason, because reason is fraught with the potential for error
o This idea bolstered the development of modern science – methods are rooted in
empirical observation
• Discoveries in physiology (an area of bio that studies bodily functions) and medicine also
paved the way for psychology’s emergence
o Evidence btw the brain and behaviour supported the view that empirical methods of
the natural sciences could be used to study mental processes
o Psychophysics – the study of how psychologically experienced sensations depend
on the characteristics of physical stimuli (how the perceive loudness of a sound
changes as its physical intensity increases)
• Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution was attacked because it seemed to contradict
philosophical and religious beliefs about the exalted nature of humans
o His theory implied that the mind was not a spiritual entity, but rather the product of
biological continuity between humans and other species
o Darwin’s theory also led scientists to study other species to gain further insight into
human behaviour

Early Schools: Structuralism and Functionalism

• First experimental psych lab was founded in Germany

• Was believed that the mind could be studied by breaking it down into its basic components –
known as structuralism: the analysis of the mind in terms of its basic elements
o Used the method of introspection (“looking within”) – study the sensations, which
they considered the basic elements of consciousness
o Exposed participants to all sorts of sensory stimuli (lights, sounds, tastes etc) and
trained them to describe their inner experiences
o This method of studying was named too subjective and died out – still made an
impact by establishing a scientific tradition for studying cognitive processes
• Later on functionalism become more popular – study’s the functions of consciousness
rather than its structure
• Functionalism vs. Structuralism good analogy with hands on pg 11
o Structuralism – explains movements of hands based on muscles, tendons etc
 o Functionalism – what are hands used for? How do they help us adapt to our
environment? – influenced by Darwin’s theory, which stressed the importance of
adaptation in helping organisms survive and reproduce in their environment
• Functionalism doesn’t really exist anymore as a school of thought, but it does endure 2
modern-day fields: cognitive psychology (studies mental processes) and evolutionary
psychology (studies the adaptiveness of behaviour)

The Psychodynamic Perspective: The Forces Within

• The psychodynamic perspective searches for the causes of behaviour within the inner
workings of our personality (our unique pattern of traits, emotions, motives), emphasizing
the unconscious processes
• Main advocate – Sigmund Freud
o He developed the first and most influential psychodynamic theory

Psychoanalysis: Freud’s Great Challenge

• Freud had patients with symptoms such as pain, blindness, paralysis, and phobias that
weren’t caused by any bodily malfunction or disease – must be psychological
• He believed that since his patients weren’t producing their symptoms consciously, the
causes must be hidden from awareness – they must be unconscious
• He treated his patients using free association – he let them express any thoughts that
came to mind
o Patients described painful and long-“forgotten” childhood experiences, often sexual
in nature
o His patients improved after reliving their traumatic experiences
• Freud was convinced that an unconscious part of the mind profoundly influences behaviours
so he developed a theory and a form of psychotherapy called psychoanalysis
o It’s the analysis of internal and primarily unconscious psychological forces
• Also proposed that humans that an inborn sexual and aggressive drives and that because
these desires are punished in childhood, we learn to fear them and become anxious when
we are aware of their presence.
o Repression, a primary defence mechanism, protects us by keeping unacceptable
impulses, feelings and memories in the unconscious depths of the mind
o All behaviour – whether normal or “abnormal” reflects a largely unconscious and
inevitable conflict btw the defences and internal impulses
o This ongoing struggle is dynamic in nature, hence the term psychodynamic
• Freud’s theory stirred controversy – many disagreed with its heavy emphasis on childhood
sexuality
o Others viewed it as difficult to test
o Theory still stimulated research on dreams, memory, aggression, and mental
disorders
o Even when his theory wasn’t supported, it ultimately led to other important
discoveries – broadened psych to include the study and treatment of psychological
disorders
Modern Psychodynamic Theory

• Modern psychodynamic theories continue to explore how unconscious and conscious

aspects of personality influence behaviour
• Downplays the role of hidden sexual and aggressive motives and focus more on how early
relationships with family members and other caregivers shape the views that people form of
themselves and others
o These views unconsciously influence a person’s relationship with other’s throughout
life – even a psychodynamic explanation for excessive social networking
• Although most contemporary psychological scientists reject Freud’s version of the
unconscious mind, modern research has identified brain mechanisms that produce
unconscious emotional reactions and has shown that many aspects of info processing occur
outside of awareness
o Our dreams reside in the unconscious mind
o When you dream, your brain sends signals to various muscle groups in response to
the kind of activity occurring in the dream – you may not experience movement, but
there is a signal sent (EMG machines can detect these signals to study dreams)
o Specific areas of the brain’s visual area are active when we see images during a
dream
o The same areas of the brain that are involved in the actual perception of objects are
also involved in the imagines perception of objects and in hallucinations resulting
from psychedelic drugs (fMRI can be used to reconstruct movies of visual
experiences in dreams)

The Behavioural Perspective: The Power of the Environment

• Behavioural Perspective: focuses on role of external environment in governing our actions

• Behaviour is jointly determined by habits learned from previous life experiences and by
stimuli in our immediate environment

Origins of Behavioural Perspective

• Roots in British empiricism

• John Locke stated that the human mind is a “tabula rasa” or blank slate at birth upon which
experiences are written – view that human nature is shaped purely by the environment
• Pavlov revealed how learning occurs when events are associated with each other
o experiment – found that dogs salivate to the sound of a new stimulus, such as a
tone, if it’s associated it with food
• Thorndike examined how organisms learn through the consequences of their actions
o His law of effect states that responses followed by satisfying consequences become
more likely to recur, and those followed by unsatisfying consequences become less
likely to recur
o Learning is the key to understanding how experience moulds behaviour

Behaviourism
• Emphasizes environmental control of behaviour through learning, began to emerge in 1913
• John B Watson led the new movement and strongly opposed the “mentalism” of the
structuralists, functionalists, and psychoanalysts
o Argued that the proper subject matter of psych is observable behaviour rather than
unobservable inner consciousness – he said humans are products of their learning
experiences
• Behaviourists sought to discover laws that govern learning, and believed that the same
basic principles of learning applied to all organisms
• Skinner was a behaviourist – he didn’t deny that ppl have thoughts and feelings and
maintained that “no account of what is happening inside the human body, no matter how
complete, will explain the origins of human behaviour”
o Believed the real causes of behaviour reside in the outer world – based on rewards
and punishments
• Skinner believed that society can engineer such an environment to change behaviour in
beneficial ways – his approach is known as radical behaviourism
o This approach was considered to be extreme to many but he was esteemed for his
contributions and for focussing attention on how environmental forces could be used
to enhance human welfare
• Behaviour modification – aimed at decreasing problem behaviours and increasing positive
behaviour by manipulating environmental factors

Cognitive Behaviourism

• Promotes the view that the environment exerts its effects on behaviour not by automatically
“stamping in” or “stamping out” behaviours, but rather by affecting our thoughts
• In cognitive behaviourism, learning experiences and the environment affect our behaviour
by giving us the info we need to behave effectively

The Humanistic Perspective: Self-Actualization and Positive Psychology

• The humanist perspective emphasized free will, personal growth, and the attempt to find
meaning in one’s existence
o Rejected that humans are controlled by unconscious forces or the environment
• Proposed that each of us has an inborn force toward self-actualization, the reaching of
one’s individual potential
o When humans develop in a supportive environment, the positive inner nature of a
person emerges
o If misery and pathology occur when environments frustrate our innate tendency
toward self-actualization
• Emphasized importance of personal choice, responsibility, personality growth, positive
feelings of self-worth – the meaning of existence is in our own hands
• Not a very big impact on psychological sciences, but still stimulated research on self-esteem
and self-concept
• Positive psychology movement: emphasizes the study of human strengths, fulfillment,
and optimal living
 o Rather than focusing on what is wrong with the world (conflict, prejudice, disorders),
positive psychology examines how we can find what is best within ourselves and
society to create a happy and fulfilling life

The Cognitive Perspective: The Thinking Human

• The cognitive perspective examines nature of the mind and how mental processes
influence behaviour
• Humans are essentially information processors whose actions are governed by thought

Origins of Cognitive Perspective

• Structuralism and functionalism reflect this perspective

• Gestalt psychology – examined how the mind organizes elements of experience into a
unified or whole perception
o Perceptions are organized so the whole is greater than the sum of its parts
o Perceiving things as a whole is built into our nervous system
o Eventually disappeared as a scientific school (much like functionalism and
structuralism)

Renewed Interest in the Mind

• The mind is a system that processes, stores, and retrieves information

• Behaviourists and linguists debated how children acquire language
o Behaviourists claimed that its acquired through basic principals of learning
o Linguists argued that humans are biologically “preprogrammed” to acquire language
and that children come to understand it as a set of “mental rules”
o Language too complex to be explained by behavioural principles – needs to be
examined from a cognitive perspective
• Cognitive revolution – 1960s + 70s

The Modern Cognitive Perspective

• Cognitive psychology – focuses on study of mental processes, embodies the cognitive

perspective
• Cognitive psychologists study the processes by which people reason, make decisions, solve
problems, form perceptions, produce and understand language, attention and
consciousness as well as how unconscious processes influence behaviour
• Cognitive neuroscience – uses sophisticated electrical recording and brain imaging to
examine brain activity during cognitive tasks
o Cross between biological perspective and cognitive
o They seek how the brain makes memories, learn language, acquire knowledge, etc.

The Sociocultural Perspective: The Embedded Human

• Examines how our social environment and cultural learning shape our behaviour, thoughts,
and feelings
The Social Psychological Component

• Social psychologists have studied how the presence (physical, implied, imagined) of other
people influences our behaviour, thoughts, and feelings
• This perspective overlaps with behaviourism (environment focused – but narrowed to social
environment), cognitive (social cognition, how people form impressions of others, how
attitudes form), biological (social pain like rejection shares many of the same brain circuits
as physical pain)

The Cultural Component

• Culture – enduring values, beliefs, behaviours, traditions shared by a large group passed
through generations
• Cultural groups have their own social norms – rules (often unwritten) that specify
acceptable behaviour (dress, responding to elders, etc.)
• Cultural psychology (aka cross-cultural psychology) – explores how culture is
transmitted to its members and examines psychological similarities and differences between
people of various cultures
• One significant difference in cultures is individualism (emphasis of personal goals, self-
identity) vs. Collectivism (goals of a group, personal identity defined by family and other
social groups)
o Most cultures of northern Europe and North America promote individualism
o Many Asian, African, and South American cultures nurture collectivism

The Biological Perspective: The Brain, Genes, and Evolution:

• Examines how brain processes and other bodily functions regulate behaviour

Behavioural Neuroscience

• AKA physiological psychology

• Examines brain processes and other physiological functions that underlie our behaviour,
emotions, thoughts, and sensory experiences
• Donald O. Hebb proposed that changes in the connections btw nerve cells in the brain
provide the biological bases for learning, memory, and perception – inspired research that
eventually led to the discovery of neurotransmitters
• Neurotransmitters – chemicals released by nerve cells that allow them to communicate with
one another
• Early research inspired brain mapping, leading to the discovery of the relation of some brain
parts with certain things such as emotions, and memory (in nerve cells)
• Today, modern brain-imaging techniques allow psychologists to watch activity in specific
brain areas as people experience emotions, perceive stimuli, and perform tasks
o These advances have led to new areas of study that link various psychological
perspectives
• H.M. epilepsy example..
The neuroscience of imaging studies:

• Much of the early work on localization of function involved the examination of patients with
very specific brain injuries that resulted in very specific mental or behavioural loss
• Upon autopsy, one could examine the nature and extent of the brain injury and relate this to
functional loss
o This method was not very exact and there were relatively few patients to
examine
o In the lab it was possible to have much more precision
• With the development of new technologies, the focus has shifted to imagine the intact brain

Behaviour Genetics

• How behavioural tendencies are influenced by genetic factors

• Animals can be selectively bred not only for physical traits, but even behavioural traits such
as aggression – done over generations by mating highly aggressive males and females
o Ex. Siamese fish fighting
• Identical twins, who result from the splitting of a fertilized egg + therefore have the same
genetic makeup, are more similar to each other on many behavioural traits than are fraternal
twins, who results from 2 different fertilized eggs and therefore are no more similar
genetically than are two non-siblings
o This greater behavioural similarity is found even when identical twins have been
reared in different homes and dissimilar environments
• Studies have shown that twins with identical genetic makeup who are raised in different
homes with different environments still undergo similar behaviour

Evolutionary Psychology

• Came from Darwin’s theory of evolution... natural selection

• Darwin noted that within a species, some members possess specific traits to a greater
extent than other members
• Through a process he called natural selection, if an inherited trait gives certain members
an advantage over others, these members will be more likely to survive and pass on these
characteristics to offspring
• Species evolve as the presence of adaptive traits increases within the population over
generations – traits that put them at a disadvantage become less common over time bc the
members with those traits are less likely to survive and reproduce
• As environment changes, the adaptiveness of a trait may increase or decrease – thus a
specie’s biology evolves in response to environmental conditions
• Evolutionary psychology – seeks to explain how evolution shaped modern human
behaviour
o These psychologists believe that human mental abilities and behavioural traits
evolved along with a changing body
 o As our human-like ancestors developed new physical abilities, they began to use
tools and weapons and live in social groups – helping each other was important for
the evolutionary fitness of the entire group
o Certain psychological abilities (thought, language, the capacity to learn and solve
problems) became more important to survival as they had to adapt to new ways of
living
• Ex. Attraction to certain physical traits (like facial symmetry) may be an evolved adaptation
since it may be a sign for a healthy potential mate
• Ancestors with better brain characteristics had better mental capabilities so they were more
likely to survive and reproduce... thus brain growth and development over generations
• The evolutionary theory, Sociobiology is controversial - biological aspect of social
behaviour in humans and animals
o It holds that complex social behaviours are also built into the human species as
products of evolution
o Argue that natural selection favours behaviours that increase the ability to pass on
one’s genes to the next generation – social behaviours include aggression,
competition, dominance in males, and cooperative and nurturing tendencies in
females – sex differences in reproduction are significant
• In the eyes of sociobiologists, one’s genetic survival is more important than their physical
survival
o This can explain altruistic behaviours, including giving up one’s life to save children
or relatives
• Many critics believe that sociobiology overemphasizes innate biological factors at the
expense of cultural and social learning factors in explaining complex human social
behaviour
• Evolutionary theorists w a more cultural orientation suggest that the evolved brain structures
that underlie psychological mechanisms (such as the ability to use language) developed to
enhance adaptation to the demands of social and group living rather than simply to further
the survival or one’s genes

SEE TABLE 1.3 ON PAGE 23 FOR SUMMARY

Using Levels of Analysis to Integrate the Perspectives

• SEE PAGE 22... very good summary about levels of analysis

An Example: Understanding Depression

• Using biological, psychological, and environmental levels of analysis

• Extremely common, almost like the “common cold”
• Biological
o Genetic factors, hereditary
o Biochemical factors and sleep/wakefulness rhythms in the brain
o Of special interest are chemicals called neurotransmitters, that are involved in the
transmission of nerve impulses within the brain
 o Most effective anti-depressant drugs operate by restoring a normal balance of these
neurotransmitters
o Low levels of vitamin D can also play a role
o Disruptions in biological rhythms that underlie sleep and dreaming in the brain waves
of depressed people
• Psychological
o Thinking style in which the person interprets events in a pessimistic way
o They blame themselves for negative things and they don’t take credit for the good
things that happen in their lives, generally feel hopeless and bleak
o Also people are more prone to depression because of severe losses or rejections in
childhood that create a personality style that causes people to overreact to future
losses, setting the stage for later depression
o Certain personality factors such as perfectionism, low self-esteem, and a lack of
“mattering” make an individual more prone to depression
• Environmental
o Depression is a reaction to a non-rewarding environment
o As depression intensifies, such people feel so bad they stop doing the things that
ordinarily give them pleasure, a pattern that decreases environmental rewards still
further – vicious cycle
o Depressed people constantly need reassurance and guidance – can generally
become less likeable – tend to alienate themselves and cause them to shy away
from the depressed person
§ Leads to worsening environment with fewer rewards, reduction of support
from others, and more pessimism that leads to deeper depression
• Sociocultural environment
o Although found in virtually all cultures, both its symptom pattern and causes may
reflect cultural differences
o In developed countries, women are almost twice as likely than men to become
depressed whereas no sex difference is found in developing countries

Summary of Major Themes

SEE PAGE 26-27 FOR QUICK SUMMARY