Rene Descartes

• Combined the ideas from ancient philosophers with advances in math, physics, and biology to create concepts that were testable
• "I think therefore I am"->reflects the question "do we percieve reality as it is"
• focused on the relationship between the mind and reality

Sigmund Freud

• Founder of Behaviourism -> theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only observable behaviour
• Nurture, not nature 
• Biology is not everything
• Behaviour is not controlled by biology or mental processes
• we are shaped solely by our environment
• Nearly everything is learned, even fear

B.F Skinner

• Behaviourism
• Environmental factors determine behaviour
• Responses that lead to positive outcomes are repeated
• Responses that lead to negative outcomes are not repeated
• Beyond Freedom and dignity(book)-> all people are controlled by external stimuli, people are not in control; their environment is
• believed free will is an illusion
• by changing the environment you can change the individual

• Father of modern academic and experimental psychology
• established academic and experimental psychology as a legitimate discipline
• Experimental explorations of cognitive functioning and underlying neurological activity; believed the mind does not passively recieve sensory experience, but actively and dynamically creates reality
• Non- experimental methodologies:psychological experience is richer than what experimental research can describe...seeds of psychology, cannot possible study all psychology from a research perspective

• Humanism
• argued that human behaviour is governed primarily by each individuals sense of self or "self-concept"
• optimistic view of human nature

Abraham Maslow

• Humanism
• theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom potential for personal growth
• optimistic view of human nature

Evolutionary Psychology

• natural selection occurs for behavioural as well as physical characteristics
• studied mating preferences, jealousy, aggression, sexual behaviour, language, decision making, personality, and development

Physiological Psychlogy

• behaviour explained in terms of physiological processes
• Electrical stimulation of the brain evokes emotional responses in animals (ex. pleasure, rage tec)
• Left and right brain have specialized functions
• brain function caused by cell-assemblies that follow neural networks

Cognitive Psychology

• Cognition-> refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge
• interest in neuroscience approach to psychology has increased in the past few years
• Application of scientific methods to studying internal mental events

Positive Psychology

• used theory and research to better understand the positive, adaptive, creative, and fullfilling aspects of human existence
• three areas of interest: positive subjective experiences( happiness, love, gratitude, contentment, and hope), positive individual traits( personal strengths and virtues), positive institutions and communites( how society can foster civil discourse, strong famillies, healthy work environments and supportive neighbourhood communities)

Contemporary Psychology

• Ethnocentrism-> viewing one's own group as superior and as the standard for judging
• historically middle and upper class white males studying middle and upper class white males
• 1980's-> increased interest in how cultural factors influence behaviour; in part due to socio-political movements

Theme 1: Psychology is emprical

• Empiricism-> the premise that knowledge should be acquired through observation
• psychology's conclusions are based on direct observation rather than reasoning, speculation, traditional beliefs, or common sense

 William James

• Functionalism
• based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure
• consciousness consists of a steady flow of thoughts called the stream of consciousness

Edward Titchener

• Structuralism
• based on the notion that the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how these elements are related
• used introspection-> the careful systematic self-observation of one's own conscious experience

Theme 2: Psychology is Theoretically Diverse

• no single theory can adequatley explain everything that is known about behaviour

Theme 3: Psychology evolves in a sociohistorical context

• society and psychology influence each other in complex ways
• social trends have left their impact on psychology

Theme 4: Behaviour is determined by multiple cases

• behaviour is governed by a complex network of interacting factors, an idea referred to as multifactor causation behaviour

Theme 5: Behaviour is shaped by cultural heritage

Theme 6: Behaviour is influenced by jointly by heredity and environment

• genetics and environment jointly influence an individual's intelligence, temperament, personality, and susceptibility to many psychological disorders

Theme 7: People's experience of the world is highly subjective

• people tend to see what they expect to see
• motives and expectations colour people's experiences

What is an experiment?

• 1. Description:tells "what" occured
• 2. Explanation: tells "why" a behaviour or mental process occured
• 3. Prediction: identifies conditions under which future behaviour or mental process is likely to occur
• 4. Change:(application and control) applies psychological knowledge to prevent unwanted behaviour or to bring about desired goals

What is an experiment? Cont'd

• Independent variable: a condition or event that an experimente varies in order to see its impact on another variable
• Dependent variable: the variable that is thought to be affected by manipulation of the independent variable
• Experimental group: consists of the subjects who recieve some special treatment in regard to the independent variable
• Control group: consists of similar subjects who do not recieve the special treatment given to the experimental group 

Extraneous/Confounding Variables

• Extraneous Variable: any variable other than the independent variable that seems likely to influence the dependent variable in a study
• Confounding Variable: occurs when 2 variables are linked together in a way that makes it difficult to sort out their specific affects
• to control for extraneous variables subjects are usually assigned to the experimental and control groups at random

Advantages and Disadvantages of Experimental Research

• Experiments are oftern artificial
• one way to address this is to use field experiments
• Field Experiment-> research studies that use settings that are very much like real life
• experimental method cannot be used to explore some research questions

Descriptive/ Correlational Research

• permit investigators to only describe patterns of behaviour and discover links  or associations between variables
• methods include: naturalistic observation, case studies, and surveys

Naturalistic Observation

• a researcher engages in careful observation of behaviour without intervening directly with the research subjects or participants
• major problem is that researchers often have trouble making their observations unobstrusively so they don't affect their participant's behaviour
• Reactivity-> occurs when a subject's behaviour is altered by the presence of an observer

Case Studies

Surveys

• researchers use questionnaires or interviews to gather information about specific aspects of participants behaviour
• can gather data on difficult to observe aspects of behaviour; relatively easy to collect data from large samples

Advantages/ Disadvantages of Descriptive/Correlational Research

• gives researchers a way to explore questions that could not be examined with experimental procedures
• broadens the scope of phenomena that psychologists are able to study
• Investigators cannot control events to isolate cause and effect 
• correlational research cannot demonstrate conclusivly that two variables are causually related

Measures of Central Tendency

• typical or average score in a distribution
• 3 measures:
• Mean: arithmetic average of scores
• Median:score falling in the exact centre
• Mode: most frequently occuring score

Variablity

• Variablity-> how much scores vary from each other and from the mean
• Range of scores-> subtract smallest score from largest score
• Standard deviation-> numerical depiction of variability
• High variability in data set= high standard of deviation
• Low variability in data set= low standard of deviation

Bias

• Experimenter Bias-> occurs when a researcher's expectations or preferences about the outcome of a study influence the results obtained
• double Blind Procedure-> neither subjects not experimenters know which subjects are in the experimental or control group
• Ethnocentrism->believing one's culture is typical of all cultures
• Sample Bias-> research participants are unrepresentative of the larger population
• Participant Bias-> Research participants are influenced by the researcher or experimental conditions

 Biological Psychology

• Neuron resting potential-> a neurons stable, negative charge when the cell is inactive
• Neuron Action potential-> a very brief shift in a neurons electrical charge that travels along an axon

• CNS consists of the brain and the spinal cord, protected by enclosing sheaths called meninges
• Cerebrospinal fluid nourished the brain and provides a protective cushion for it
• PNS is made up of all the nerves that lie outside the brain and spinal cord
• Can be divided into the Sonomatic Nervous System( nerves that connect to voluntary skeletal muscles and to sensory receptors), and Autonomic Nervous System( nerves that connect to the heart, blood vessels, smooth muscles, and glands
• in the ANS the sympathetic system mobilizes the body's resources for emergencies( fight or flight), and the parasympathetic system conserves resources( promotes digestion, slows down heart rate, etc)

EEG

• Electroencephalograph( EEG) is a device that monitors the electrical activity of the brain over time by means of recording electrodes attached to the surface of the scalp
• Awake: Low voltage, high frequency brainwaves
• Drowsy: Higher voltage, slower frequency brainwaves
• Deep Sleep: High voltage, low frequency brain waves

Lesioning

• Destroying pieces of the Brain and observing the effects
• mostly done on animals

Electrical Stimulation of the Brain(ESB)

• Sending a weak electric current into a brain structure to stimulate (activate) it 
• has led to advances in the understanding of many aspexts of brain behaviour relationships

Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS)

• Technique that uses magnets that permit scientist to temporarily enhance or depress activity in specific areas of the brain
• cannotbe used to study areas deep within the brain

Brain-Imaging Processes

• CT, PET, MRI scans can give scientist imaging of the brain and the parts of it that are aroused by stimuli

Left Brain Functions

• Verbal processing, Language, Speech, Reading, Writing
• controls the right side of the body

Right Brain Functions

• Nonverbal processing, spatial, musical, and visual- recognition tasks
• controls the left side of the body

Brain Cont'd

• split brain surgery-> the bundle of fibres that connects the cerebral hemispheres ( the corpus callosum) is cut to reduce the severity of epileptic seizures
• Wernicke's Area->in the temporal lobe of the left hemisphere. Damage to this area usually leads to problems with the comprehension of language
• Broca's Area->plays an important part in the production of speech
• perceptual asymmetries-> left,right imbalances between the cerebral hemispheres in the speed of visual or auditory processing
• neurogenesis-> the formation of new neurons, previously thought to be impossible

Misconceptions

• Griggs and Ransdell (1987)
• the more misconceptions people hold the worse they do in the course
• Number of misconceptions interferes with learning because people hold onto their bias
• Cognitive style-> openness to change