PSYCH 205

Belief Perseverance

Tendency to stick to out initial beliefs even when evidence is contradictory. The "don't confuse me with the facts" bias.

Positive Psychology Interests

-Positive subjective experiences -Positive individual traits - Positive institutional and communities.

Biological Psychology Defined

Advocates for the idea that human and animal behaviour can be explained in terms of underlying physiological processes that guide behaviour.

Humanism Characteristics

Emphasizes humans: freedom and personal growth. Takes an optimistic view of human nature. Influenced treatments of psychological disorders.

Cognition

Examines the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge.

Behaviourism Physiology

Ivan Pavlov Classical conditioning "associative learning"

Cognition Theorists

Jean Piaget - development of cognition in children Noam Chomsky - psychological roots of language Herbert Simon - problem solving; use of scientific methods for studying cognitive processes.

Behaviourism Founder

John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner

What's Psychology?

the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes

Warning signs of Pseudoscience

-Exaggerated claims -Over reliance on anecdotes -Absence of consideration of other research -Lack of peer review -Lack of self-correction in the face of contradictory evidence -Ad hoc hypothesis adjustments -reductionism & over-certainty ("proof" rather than evidence)

6 Principles of Critical Thinking

1. Ruling out rival hypotheses 2. Correlation vs Causation 3. Falsifiability 4. Replicability 5. Extraordinary Claims 6. Occam's razor

Cross-Cultural Psychology Change Supported By:

1980's - increase interest in cultural factors influence on behaviourism -Sociopolitical forces (civil rights movements) - Advances in international communication and increased global interdependence -Having established baseline on many psychological topics

Humanism Founders

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) and Carl Rogers (1902-1987)

Cross-Cultural Psychology

Assumption: results of psychological study should be applicable to the general population. Historically: middle and upper class white males studying middle and upper white class males.

Behaviourism Revisited

B.F. Skinner "Radical Behaviourism" (thoughts/ emotions, focus on rewards and punishments)

Evolutionary Psychology

Born in 1970's Linked to James and functionalism. Examines behaviours processes in their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations.

Bias Awareness Types

Confirmation Bias & Belief Perseverance

Social Psychology

Cultural, Interactional, Interpersonal

Positive Psychologist

Martin Seligman Believed that psychology needed to focus on understanding the positive aspects of human existence

Psychological Psychology

Mental, Personal, Emotional

Biological Psychology

Molecular, Genetic, Neurological

Thinking Scientifically

Not all common scenes is wrong. Science is not a body of knowledge. We maintain scientific rigour by challenging our biases.

Behaviourism defined

Psychology is the study of behaviour. Scientific claims should be verifiable.

BioPsychology

Psychology that studies the interaction of behaviour, biological, psychological, and mental processes.

Schools of Psychology

Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism, Reinforcement, Gesalt, Psychoanalysis

Confirmation Bias

Tendency to seek evidence that supports our hypothesis. Neglecting or distorting contradicting evidence.

Naive Realism

The presumption that the world is exactly as we see it "Seeing is believing"

Wilhelm Wundt

german physiologist who founded psychology as a formal science; opened first psychology research laboratory in 1879