PSYC100 🧠🌀

Fall 2026, McGill

What does psychology study?

The human mind and behaviour

What is behaviour?

Any kind of observable action, including
words, gestures, responses, and biological activity

What is the mind?

The contents of conscious experience (emotions, perceptions, thoughts)

What is the evolutionary perspective of behaviour?

It is a result of evolutionary adaptations

Physiological Psychology

Genetic factors on behaviour, role of the nervous and endocrinological system in control of behaviour

Experimental / general psychology

Sensation, perception, learning, memory, conditioning, motivation, emotion

Cognitive Psychology

Memory, reasoning, language, problem solving, decision making, creativity

Developmental Psychology

Human development across lifespan (childhood, teen, adult, old. age)

Social Psychology

Interpersonal behaviour, social forces controlling behaviour, group behaviour

Personality Psychology

Factors shaping and underpinning consistency in individual’s behaviour, method to assess personality

Mathematical Psychology

Mathematical modelling of psychological phenomena, statistics

Educational Psychology

How people learn and methods of teaching, various components of the educational process

Health Psychology

Factors that promote and maintain physical health and the causation, prevention and treatment of illnesses.

Clinical Psychology

Psychological dysfunctions and their treatment

Industrial Psychology

Psychological aspects of work, management, companies

Forensic Psychology

Psychological aspects of work, management, companies

Military Psychology

Research and practice of psychological principles within a military environment (war strategy, intelligence, organisational aspects, etc)

3 areas of clinical work in psychology

Clinical psychology, psychiatrist, counseling psychology

What defines scientific study?

Empirical observations, ideally using the experimental method, drive progress.

The Mind Body Problem

Philosophical problem involving the understanding of the relationship between brain and mind. Physical and non physical things can’t interact so how does our body interact with our mind

Cartesian Dualism

Proposed by René Descartes, divides mind into 2 substances; material and non material

Monism

Believe the mind has solely one type of substance. Branches out into idealism, neutral monism and materialism.

Idealism / Spiritual Monism

Mind is fundamental & physicality is an illusion.

Neutral Monism

Mental and physical are two different way to represent the same substance. It changes and morphs.

Materialism

Matter is fundamental and it’s what the mind consists of.

The Hard Problem

Coined by David Chambers as a response to materialism. How does matter give rise to the mind?

Epiphenomenalism

Brain activity produces mind, but mind cannot influence brain activity

Interactionism

Mind can influence matter (e.g brain) and vice sversa

Contralateral Hemispheric Organization of the brain

Left hemisphere of the brain controls and receives information from the right side of the body and visual field, while the right hemisphere manages the left side

What are WEIRD samples and what’s wrong with them?

Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich and Democratic. They are unrepresentative of the majority. Biased and inaccurate.

What is the overconfidence effect?

Tendency to be overly sure of what we know

What does confirmation bias refer to?

Seeking out, paying attention to and believing solely evidence that supports one’s own beliefs

Why is it said that psychology is a summative discipline?

Because it rests upon preexisting knowledge and grows continuously.

Who is William James?

A founder of modern psych

Who is Wilhelm Wundt and why is he important ?

He is known as the father of experimental psychology.

He worked to establish psychology as an independent discipline, outside philosophy and medicine

What do some consider to be the birthdate of psychology as a scientific discipline?

1879, when Wilhelm Wundt established his psychological research lab in Leipzig

Who is the founder of structuralism?

Wilhelm Wudt

How did Wundt think conscious states could be analyzed?

Via introspection

What was introspection in structuralism?

Technique requiring extensive training to analyze conscious experience into it’s basic elements (sensations and feelings)

What are sensations according to structuralism?

Raw sensory content of consciousness, without meaning

Who is the father of functionalism?

William James

What inspired functionalism?

Darwin’s work on natural selection

Structuralism vs. functionalism

HOW vs. WHY / WHAT FOR

What is psychology, according to William James?

The science of mental life (it’s phenomena and conditions)
This includes feelings, desires, cognitions, reasonings, etc.

What is the current definition of psychology?

Related empirical & non-empirical disciplines.

Scientific study of behaviour and mind, and of the physiological, cognitive & social processes that give rise to them

What is the scientific method and who was it that popularized it?

It’s a systematic process for acquiring knowledge through observation, hypothesis formulation, experimentation, and analysis.

It was popularized by Francis Bacon, who championed empirical observation and inductive reasoning

What is structuralism?

Psychological branch that believed consciousness could be analyzed into a set of basic constituting elements

Based on observation i.e introspection

What was the problem with structuralism?

Introspection is very difficult but also very subjective

Not standardized, objective

What is functionalism?

A branch of psychology that deconstructs consciousness into its functions and utility

Countertheory to structuralism

What is behaviourism?

Branch of psychology that redifines it as a natural science, believes it is objective, predictive & controllable

Does not recognize a distinction between species

Who is John B. Watson?

Father of behaviorism. Author of behaviorist manifesto (1913)

What is gestalt psychology?

Wholes!! Behaviour not determined by individual parts

The whole is more than the sum of its parts.

e.g phi circle

Active construction of “wholes” out of external stimuli. What we perceive depends on the context in which it is embedded.

What critique did functionalists and gestaltists have against structuralism?

They argue that consciousness cannot be understood by analytic methods

Oppose atomistic view

What is considered the beginning of gestalt psychology?

Wertheimer’s studies on the phi, in 1912

What does the psycho-physiological model of the mind refer to?

It refers to a model that explains psychological phenomena in terms of physical and biochemical process. It is based on reductionism

What does the psychodynamic model refer to?

A model that strives to understand the intrapsychological (inflexible drives and reflexes) forces that drive behaviour, as well as their conflict with societal expectations.

What explains differences in behavior? According to psychodynamic model

Our individual psycho-developmental history leads to divergent experiences which leads us to feel motivational flexes in different strengths

How does behavior arise? According to psychodynamic model

Results from tension and conflict and reflects attempt to reduce these negative states

What is the role of motivation in psychodynamic model?

It drives action and need fulfillment.

Action will stop when needs are fulfilled because then motivation to act seizes

Who is Sigmund Freud?

Founder of the first major movement in clinical psychology in modern history. Father of psychoanalysis

What does Freud’s work focus on?

Unconscious as the main motor of behavior

According to Freud, what 3 elements does the psyche consist of? What do they determine?

Id, ego and superego

Their interactions and conflicts determine our behavior and our personality

What is the Id?

Follows pleasure principle. Attempt to avoid pain and increase pleasure. Primal drives

Animal within 🐺🐺

What is the superego?

Morality, conscience, ideals, aspirations (your perfect, ideal self)

What is the ego?

Reason and self control, mediator between superego and id

Unconscious, according to Freud

Most of our psyche. Thoughts and feelings that fall below the threshold of our awareness

Id in children

Fundamental being of the child. They’re “bundles of id”. Eventually outgrows it after developing ego

Psychoanalysis techniques

Free association (saying whatever comes to mind in a stream of consciousness) and dream analysis

Freudian Slip

Slips of the tongue that reveal deep, unacknowledged wishes

According to Freud, which component of the mind operates entirely in the unconscious?

The id

Human nature, according to Freud

Aggressive and driven by sexual impulses

Mm

Role of society, according to Freud

To control and protect humans from their own destructive nature

Behaviorist model of the mind

The overt and observable behavior is the proper level of analysis

Relationship between stimulus and response (S.R model )

Moral character, according to behaviorism

Humans (or animals) are neither good nor evil, just reacting to antecedent conditions

Cognitive model of the mind

Cognitions as the principal subject matter of psychology

Behaviors can be explained by analysis of information processing

Reality, according to cognitive model of the mind

Humans create/construct their subjective reality

What does behaviorism try to determine?

What factors in the environment control behavior? Inner factors cannot be analyzed because they can’t be directly observed

ABC of psychology, according to behaviorism

Antecedent conditions (those that precede behaviors )

Behavioral response

Consequences of the response that follow

Preconscious, accusing to Freud

not conscious but accessible to the conscious mind, we can make them conscious if we try

Conscious, according to Freud

Thoughts of which we’re fully aware

Aim of psychoanalysis

To make the unconscious conscious so that’s influence on behavior can be controlled

What is the neuroscience the study of?

How nerves / cells receive info form brain, body & spinal cord

How do neurons communicate with each other?

They communicate across small gaps (synapses) using signals (neurotransmitters)

What type of processes may happen in the cerebral cortex?

Cognitive skills, complex emotions

Neurodiversity

Differences in brain function. Differently abled.

Social Model of Disability

Society creates limitations when it fails to appreciate neural differences as strengths and to design inclusive environment that honours them

What is the nervous system?

It’s a network of neurons running throughout brain & body.

Carry signals through and from brain

What are the 3 basic classes of neurons?

Motor neurons, sensory neurons & interneurons

What is the function of motor neurons?

They messages to the entire body and allow movement

What is the function of sensory neurons?

They carry info from within the body / environment to the brain.

Sensors that detect change

What is the function of interneurons?

Connects other neurons. Interpret, store and retrieve info from environment.

What is the spinal cord?

A major bundle of nerves that connects the body to the brain. It is encased within the spine bone

What is special about spinal reflexes?

Executing these actions don’t require the use of the brain and, instead, can be carried out by the remainder of the spinal system i.e sensory, motor and interneurons

What 2 systems compose the nervous system?

The central nervous system and the peripheral nervous system

What is the central nervous system (CNS) composed of? What is its function?

It is made up of the brain and spinal cord. It exchanges info between the brain and the body

What is the peripheral nervous system (PNS) composed of?

It is made up by sensory and motor nerves.

What other systems exist within the peripheral nervous system (PNS)?

The somatic nervous system (SNS) and the autonomic nervous system (ANS)

Within ANS: Sympathetic system and parasympathetic system

What is the function of the somatic nervous system (SNS)?

It allows you to feel external sensations e.g a feather on your arm.

Allows for voluntary commands e.g move your arm

Mostly under your control.

What parts of the body does the somatic nervous system (SNS) include?

It includes skeletal muscles