PSY 1101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Abraham Maslow, Wilhelm Wundt, Scientific Method

• School: University of Ottawa
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 1101
• Professor: Christophe Andre Fortin

Document Summary

What is psychology: the scientific study of behaviors and mental processes. Side-note: behaviors, unlike mental processes, are observable and are therefore used to identify mental illnesses like depression. Dualism: the mind and body are separate entities: plato. Nativism: some forms of knowledge are innate: aristotle. Philosophical empiricism: all forms of knowledge are acquired through experience. Side-note: nativism and philosophical empiricism are like the nature (genes) and nurture (environment) concepts of psychology. The branch of biology that studies the functions and components of living organisms. It marks the beginning of psychology in the 1600s with the study of the brain and its relationship to behavior. Phrenology, the science that attributes traits and functions to specific parts of the brain, was used during the 1700s but has now become obselete. Important: the founder of modern psychology is wilhelm wundt (1832-1920). He used the scientific method the study the psychological processes. Tried to break down the structure of consciousness into elemental parts.