PSYC 111 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Gordon Allport, Raymond Cattell, Social Learning Theory
Document Summary
Psychology-the scientific study of human behavior & experience. Psychology did not become a scientific field until the late 19th century. People act like informal scientists when it comes to developing beliefs about themselves and others. they pay attention to themselves. Beliefs are linked to experience and their beliefs can change with new info. Freud said that people often do not understand why they do the things they do. Scientific method- actively seek out truth rather than accept it from guesswork or authority. Common sense- common sense misses on some surprising abilities. It doesn"t help us understand phenomenon which we don"t directly experience. It also isn"t very helpful when it comes to solving psychological problems. The people need help if they have a problem. Trait theory- the trait theory is a theory about what basic traits appear in people"s personalities at birth. Gordon allport had a trait theory and found 45,000 describing traits in the dictionary.
