Miss Gardner

Psychology and You 2nd Ed.AKA Outdated

Brains Children Language Sex Memory Madness Disgust Racism Love Many Others

What explains the differences between men and women?

Can animals learn language? Why do certain things gross us out? Why do some of us eat too much and what

can we do to stop? Why do people go crazy in groups? Can you trust your childhood memories? Why do some people become depressed

and others don’t?

You’re crazy and want to become less crazy

Learn how to study better

Learn how to interpret your dreams

Learn how to improve your dating life (not until college)

Learn how to win friends an influence people

To provide you with a state-of-the-art introduction to the most important topic there is: US- How the human mind works, how we think, what makes us who we are

Connect your understanding of psychology to economics, philosophy, literature, computer science, history, entertainment, theology, and anthropology

Terry Schaivo Physical Nature of Mental

life Coma=Loss of consciousness as a result of damage to the brain Physical basis for free-will, morality, emotions

How do we come to haveknowledge of language,

the world, other people?

“The Child is Father to the Man”?

“They mess you up, your Mum and Dad They may not mean to, but they do They fill you with the faults they have And add some extra just for you”

Pandas vs. Attractive Humans

Why is not all beauty linked to sex?

What makes someone attractive?

Does attractiveness vary across cultures?

What makes someone evil?

What makes someone good? Why can heroes not be predicted? What would we do in these circumstances?

Phineas Gage- Railroad Spike

Dissociative Identity Disorder- Sybil

Capgras Syndrome- The people you love most have been replaced (high violence)

Cotard’s Syndrome- You believe you are dead

Not Common- Not morbid curiosity

All of the aforementioned problems located at pinpoint parts of the brain

Looking at extreme cases helps us understand normal life and what we take for granted!!!!!!!!!

The study of psychopathy (born with no moral understanding) helps us deal with questions of free will/responsibility

Dissociative Identity Disorder- What is the self? To what extent are we composed of multiple people? Do these become unified over time?

Capgras- How do we see the world? Is there a difference between naming and knowing?

The Story of Psychology

Who are we?

How do our minds work?

Where do our thoughts, feelings, and actions come from?

How do our bodies relate to our minds?

How much of what we know comes built in? How much is a result of experience?

Prescientific Psychology

In India, Buddha wondered how sensations and perceptions combined to form ideas

Confucius (551-479 B.C.)

“Learning without thought is labour lost, thought without learning is perilous”

In China, Confucius stressed the power of ideas and the importance of an educated mind

Hebrew Scriptures

Hebrew Scriptures linked mind and emotion to the body

Socrates (469-399 B.C.) and Plato (428-338 B.C.)

Socrates and his student Plato believed the mind was separate from the body, the mind continued to exist after death, and ideas were innate.

“The soul is not separable from the body, and the same holds good for different parts of the soul”

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Aristotle suggested that the soul is not separable from the body and that knowledge (ideas) grow from experience

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Believed in soul (mind)- body separation, but wondered how the immaterial mind and

physical body communicated

Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

One of the founders of modern science, particularly the experimental method

John Locke (1632-1704)

Locke held that the mind was a tabula rasa, or blank slate, at birth, and experiences

wrote on it

A. Blank Slate, Empty Vessel

B. Flame to be lit?

What is the relation of the mind to the body?

Mind and Body are Connected

Mind and Body are Distinct

The Hebrews Socrates

Aristotle Plato

Augustine Descartes

How are ideas formed?

Some ideas are inborn

The mind is a blank slate

Socrates Aristotle

Plato Locke

Structuralism

Wundt and Titchener studied the elements (atoms) of the mind by conducting experiments

in Liepzig, Germany, in 1879

Functionalism

Influenced by Darwin, William James established the school of functionalism, which opposed

structuralism

The Unconscious Mind

Sigmund Freud and his followers emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind and its

effects on human behavior

Behaviorism

Watson (1913) and later Skinner emphasized the study of overt behavior as the subject

matter of scientific psychology

Humanistic Psychology

Maslow and Rogers emphasized current environmental influences on our growth

potential, and our need for love and acceptance

The scientific study of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (inner

thoughts and feelings)

Nature vs. Nurture

Darwin stated that nature selects those that best enable an organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment

Perspective Focus Sample Questions

NeuroscienceHow the body and

brain enable emotions, thoughts,

and behaviors

How are messages transmitted in the body? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives?

EvolutionaryHow the natural

selection of traits promotes the

perpetuation of one’s genes

How does evolution influence behavior

tendencies?

BehaviorGenetics

How much of our genes/environment

Influence our individual differences

To what extent are intelligence,

personality, sexual orientation, and vulnerability to

depression linked to our genes?

Perspective Focus Sample Questions

Psychodynamic

How behavior stems from unconscious

drives and conflicts

How can personality traits and disorders be explained as a result of childhood experiences?

BehavioralHow we learn

observable responses

How do we learn to fear certain situations? What is the most effective way to alter behavior?

Perspective Focus Questions

CognitiveHow we encode,

process, store, and retrieve information

How do we use information in remembering? Reasoningg?

Problem-Solving?

Socio-CulturalHow behavior and

thinking vary across situations and

cultures

How are we- as Africans, Asians, North Americans-

alike? As products of our environments, how do we differ?

Psychologist What he/she does

BiologicalExplore the link betweenthe brain and the mind

DevelopmentalStudy changing abilities

from womb to tomb

CognitiveStudy how we perceive, think,

and problem solve

PersonalityInvestigate our persistent

traits and how the affect us

SocialExplore how we view and

affect one another

Clinical Psychologist (Ph.D.)

Psychiatrist(M.D.)

Studies, assesses, treats troubled people with psychotherapy

Usually many more sessions

No medication involved

Medical Professionals (Docs)

Use combination of drugs and psychotherapy to treat diseased patients

Biological view

Specializations in Psychology (Pg. 5)

1. Choose a specialization of interest (no more than 2 people on a topic)

2. Research your specialization

3. Prepare a three minute presentation including: a) What the psychologist does b) Who do they work with? Where might they work?

c) What perspectives of psychology might they use? Why? d) What is their importance to society? e) Example from news/magazine/article (If Possible)