PSY 101 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Hermann Von Helmholtz, Scientific Method, Classical Conditioning

• School: University of Rochester
• Department: Psychology
• Course: PSY 101
• Professor: Christopher Niemic

Document Summary

Psy 101 lecture 1 : a brief history of psychology & the methods of psychology. Psychology is all around us in various ways. Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and the mind. Empirical psychologists study through experimentations and observations. Theoretical psychologists develop notions about psychological principles. Applied psychologists bring basic research out of the lab into the real world in order to solve important social problems. Study conscious/unconscious mental states from observable behaviors. Plato and aristotle: students of socrates, theorized about learning & memory, emotions, perception, and personality. Hippocrates: human brain = interpreter of consciousness. Galen: first person to think about different personality of each person aka. Rene descartes: the body is a physical structure, the mind is spiritual entity. They only interact between tiny structures in the brain, soul. Thomas hobbes: the entire human experiences including perception, thoughts and feelings can be studied scientifically. Hermann von helmholtz: examined color vision, perception.