Psychology 1000 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Natural Selection, Seasonal Affective Disorder, Magnetic Resonance Imaging

• School: Western University
• Department: Psychology
• Course: Psychology 1000
• Professor: Shelley Cross- Mellor

Document Summary

Searches for causes of behavior within workings of personality, emphasizing role of unconscious processes and unresolved conflicts from past. Freud opposed laboratory research, and depended on clinical observations and personal self-analysis. Views humans as information processors and problem solvers whose actions are governed by thought and planning. What sets humans apart is that we have mental capabilities: studies how mental processes influence our motives, emotions, and behavior. Several schools and individuals contributed to modern cognitive perspective: structuralism. Analysis of mind in terms of its basic elements. Studied sensations through introspection ( looking within ) patients were exposed to stimuli and asked to explain their experiences. Wilhelm wundt wanted to model study of the mind after physical and biological sciences. Believed mind could be studied via breaking it down to its basic parts, this was called structuralism. Founded first laboratory of experimental psychology in 1879: functionalism. Psychology should study the functions of consciousness rather than its structure- the whats.