CAS PS 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Scientific Method, Operational Definition, Cognitive Psychology

• School: Boston University
• Department: Psychological & Brain Sciences
• Course: CAS PS 101
• Professor: Sam Ling

Document Summary

A scientific discipline aimed towards understanding how the human mind works . Be able to reject inaccurate portrayals of scientific reports-critical analysis. Paper days = read scientific articles from a peer reviewed journal. Experiment participation- part of a psychological research experiment, total of 3 hours. Lecture january 21st: what is psychology, branch of brain devoted to understanding mental disorders= societal belief, not true, majority of psychology is devoted to understanding normal functioning brains and behavior, 3 pounds of meat determines: Everything- all experiences: massive field w/ numerous subdisciplines. Etc: operational definition= the scientific study of mental processes & behavior. Applies same scientific method as other scientific disciplines. Boundaries between other scientific disciplines & psychology are increasingly blurred f. Psychology may seem to discover what we think we have always known, psychological experiments empirically prove these things to be true. Common sense beliefs are often proven wrong by scientific investigation.