Class notes for Sept 6, 2002

1. Handed out individual student information forms.

2. Introduction to class and instructor. Handed out sheet with additional information and a description of the Academic Support Center on the back. PLEASE USE THEM if you need help with your writing, study skills, or to form study groups.

4. Some aspects of effective studying: When you are assigned a section of the textbook, here are some suggestions for how to better learn and remember:

• Each person has different skills and ways of learning:  find out and utilize your own best approach (see handout on different learning styles).
• Break studying down into 'digestable' chunks of information, absorbed in frequent, small 'meals'. Cramming just before an exam may boost grades for some, but for most people, it doesn't work as well as frequent short study sessions in making the information 'yours' for keeps.
• Use the 'SQ4R' approach to the text: first Survey the information to be covered for an overview. Next, ask yourself Questions about the material. Then Read a section, Recite (or re-write) the new information in your own words, and Relate the information to what you already know. Section after section, cover the material assigned with these three steps.  Last but not least, Review the assigned text.   People who are kinesthetic learners may do better if they take notes; some people learn best when they make flash cards for vocabulary words or main facts such as types of experiments, historical figures, etc and then say them out loud. (The actual reading should constitute only about 20%-25% of your total study time.)
• Be selective and organized: learn the cues to what is important to commit to memory. 
• When is the best time for you to study? It varies with the person. Under what conditions do you learn best? Rest (or, best, sleep) after studying to give your brain time to consolidate new information into your long term memory.

The average college-level course requires about 2 hours of study (preparation and review) for every hour of class time in order to do well!

5. Handed out and discussed information on writing a learning contract:  The assignment to be handed in next week is for you to write a learning contract for yourself, in which you set goals for your work in this course and establish a plan for how you will meet them. This is meant to be a useful tool and you are writing it for yourself, not for a grade; although I expect it to be handed in, it will be returned for your use. (The readings in the Review manual are to help you think through what aspects of your behavior you intend to work changing in striving to meet your goals as a student in this class.)

6. It was suggested that you get a three-ring notebook as a way of collecting and organizing your class notes, handouts, and returned homework papers and tests from this class. You should bring the notebook to class for review during the final exam.

Note: This course provides the basis for further study of psychology and involves covering a lot of the underlying biological basis  of all human behavior. Many students protest: 'But I signed up to take psychology, not biology...'    Hopefully, over the course you will come to understand and appreciate how necessary - and fascinating - it is to grapple with the immense complexity of our interwoven physical, emotional and psychological selves  in order to understand psychology.

1. Definition of psychology:  (Greek: Psych = 'mind',  ology = 'study of') 
                       Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. 

  For centuries, we have studied and wondered about the human mind, but only in the last two hundred years has this discipline become a scientific rather than philosophical approach. Even today, 'mind' is largely a 'black box' with no windows: we are only beginning to be able to 'see' inside the brain and still don't know what 'mind' really is and how it works in detail. Even with modern technology, we can only see patterns of blood flow, electrical impulses, energy usage, etc, not what the patterns mean…. At least, not yet.    So, we study behavior: what our body does that can be observed or reported on, including overt (outwardly observable) behaviors such as speech, gesture, expression, etc. and  even some aspects of covert (hidden) behaviors such as thinking, feeling, blood pressure, etc.), as we have developed a few tools to 'see' what some of the processes that are  going on in our brains. 

 So, Psychology is The scientific study of human (and animal) behavior and mental processes.  Sometimes this science is 'pure' research, study just to know and understand behavior, and sometimes it is 'applied' research, where what is known and understood is used to predict and control the likely occurrence of behavioral outcomes.

2.  The history of psychology began with the study of  the human ‘mind’, defined as the complex of elements, unique to each individual, which feels, perceives, thinks, wills, and reasons. Philosophy originally considered the question of what made up human experience, but it was pure conjecture, and did not use scientific methodology. Psychology began as a science when empirical evidence sought to support ideas. Some of the early schools of thought included the following:

• Structuralists: tried to discover the structure of the mind. Tried to determine the elements of conscious experience, similar to chemistry studying the individual elements of all chemical compounds. (Wilhelm Wundt in Germany opened the first psychology lab to study these 'elements', Edward Titchner brought the study to the United States.)
• Functionalists: Wanted to know how and why the mind functions to help thpeople adapt their behavior to the environment, similar to Darwin’s notion of species adapting to environment in order to better survive/function. How does mind enable people to adapt to their environment. William James published Principles of Psychology(1980) in which he described the mind as a stream of consciousness, a dynamic set of constantly evolving elements. Educational psychology and industrial psychology, which came from this school of thought, examines how people function in their environment and how changes in the environment can improve their functioning.
• Psychodynamic school of thought: Sigmund Freud, physician, was concerned with emotional disturbances in his patients. Theorized that there were unconscious mental processes at work directing daily behavior, shaping personality and causing disturbances. Devised a technique called ‘free association’ to help person become aware of inner conflicts and basis for neurotic patterns.
• Behaviorism. Frustrated with inability to look inside the brain or define ‘mind’, Watson said we should only look at behavior, what was outwardly observable (experiments by Pavlov in conditioning dogs). He saw  that learning and behavior were shaped by the resulting rewards and punishments. Believed that if he could completely control the environment a baby grew up in, he could have the person grow up to be anything he wanted.  Theory was based on ‘pure’ science, what was objective, measurable, reproducible, not conjecture or theory.
• Gestalt psychologists: The whole of experience is more than its parts: you can’t understand the mind and human experience by examining the separate elements. Each individual mind organizes the elements of experience into something unique, adding structure and meaning to the incoming information. The gestalt of an experience is the sum of what you experience, know, and think about it. Example: outline of apple, even incomplete, indicates whole experience of an apple. The 'gestalt' of a needle in a doctor's office varies with the individual's experience of needles: for instance, the nurse's experience varies from that of the patient.
• (Oops, skipped this one in class) Humanism: Some psychologists became concerned with the determinism of above theories (that behavior was dictated by the elements, environments, subconscious processes of the mind) felt that something elemental to humans –free will- was being left out. They theorized that humans are conscious, creative beings with an innate desire to fullfill  themselves (‘actualize’ their potential).

For next week, you will be reading about these various schools of thought as well as the more current perspectives.