Summary
Learning outcomes course manual
Lecture 1
Lecture 2
Lecture 3
Lecture 4
Lecture 5
Lecture 6
Seminar notes
Seminar 2
Seminar 4
Seminar 5
Seminar 6
Seminar 7
Nudge
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Loftus
Philipot et al.
Henrich et al. 1-4
Learning outcomes course manual
(A) Subject-specific learning outcomes Upon completion of the course, students:
Have basic knowledge of the main theoretical frameworks and important debates within psychology.
Have basic knowledge of the main topics studied within psychology, especially within social psychology and
cross-cultural psychology.
(B) Academic learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
Understand at a basic level how knowledge of psychology can contribute to the study of a specific societal
problem.
Understand the relevance of psychology for the study of law.
Understand the importance of social and cultural context for the study of law.
(C) Social and communication learning outcomes
Have gained insight into the influence of external factors on human attitudes and behavior.
Be able to reflect on their own perspective of themselves and others.
Have gained insight into cross-cultural differences in basic psychological processes.
Be able to explain psychological concepts in a straightforward manner, and apply them to or support them by
relevant experiments or studies.
Lecture 1
Learning outcomes lecture 1
Define psychology
Summary 1
, Psychology is the science of behavior and the mind.
behavior refers to the observable actions of a person or an animal.
Mind refers to an individual’s sensations, perceptions, memories, thoughts, dreams, motives, emotions, and
other subjective experiences.
It also refers to all of the unconscious knowledge and operating rules that are built into or stored in the brain and
that provide the foundation for organizing behavior and conscious experience.
Science refers to all attempts to answer questions through the systematic collection and logical analysis of
objectively observable data.
Most of the data in psychology are based on observations of behavior, because behavior is directly
observable and mind is not; but psychologists often use those data to make inferences about the mind.
Also an applied discipline—one of the “helping professions.”
Describe the most famous psychologists.
Franz Joseph Gall (around 1800
phrenology; all aspects of thought, emotion, and personality can be located in the brain,
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1912)
the first person ever to call himself a psychologist
father of experimental psychology
Lombroso
founder of criminology
Founder of criminology
Criminal Man (1876)
Small skull
Deep-set eyes
Low forehead
Merging eyebrows
pseudo-science
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Freudian psychoanalysis
all people have unconscious thoughts, memories, emotions, and desires and that therapy should be
used to access the mind's repressed feelings and experiences.
Based on ideas, not systematic observation
No attempt at falsification
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
child development
Burrhus Skinner (1904-1990)
operant conditioning
positive reinforcement → give something they want
n r → something they don’t want is taken away
Summary 2
, p punishment → give something they don’xft want
n p → take away something they want
Albert Bandura (1925-2021)
social learning
Elizabeth Loftus (1944-present)
car accident study
difference in saying smashed into each other or hit each other
TED talk → man said to be rapist but was not → let out → turned insane → died of stress heart attack after
losing everything
Explain three fundamental ideas for psychology.
Body vs. mind
Dualism (Descartes, 17th century)
Body and mind separate entities
Body and soul communicate through the pineal gland
Materialism (Hobbes, 17th century)
Soul does not exist. There is no distinction between body and soul
Psychological research (19th century
Reflexes (week 3
Localization of functions in the brain
Phrenology
Franz Joseph Gall (around 1800
All functions can be localized
27 “organs” in the brain
→ confirmed → different functions in different areas of brain → explain different behaviors
By feeling bumps on the skull you can infer psychological characteristics
“bump” psychology
→ pseudo-science = claiming it is science but not based on any facts
Lombroso
Founder of criminology
Criminal Man (1876)
Small skull
Deep-set eyes
Low forehead
Merging eyebrows
pseudo-science
Lombroso-test
Decide for each photo whether it depicts a writer or a criminal
Summary 3
, Language functions in the brain
Broca’s area (1861): language production
Damage → expressive aphasia
Understand what things mean but cannot form sentences anymore
Wernicke’s area (1881): language comprehension
Damage → receptive aphasia
Can make fully grammatically correct sentences but have no comprehension of what
you or other people are saying
Shaped by experience
Tabula Rasa (Locke, 17th century)
clean slate → ongeschreven blad, individuals being born empty of any built-in mental content
Possible answers to which functions are “built in” → perceive, interpret, encode, recall, store
Possible answers to which functions are learned → walk, read, talk, write, empathize
Natural selection
Evolution (Darwin, 19th century)
All behaviour is aimed toward survival and reproduction
Not just biology
Time of the month
Men find women more attractive when they are ovulating
Lap-dancing study
Strippers kept a journal of tips they made per hour and what their time of the month was
That’s when women can make babies → reproduce
Opposites attract
Human pick mates with different immune system
Produces healthier offspring → best of both worlds
T-shirt sniff study
Women preferred odours of men with different immune system
Reversed when women were on the pill
Explain how psychology relates to other scholarly fields.
Summary 4
Learning outcomes course manual
Lecture 1
Lecture 2
Lecture 3
Lecture 4
Lecture 5
Lecture 6
Seminar notes
Seminar 2
Seminar 4
Seminar 5
Seminar 6
Seminar 7
Nudge
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Loftus
Philipot et al.
Henrich et al. 1-4
Learning outcomes course manual
(A) Subject-specific learning outcomes Upon completion of the course, students:
Have basic knowledge of the main theoretical frameworks and important debates within psychology.
Have basic knowledge of the main topics studied within psychology, especially within social psychology and
cross-cultural psychology.
(B) Academic learning outcomes
Upon completion of the course, students should be able to:
Understand at a basic level how knowledge of psychology can contribute to the study of a specific societal
problem.
Understand the relevance of psychology for the study of law.
Understand the importance of social and cultural context for the study of law.
(C) Social and communication learning outcomes
Have gained insight into the influence of external factors on human attitudes and behavior.
Be able to reflect on their own perspective of themselves and others.
Have gained insight into cross-cultural differences in basic psychological processes.
Be able to explain psychological concepts in a straightforward manner, and apply them to or support them by
relevant experiments or studies.
Lecture 1
Learning outcomes lecture 1
Define psychology
Summary 1
, Psychology is the science of behavior and the mind.
behavior refers to the observable actions of a person or an animal.
Mind refers to an individual’s sensations, perceptions, memories, thoughts, dreams, motives, emotions, and
other subjective experiences.
It also refers to all of the unconscious knowledge and operating rules that are built into or stored in the brain and
that provide the foundation for organizing behavior and conscious experience.
Science refers to all attempts to answer questions through the systematic collection and logical analysis of
objectively observable data.
Most of the data in psychology are based on observations of behavior, because behavior is directly
observable and mind is not; but psychologists often use those data to make inferences about the mind.
Also an applied discipline—one of the “helping professions.”
Describe the most famous psychologists.
Franz Joseph Gall (around 1800
phrenology; all aspects of thought, emotion, and personality can be located in the brain,
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1912)
the first person ever to call himself a psychologist
father of experimental psychology
Lombroso
founder of criminology
Founder of criminology
Criminal Man (1876)
Small skull
Deep-set eyes
Low forehead
Merging eyebrows
pseudo-science
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Freudian psychoanalysis
all people have unconscious thoughts, memories, emotions, and desires and that therapy should be
used to access the mind's repressed feelings and experiences.
Based on ideas, not systematic observation
No attempt at falsification
Jean Piaget (1896-1980)
child development
Burrhus Skinner (1904-1990)
operant conditioning
positive reinforcement → give something they want
n r → something they don’t want is taken away
Summary 2
, p punishment → give something they don’xft want
n p → take away something they want
Albert Bandura (1925-2021)
social learning
Elizabeth Loftus (1944-present)
car accident study
difference in saying smashed into each other or hit each other
TED talk → man said to be rapist but was not → let out → turned insane → died of stress heart attack after
losing everything
Explain three fundamental ideas for psychology.
Body vs. mind
Dualism (Descartes, 17th century)
Body and mind separate entities
Body and soul communicate through the pineal gland
Materialism (Hobbes, 17th century)
Soul does not exist. There is no distinction between body and soul
Psychological research (19th century
Reflexes (week 3
Localization of functions in the brain
Phrenology
Franz Joseph Gall (around 1800
All functions can be localized
27 “organs” in the brain
→ confirmed → different functions in different areas of brain → explain different behaviors
By feeling bumps on the skull you can infer psychological characteristics
“bump” psychology
→ pseudo-science = claiming it is science but not based on any facts
Lombroso
Founder of criminology
Criminal Man (1876)
Small skull
Deep-set eyes
Low forehead
Merging eyebrows
pseudo-science
Lombroso-test
Decide for each photo whether it depicts a writer or a criminal
Summary 3
, Language functions in the brain
Broca’s area (1861): language production
Damage → expressive aphasia
Understand what things mean but cannot form sentences anymore
Wernicke’s area (1881): language comprehension
Damage → receptive aphasia
Can make fully grammatically correct sentences but have no comprehension of what
you or other people are saying
Shaped by experience
Tabula Rasa (Locke, 17th century)
clean slate → ongeschreven blad, individuals being born empty of any built-in mental content
Possible answers to which functions are “built in” → perceive, interpret, encode, recall, store
Possible answers to which functions are learned → walk, read, talk, write, empathize
Natural selection
Evolution (Darwin, 19th century)
All behaviour is aimed toward survival and reproduction
Not just biology
Time of the month
Men find women more attractive when they are ovulating
Lap-dancing study
Strippers kept a journal of tips they made per hour and what their time of the month was
That’s when women can make babies → reproduce
Opposites attract
Human pick mates with different immune system
Produces healthier offspring → best of both worlds
T-shirt sniff study
Women preferred odours of men with different immune system
Reversed when women were on the pill
Explain how psychology relates to other scholarly fields.
Summary 4
