PSYC104 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Anti-Intellectualism, Physiological Psychology, Geriatrics
1 Jun 2018
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PSYC104: Lecture 1
Psychology is the scientific study of human behaviour – studying how people think,
feel and behave.
Fields within psychology:
• Cognitive – study of the brain (thoughts)
• Developmental – development through childhood to adulthood (transition)
• Learning – associations between two events that are not linked
• Physiological – study of the physiological effects of human body
• Comparative – studying non-humans
• Social – human behaviour as a whole
• Personality – study of individual traits, behaviours etc.
• Cross-cultural – compare different cultures and behaviours
• Perception – study of how people perceive others (eyes and brain)
• Psychopathology – study of human problems/disoders
• Health – study aspects of health (diseases, brain etc)
• Educational – stud of peoples leaig ehaious
• Clinical – stud of peoples disodes/poles
• Organisational – study of psychology in organisations
• Neuropsychology – study of the brain (more physiological)
• Forensic – study of law (behaviours etc)
HISTORY AND METHODS OF PSYCHOLOGY
• Why study history in psychology?
o Psholog as a siee = Lati sieta eas koledge – but how
do we know? History = evidence
o History is necessary to constructively critique and evaluate theories
and their methods of investigation
o All knowledge arises in a social context (ZEITGEIST)
▪ Need to know all ideas and events that have influenced the
development
o Psychology is the stud of pshe hih eas “OUL. Soul is an old
concept – the stud stes fo id ad soul.
• Current Questions:
o What is it to be human?
o The existence of and relationship between the mind and body?
o Knowledge and how to obtain it? (Rationalism and empiricism)
o Emotion and its role in human existence?
▪ These questions all stem from the learnings of history and can
be answered.
• Greek Origins of Western Thought
1. Pythagoras 580-500BCE (Greek philosopher) – role of numbers
▪ Numbers will explain the universe (empirical data)
▪ First to do physiological psychology
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• He investigated musical tones (physical) and its
relationship to pleasure (physiological) in a systematic
way
• Perfection is only to be found in the mathematical
world. This can only be embraced by reason not the
senses.
• He was the first to see there was a clear cut in duality
between mind and body (they are different).
• Sense/flesh experiences are inferior.
• Plato was a member of the Pythagorean.
2. Plato (427-347BCE)
• A pupil of Socrates
• Combines Socratic method (a method of questioning)
with Pythagorean mysticism.
• Theory of Forms = objects in the material world are
inferior representations of those in the world of pure
ideas (true forms).
• True knowledge is attained by grasping the forms
themselves – achieved by ignoring sensory experience.
• Mathematics is a higher form of knowing but not the
ultimate form of knowing.
• Knowledge is brought into the body with the soul so
introspection is the way to attain truth.
3. Aristotle (384-322BCE)
• A pupil of Plato and tutor of Alexander the Great
• Fouded the Leu – first university
• He looked at the range of topics – memory, sensation,
dreams, learning, geriatrics
• Although did not do systematic studies or experiments
• Essences could only become known through studying
nature – senses bring in information. This is done by
studying many examples of types of events etc.
• He was a rationalist empiricist i.e the mind must
analyse the information that is given by the senses to
produce knowledge
• He was the first physiological psychologist – he sought
to explain psychological events in terms of biology.
• He emphasised purpose in teleology
• He postulated several theories of Association with
respect to memory
o Associationism = basis of modern theories of
learning
The Significance of these Ancient Greeks for Western Pysch:
• An axial period in western thought throughout 600BCE
o Momentous change – no longer accepted
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find more resources at oneclass.com
