Psychology 101C

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Psychology 101C

• Dr M.O.Poulter
• Office Loeb TowerA Rm 513
• Phone [phone] ext 4176
• Email michael_poulter_at_carleton.ca
• Website www.carleton.ca/mpoulter
• OFFICE HOURS Tues 1200-100

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Your first multiple choice question

• After finding the website for the course and
  downloading the Outline I can print it out so
• A) I can wallpaper my room with it.
• B) I can put it on a roll and use it in the
  bathroom
• C) I can fold it many times so that I level my
  bed in residence
• D) Read it and refer to it when I need to know
  something important about the course.

• The answer is

D
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Fields of Psychology

• Biological
• physiological
• psychophysiology
• comparative
• behaviour genetics
• Clinical
• behaviour analysis
• personality
• neuropsychology
• Neuropsychology

• Cognitive Psychology
• Social Psychology
• Developmental Psychology
• Cross-cultural Psychology

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What is Psychology ?

• The ultimate goal of psychology is to understand
  human behaviour.
• Why bother to examine human behaviour?
• it is the root of most problems in the world
• Curiosity
• What kinds of psychology are studied
• ie what are the different disciplines of
  psychology?

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So how would the different disciplines of
psychology study the following questionWhy and
How Do People Play Games?

• Physiological
• What events happen in the brain when people are
  playing games? What synapses are activated. What
  chemicals are released?
• Psychophysiology
• What events happen in the body when people play
  games? Heart rate, blood pressure ect

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Types of psychology cont QuestionWhy and How Do
People Play Games?

• Comparative
• Do animals other than people play games? Are the
  behaviours evolutionary?
• Behaviour Analysis
• What events happen that increase/decrease the
  likelihood that people will play games? Does
  stress play a factor? Hormones?

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Types of psychology cont QuestionWhy and How do
People Play Games?

• Cognitive Psychology
• What types of strategies do people use when
  playing games? Are mnemoics used? Cheating?
  Aggressive posturing?
• Experimental Neuropsychology
• What brain injuries interfere with game playing?
  Animal research may involve lesioning of specific
  brain areas.
• Social Psychology
• What kinds of cues affect the types of games that
  people will play with each other? Sexual
  behaviour

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Types of psychology cont QuestionWhy and How do
People Play Games?

• Developmental Psychology
• How does play change across the lifespan? Do
  children have different strategies for game
  playing palying than adults? Role playing
  predictive of later development?

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Types of psychology cont QuestionWhy and How do
People Play Games?

• Clinical
• What effects does play have upon our mental
  health? Does play impact other health outcomes?
• Personality
• Are there certain types of people who are more or
  less likely to play games?
• Cross-cultural
• Do people raised in different cultures play the
  same types of games?

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Psychology is a Science

• Philosophical roots of psychology
• Descartes (1596-1650) dualism
• Rationalism the world can be described and
  studied by reasoning the natural laws as set out
  by GOD.
• Locke (1632-1704) monism
• Empiricism the world can be described and studied
  by measuring (through observation) the natural
  laws as set out by GOD.

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Psychology is a Science

• Biological roots of psychology
• Müller (1801-1858) doctrine of specific nerve
  energies - functional neuroantomy
• Flourens (1774-1867) experimental ablation -
  remove parts of the brain in order to localise
  function.
• Broca (1824-1880) localization of language
• Helmholtz (1821-1894) located the mind within
  the brain as opposed to the heart or some other
  ethereal location

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Major Trends in the Development of Psychology

• Structuralism a sum of the parts approach
  encouraged introspection and analysis of simple
  concepts which then became more complex. Wilhem
  Wundt
• Functionalism your innate need to be successful
  as a species drives your mental behaviour Darwin
  and others
• psychodynamic theory structuralism that
  hypothesises the unconscicous mind. Sigmund Freud

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Major Trends in the Development of Psychology

• Behaviourismjust the facts approachone cannot
  speculate about the workings of the mind with
  observing the animal behaving in it enviroment
  Edward Throndike
• gestalt psychology the whole is not simply the
  sum of its parts Max Wertheimer
• humanistic psychology scientific approach does
  not explain human behaviours positive aspects of
  ingrained behaviour determine mental state

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Major Trends in the Development of Psychology

• biological revolution neurobiology (physiology
  and genes that regulate it) and the analysis of
  neural circuitry forms the basis of behaviour it
  is the dominant mechanistic approach at this time
  and it will be the focus of this course.