PSYC 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 4: Wilhelm Wundt, Falsifiability, Spiritualism
A basic framework for Scientific Thinking:
- The hallmark of scientific skepticism is critical thinking: set of skills for
evaluating all claims in an open-minded and careful fashion
- 6 principles of scientific thinking:
1. Ruling out rival hypotheses.
a. Important alternate explanations should be considered
2. Correlation isn’t causation.
a. can we be sure A causes B?
3. Falsifiability.
a. Can the claim be disproven?
4. Replicability: when a study’s findings are able to be duplicated, ideally
by independent investigators
5. Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence
6. Occam’s razor.
a. Does a simpler explanation fit the data just as well?
Psychology’s past and present: What a long, strange trip it’s been:
Psychology’s early history:
- Originally psychology was considered a part of philosophy
- William Wundt – first psychology lab
- Introspection: method by which trained observers carefully reflect and report
on their mental experiences
- Breaking away from spiritualism
The great theoretical frameworks of psychology:
5 major theoretical perspectives:
1. Structuralism (William Wundt and E.b Titchner): aimed to identify the basic
elements of psychological experience.
a. insisted on systematic data collection and empiricism
2. Functionalism (William James, heavily influenced by Charles Darwin): aimed
to understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristics
a. using evolutionary theory in modern psychology
3. Behaviourism (Watson and Skinner): focuses on uncovering the general laws
of learning by looking at observable behaviour
a. helped to understand learning and the importance of scientific rigor
4. Cognitivism (Piaget and Neisser): understand mental processes underlying
thinking in a variety of contexts
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