PS101 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1: Positive Psychology, Wilhelm Wundt, Broad Group
Document Summary
Chapter outline thinking critically and creatively about psychology. Psychology the discipline concerned with behaviour and mental processes and how they are affected by an organisms physical state, mental state, and external environment. Behaviour changes due to place (i. e. civil in church. Evidence gathered by careful observation, experimentation, or measurement. Empirical approach makes use of research evidence and challenges opinion. External environment can affect many results, must conduct effective research with varying factors to determine correct results and to destroy fabrications. Many generally accepted psychological theories are not true. Trigger mechanism for creative thinking is disposition to be serious: define your terms. Vague or poorly defined terms can lead to misleading or incomplete answers: examine the evidence. Must consider if evidence or statement comes from a valid and trusted source: analyze assumptions and biases. Assumption or belief prevents us from considering something fairly is bias: avoid emotional reasoning. Emotional conviction cannot settle arguments, can"t let emotion cloud your decisions: don"t oversimplify.
