Psych 1/2 Notes

Psychology

Unit 1 and 2

What is Psychology?

Psychology - Psychology is the systematic study of behaviour and mental process in humans

Systematic Study - Theories are based on evidence, tested in scientific conditions where variables are controlled

Behaviour - Any observable action made by a living person (overt). Including group behaviours, reactions in social situations etc.

Mental Process - Thoughts and feelings that are personal and cannot be directly observed (covert). Including memory, thinking, problem solving etc.

There are four main goals of psychology, they are to describe, predict, control and explain thoughts, feelings and behaviour.

Approaches To Explaining The Role Of The Brain

Pseudoscience - Pseudoscience is a false science which uses insufficient evidence resulting from unsystematic study to draw inaccurate conclusions about human thoughts, feelings and behaviours.

• Often successful through the use of the Barnum Effect

Mind Vs. Heart Debate

When the pharaoh Tutankhamen was mummified more than 3300 years ago, what vital organs were preserved in jars in his tomb? Why did they preserve these items?

Stomach, liver, lungs and intestines. So that they followed him into the afterlife.

Outline how the Egyptians removed the brain.

A special hooked instrument was inserted up the nose to pull out bits of brain tissue.

Briefly describe the brain vs. heart debate, making reference to the brain hypothesis and the heart hypothesis.

The heart was believed by Egyptians as the source of life and wellbeing and the brain was seen as useless. However, different Greek scientists viewed either the heart or the brain as the location of mental processes.

Heart Side

• Empedocles
• Aristotle

Brain Side

• Alcmaon
• Hippocrates
• Herophilus
• Galen

Phrenology

Phrenology is the idea that different parts of the brain have different specialised features.

Brain Organs were different parts of the brain that each controlled a different function such as personality, characteristics and mental abilities, located on the brain's outer surface.

35 different Brain Organs were thought to exist, for example:

• 1 amativeness (responsible for physical love)
• 6 destructiveness (responsible for violence and desire to destroy)
• 17 hope (view the future with confidence of success)

Bumps or depressions on the skull's surface were supposed to explain a person's personality and behavioural characteristics.

It contributed that the brain had multiple functions, some stemming from different areas of the brain.

Mind Body Problem

The opposing views of dualism are that people who have a damaged pineal gland display normal behaviour. It also plays a role in human behaviour but does not govern it. The pineal gland is a part of the endocrine system and secretes melatonin

The mind body problem is another issue debated by Greek philosophers. It discusses the relationship between the human mind and body. It involved the question of whether our mind and body are distinct separate entities or whether they are one of the same. The mind is not physical (soul) and the body is. (matter)

The different approaches explain the mind body problem fairly similarly, stating the brain is physical and the mind, mental, but debating on whether one controls the other and what does and doesn't exist.

The 'raise your arm' question relates to the mind body problem as the subject thinks they are lifting their own arm but are physically not.

The 'raise your arm' question actually supports Descartes view as it shows the mind and boy are separate but are interrelated.

Brain Ablation

Brain ablation involves disabling, removing and destroying selected brain tissue.