Online Lecture (Week 1)

Psychology as a discipline (1)

Ebbinghaus remarked psyc’s long past & short history

• Only became a practice via Wundt

Science seen as _____ (2)

Endeavour of unqualified success

• Needed tech + models (complex) to solve elementary parts

Study of ____: _____ (3)

body, physiology

• Understanding sensors & connection to brain

How physiology, physics & psychology relate (ESE)

Weber’s Law (4)

Just noticeable difference —> comparing 2 stimuli is prop. to magnitude (±10%)

What does Weber’s law work for?

Mental phenomena to be quantified

Biology (5)

Saw humans as immutable & fixed acts of creation

• Argued studying human’s conscious mind

Jean-Baptiste de Lamarck (6) purpose

Propose mechanism of evo. change

Propose 2 types of matter

• Organic & inorganic

  • Organic = have innate drive for perfection

  • Believed cause bodily & mental changes

    • Seen hereditary

Charles Darwin (7)

Natural selection —> threatened biology’s (5) theological view

• Survival of the fittest rather than bestowed consciousness

Malthus (7)

Argued that animals + plants overproduce & struggle for finite resources

The Origin (8) - Charles Darwin

Threatens biology theological view

Showed mechanisms of natural selection

• Humans aren’t superior

• Humans connected to evo.

Huxley (9)

Show evolution of humans —> support Origin

Wallace (10)

Saw natural selection explain body not mind

Believed divine intervention enabled consciousness

Darwin response to Wallace (10)

Sexual selection can contribute to mental faculties

• Human intelellect = mental cont. of other species

Emotional expression

• Usage of emotions diff in animals but present

  • Ie. used for instinct —> danger = flight/fight

Romanes (11)

Showed linear progression of evolution —> supported Lamarckian’s hypothesis

• Expanding on similarities between humans & animals

  

Morgan & studying animal psychology

Argued against Romanes —> proposed humans had spontaneous insights

• Made them different to animals

Morgan’s proposal

Proposed trial-and-error learning

• Repeated observation of animal behav —> show learning isn’t spontaneous

Thorndike & animal psychology

Argued higher human mental processing emerged from simpler animal processing

• Showed learning curves

Lack of imitation learning

Puzzle box = Could learn w.o forgetting

Law of Effect

Learning consists of formation of connections w. situations & responses

_____ consists of learning connections between situations & responses

Law of Effect

Watson & proposition for psyc

Focus on prediction & control of behaviour

• Rather than using self-reports (unreliable)

Proposed behaviour over introspection

Little Albert

3Rs of using animals

only use if:

• Nothing can replace it

• Reduce & minimise their usage

• Refine and keep experiments humane

Why use animals

Don’t have current technology to see whole map of brain and effects

• Still need to test on rats (esp stem cells)