PSYC 100A Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Sigmund Freud, David Buss

• School: University of Victoria
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSYC 100A
• Professor: Fitzgerald Laurie

Document Summary

Watson believed that he could turn any child into a specialist of any profession in the right environment. Behaviour is described in terms of stimulus-response interactions. Traditional behaviouralists described the mind as a black box . Behaviour is learned > learning occurs through instruction, observation, consequences: behaviour followed by positive consequences tends to be repeated, behaviour followed by negative consequences tends not to be repeated. What determines how we act is based on environmental consequences = no free will. Behaviour is the result of unconscious biological/instinctual urges, thoughts, wishes, desires and memories. Viewed the mind as a battleground > one"s psyche is composed of three parts (id, ego, superego) that constantly interact with each other. Controversy and in uence: unconscious con ict related to sexuality plays a central role in behaviour, controversial notions caused debate/resistance, signi cant in uence on the eld of psychology. Emphasized that people control their behaviour, not biology, unconscious instincts, or the environment.