Psychologie
Peter Gray, David F. Bjorklund
,Brief contents
Part I Foundatons for the study of psychology
Chapter 1 Backgrounds to the study of psychology
Chapter 2 Methods of psychology
Part II The biological bases of behaviour
Chapter 3 Genetics and evolutionary foundations of behaviour
Chapter 4 Neural control of behaviour
Chapter 5 Mechanisms of motivation and emotion
Part III Sensaton and percepton
Chapter 6 Smell, taste, pain, hearing, and psychophysics
Chapter 7 The psychology of vision
Part IV Learning and thinking
Chapter 8 Basic processes of learning
Chapter 9 Memory, atention, and consciousness
Chapter 10 Solving problems: reasoning and intelligence
Part V Growth of the mind and person
Chapter 11 The development of body, thought, and language
Chapter 12 Social development
Part VI Social and personality psychology
Chapter 13 Social psychology
Chapter 14 Personality
Part VII Psychological disorder and treatment
Chapter 15 Psychological disorders
Chapter 16 Treatment of psychological disorders
2
,Chapter 1 - Background to the study of Psychology
Psychology is the science of behaviour and the mind. Where behaviour refers tot he
observable actons of a person or an animal. And where mind refers to an individual’s
sensatons, perceptons, memories, thouhhts, dreams, motves, emotons and other
subjectve experiences.
Science refers to all atempts to answer questons throuhh the systematc collecton and
lohical analysis of objectvely observable data.
Three fundamental ideas for psychology: a historical overview
1879 psycholohy as a scientic discipline (Wilhelm Wundt)
1. Behaviour and mental experiences have physical causes that can be studied
scientically.
2. The way people behave, think, and feel is modiied over tme by their experiences in
their environment.
3. The body’s machinery, which produces behaviour and mental experiences, is a
product of evoluton by natural selecton.
The idea of physical causaton of behaviour
Untl the 18th century, the church maintained that each human beinh consists of two distnct
but intmately conjoined enttes: a material body and an immaterial soul (dualism).
Descartes’ version of dualism: focus on the body
Descartes’ (17th century) concepton of the mechanical control of movement resembles our
modern understandinh of refexes. e believed that complex behaviours can occur purely
throuhh mechanical means, without involvement of the soul. e believed only human have
the ability of thought, but no other animals.
is theory has some limitatons: how can a nonmaterial entty (the soul) have a material
efect (movement of body)?
Thomas Hobbes and the philosophy of materialism
Enhlish philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) arhued that the soul is a meaninhless
concept and that nothinh exists but mater and enerhy (materialism). e claims that human
behaviour can be fully understood by physical processes in the body (especially the brain).
Nineteenth-century physiology: learning about the machine
An important development was the increased understanding of refeees (19th century). The
central nervous system consists the brain and spinal cord and peripheral nerves.
Refeeology: all human behaviour occurs throuhh refexes.
Another important development was the concept of localizaton of functon in the brain,
where speciic parts of the brain serve speciic functons. Phrenollogy, a pseudoscience,
believes that all aspects of thouhht, emoton and personality can be located in the brain.
3
, The idea that the mind and behaviour are shaped by eeperience
After materialism Enhlish philosophers such as Joohn Loocke (1632-17h4) carried on with
Britsh empiricism, where human knowledhe and thouhht derive ultmately form sensory
experience. Which allows us to behave adaptvely. Loock viewed a child’s mind as a tabula
rasa (blank slate), were experiences serves as the chalk that writes on and ills the slate.
The empiricist concept of associaton by contguity (closeness in space or tme)
Loock arhued that thouhhts are not products of free will but rather refectons of a person’s
experiences in the physical and social environment. The law of associaton by contguity
states that if a person experiences two environmental events (stmuli, or sensatons) at the
same tme or one rihht after the other (conthuously) those two events will become
associated (bound tohether) in the person’s mind, such that the thouhht of one event will, in
the future, tend to elicit the thouhht of the other.
John Stuart Mill (1843/1875) mental chemistry complex ideas and thouhhts are
formed from combinatons of elementary ideas.
The natvist response to empiricism
The opposite of empiricism is natvism: the foundaton for human nature are natve to the
human mind, and do not have to be acquired from experiences. It took root in Germany by
Gottfried Wilhem von ieibniz (1646-1716) and Immanuel Kant (1724-18h4). Kant made a
distncton in a prior knowledhe (inborn knowledhe) and a posteriori knowledhe (hains from
experiences).
The idea that the machinery of behaviour and mind evolved through natural
selecton (evolutonary basis)
Charles Darwin (18h9-1882) was studyinh the functon of behaviour which led to his
fundamental idea of natural selecton in which species whose inherited characteristcs are
well adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. Darwin have a
biolohical hroundinh for psycholohy.
The scope of psychology
Varietes of eeplanatons in psychology and their applicaton to seeual
jealousy
A person’s behaviour or mental experience can be examined at various levels. Diferent
levels of analysis are complementary.
Eeplanatons that focus on biological processes:
Neural brain as cause
o Behavioural neuroscience explores how the nervous system produces a
partcular behaviour or experience.
Physiolohical internal chemical functons, such as hormones as cause
o Biopsychology is the study how hormones and druhs act on the brain to alter
behaviour and experience.
Genetc henes as cause
4
Peter Gray, David F. Bjorklund
,Brief contents
Part I Foundatons for the study of psychology
Chapter 1 Backgrounds to the study of psychology
Chapter 2 Methods of psychology
Part II The biological bases of behaviour
Chapter 3 Genetics and evolutionary foundations of behaviour
Chapter 4 Neural control of behaviour
Chapter 5 Mechanisms of motivation and emotion
Part III Sensaton and percepton
Chapter 6 Smell, taste, pain, hearing, and psychophysics
Chapter 7 The psychology of vision
Part IV Learning and thinking
Chapter 8 Basic processes of learning
Chapter 9 Memory, atention, and consciousness
Chapter 10 Solving problems: reasoning and intelligence
Part V Growth of the mind and person
Chapter 11 The development of body, thought, and language
Chapter 12 Social development
Part VI Social and personality psychology
Chapter 13 Social psychology
Chapter 14 Personality
Part VII Psychological disorder and treatment
Chapter 15 Psychological disorders
Chapter 16 Treatment of psychological disorders
2
,Chapter 1 - Background to the study of Psychology
Psychology is the science of behaviour and the mind. Where behaviour refers tot he
observable actons of a person or an animal. And where mind refers to an individual’s
sensatons, perceptons, memories, thouhhts, dreams, motves, emotons and other
subjectve experiences.
Science refers to all atempts to answer questons throuhh the systematc collecton and
lohical analysis of objectvely observable data.
Three fundamental ideas for psychology: a historical overview
1879 psycholohy as a scientic discipline (Wilhelm Wundt)
1. Behaviour and mental experiences have physical causes that can be studied
scientically.
2. The way people behave, think, and feel is modiied over tme by their experiences in
their environment.
3. The body’s machinery, which produces behaviour and mental experiences, is a
product of evoluton by natural selecton.
The idea of physical causaton of behaviour
Untl the 18th century, the church maintained that each human beinh consists of two distnct
but intmately conjoined enttes: a material body and an immaterial soul (dualism).
Descartes’ version of dualism: focus on the body
Descartes’ (17th century) concepton of the mechanical control of movement resembles our
modern understandinh of refexes. e believed that complex behaviours can occur purely
throuhh mechanical means, without involvement of the soul. e believed only human have
the ability of thought, but no other animals.
is theory has some limitatons: how can a nonmaterial entty (the soul) have a material
efect (movement of body)?
Thomas Hobbes and the philosophy of materialism
Enhlish philosopher Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) arhued that the soul is a meaninhless
concept and that nothinh exists but mater and enerhy (materialism). e claims that human
behaviour can be fully understood by physical processes in the body (especially the brain).
Nineteenth-century physiology: learning about the machine
An important development was the increased understanding of refeees (19th century). The
central nervous system consists the brain and spinal cord and peripheral nerves.
Refeeology: all human behaviour occurs throuhh refexes.
Another important development was the concept of localizaton of functon in the brain,
where speciic parts of the brain serve speciic functons. Phrenollogy, a pseudoscience,
believes that all aspects of thouhht, emoton and personality can be located in the brain.
3
, The idea that the mind and behaviour are shaped by eeperience
After materialism Enhlish philosophers such as Joohn Loocke (1632-17h4) carried on with
Britsh empiricism, where human knowledhe and thouhht derive ultmately form sensory
experience. Which allows us to behave adaptvely. Loock viewed a child’s mind as a tabula
rasa (blank slate), were experiences serves as the chalk that writes on and ills the slate.
The empiricist concept of associaton by contguity (closeness in space or tme)
Loock arhued that thouhhts are not products of free will but rather refectons of a person’s
experiences in the physical and social environment. The law of associaton by contguity
states that if a person experiences two environmental events (stmuli, or sensatons) at the
same tme or one rihht after the other (conthuously) those two events will become
associated (bound tohether) in the person’s mind, such that the thouhht of one event will, in
the future, tend to elicit the thouhht of the other.
John Stuart Mill (1843/1875) mental chemistry complex ideas and thouhhts are
formed from combinatons of elementary ideas.
The natvist response to empiricism
The opposite of empiricism is natvism: the foundaton for human nature are natve to the
human mind, and do not have to be acquired from experiences. It took root in Germany by
Gottfried Wilhem von ieibniz (1646-1716) and Immanuel Kant (1724-18h4). Kant made a
distncton in a prior knowledhe (inborn knowledhe) and a posteriori knowledhe (hains from
experiences).
The idea that the machinery of behaviour and mind evolved through natural
selecton (evolutonary basis)
Charles Darwin (18h9-1882) was studyinh the functon of behaviour which led to his
fundamental idea of natural selecton in which species whose inherited characteristcs are
well adapted to their environment are more likely to survive and reproduce. Darwin have a
biolohical hroundinh for psycholohy.
The scope of psychology
Varietes of eeplanatons in psychology and their applicaton to seeual
jealousy
A person’s behaviour or mental experience can be examined at various levels. Diferent
levels of analysis are complementary.
Eeplanatons that focus on biological processes:
Neural brain as cause
o Behavioural neuroscience explores how the nervous system produces a
partcular behaviour or experience.
Physiolohical internal chemical functons, such as hormones as cause
o Biopsychology is the study how hormones and druhs act on the brain to alter
behaviour and experience.
Genetc henes as cause
4
