Chapter 1- Psychology: The Study of Mental Processes and BehaviorBasic Terms and Info:1. Psychology: a. Scientific study b. Study of mental processes and behavior c. All psychological processes occur through the interaction in nervous system d. All human action occurs in the context of cultural beliefs and values2. Munchausen’s Syndrome: a. A psychological disorder in which the patient pretends to be ill, become ill, or be injured; it belongs to the group of self-inflicted conditions known as factitious disorders.3. Jane Elliot's Blue Eyes/Brown Eyes Experiment: a. Involves 30 people who have never met before and are either brown eyed or blue eyed. b. They are then segregated by the color of their eyes. c. Blue eyed people wear a green collar and are sent to a separate room with a security guard in a small uncomfortable room for 2 hours. d. The point of the experiment is to have the brown eyed (multi-cultural) people turn against the blue eyed (all white) people. e. The blue eyed people are brought back into the room with the brown eyed people after a fewof the white skinned brown eyed people have left due to disagreeing with Jane Elliot's methods. f. Some of the blue eyed people have also left because they feel offended by or disagree with the way they are being treated and talked about. g. The white people are conditioned to be against those of a different race, according to Jane Elliot, from the moment they are born.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nqv9k3jbtYUI. Beginning of Psy:1. Plato believed knowledge is within a person (rationalism) a. Rationalist- philosophers who emphasized the role of reason in creating knowledge 2. Aristotle (a pupil of Plato’s) believed that knowledge is obtained through the use of our senses (empiricism) a. Empiricism- people who believed that the path to growing in scientific knowledge was through observation especially experimental observation3. In Middle Ages new ideas were dormant because of religion’s ruling power over society.4. The Renaissance was much more open to new ideas and rationalism. a. Rene Descartes was a French philosopher who spoke the famous words, “I think therefore I am” (example of rationalism)5. John Locke was an English philosopher who stated that people are born “tabula rasa” or “blank slate” meaning that we are born with no knowledge and learn through the use of our senses (example of empiricism)II. Scientific Roots:1. Charles Darwin developed the idea of natural selection or “survival of the fittest” and the idea of adaptation or the change in characteristics that help organisms survive.2. Wilhelm Wundt was a professor and is known as “the father of psychology”. He was the first to do experiments and studied elements of the conscious experience. Until Wundt, therewas only philosophy; hence, psychology originated from psychology. His method of psychology is known as introspection and his perspective is known as structuralism. His experiments focused on sensation, reaction time, attention, and word association. The first lab was performed in 1879. He was accustomed to teaching only rich Caucasian men. a. Introspection- the process of looking inward at one’s own mental contents or process b. Structuralism- the use of introspection to uncover basic elements of consciousness and how ideas are formed.3. William James was an American professor who taught at Harvard. a. Functionalism- the role or function of psychological processes help people adapt to their environment; how does your mind help you function better. b. James’ research was highly influenced by Darwin’s work. c. He wrote the first PSY textbook. d. Studied children, animals, and mentally ill patients. e. He used introspectionIII. Perspectives in Psychology:1. Paradigms- Thomas Kuhn (also called perspectives or schools of psychology) 1) A set of theoretical assertions that form a model of what we believe in. 2) A set of shared metaphor’s (quick, easy way to show your belief) 3) A set of methods that members of scientific community agree will provide useful data IV. Psychological/ Psychodynamics:1. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) was a physician and had a introspective perspective. a. Came up with a method of treating psychological disorders. b. Came up with the idea of lying on the couch telling your problems to a therapist. c. He studied hysteria or a state of severe anxiety or panic. d. He thought that if he couldn’t find a physical illness, must be all in the mind. e. The theory of mental life (Freud) f. Many mental events occur outside our consciousness g. Actions are determined by thoughts and feelings connected in the mind h. Mental processes may conflict with one another i. Studied unconsciousness j. Believed that repression is very powerful even though may not remember.2. Origin of Theory a. Hysteria- the irrational guilt after the death of a parent, paralyzing fear, can’t leave home b. Not conscious, unconscious c. Freud’s method- studying case studies, dreams, fantasies, posture, behavior toward therapist’s d. Metaphor- The mind is like an iceberg1) Conscious- above the surface, thinking about2) Preconscious- right below surface, easy to call to mind 3) Unconscious- repression according to Freud, mentally, painful and deep in mind e. Metaphor- Mind is battleground at warring factions1) Id- entirely unconscious; pleasure principle 2) Ego- balance desire and reality (rationalize)3) Superego- acts of conscious; source of ideals; sense of morality (sense of right and wrong) f. Criticisms of Freud’s research1) Falsifiability Criterion (biggest criticism)- ability of a theory to be proven wrong as a means of advancing science2) Watson- called it “Voodooism”3) Did not do experiments (big criticism)V. Behaviorism- dominates Psychology (1920s-1960s)1. Ivan Paviov (1849-1936) a. Not truly a behaviorist b. Dogs- conditioned responses2. John Watson (1879-1958) a. 1913- psychology of the behaviorist views it (beginning of behaviorism) b. Said that he could take 12 healthy infants and could condition them to be whoever he wanted them to be (doctor, lawyer, etc.) by controlling the environment c. Classical conditioning- unconditioned (unlearned, automatic, natural response) stimulus; UCR (unconditioned response); conditioned stimulus; CR (conditioned response); neutral stimulus3. B.F.