Dualism
Soul is the substance that can exist independently of other things.
Soul and ‘thought’ are uniquely human.
Pineal body in the brain is the region that connects the mind with the body.
Cartesian dualism.
Materialism
There is no soul.
Also termed ‘physicalism’
Became the more prevalent view from 20th century.
Thomas Hobbes (1651): Materialist.
Nativism
Immanuel Kant and Leibniz
Everything is pre-programmed and controlled by genetic information
We come into this world with a full set of knowledge.
Empricism
John Locke - empiricist
Tabula rasa
No ‘human nature’
Brain comes as a blank slate
Thoughts are not a function of free will.
Structuralism
What is the correct way to study consciousness?
William Wundt (1900s): Established the first Psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany
* Uses scientific methods to study psychological processes like sensation, perception, attention, mainly through introspection.
* Writes first psychology textbook (1874)
Edward Titchner/William Wundt
* The contents matter. It matters what you are thinking and not just why.
* Breaking down mind into its simplest components.
* Introspection, self reports of feelings/emotions.
* Establish universal principles.
Functionalism
Darwin and Wallace
Why did a particular trait evolve?
William James
The contents of the mind does not matter but only its function does.
Trial and error learning.
Studies other populations, not just humans
How is a behaviour adaptive to the organism?
Behaviorism
John Watson/Skinner (1930s)
The sources of behaviour are external, not internal.
Any behaviour can be conditioned to be evoked.
Rejects internal feelings and emotions.
Behaviours are a product of learning histories, reinforcements.
Skinner (1904 - 1990)
Behaviors can be explained purely through environmental stimuli.
No free will
The ‘superstitious pigeon’ experiment.
Pigeon-guided missile
Classical and operant conditioning
Debate with Chomsky wrt language acquisition.
Psychoanalytic theory
Psychoanalytic theory by Sigmond Freud
* The Unconscious is the part of the mind that operates outside of conscious awareness
* Unconscious conflicts determine behavior and personality
Cognitive Revolution in 1960s
The scientific study of how perception, thought, memory, and reasoning are processed. Both behaviour and mental processes are equally important
Experimental
- Independent Variable – Causes an effect on something else
- Dependent Variable - Gets affected by the independent Variable
Within-Subjects Design
*Same subject will be given multiple manipulations/conditions across time
*Usually multiple subjects, but can be a single subject
Between-Groups Design
*Manipulations differ across groups
*ALWAYS more than a single subject
*Randomization
Ex.
- Coffee consumption decreases risk of cancer
- People who have pets have an increased serotonin levels
Correlational
- Less conclusive than experimental design, but still useful.
- No manipulation of variables, rather it is the observation of already existing variables.
Ex. - Coffee consumption decreases risk of cancer
- People who have pets have an increased serotonin levels
Observational
- High ecological validity
- Can tell us about naturalistic behaviors
- Can be a longitudinal study
- Access to a variety of populations
- Cannot randomize
- Less control over experimental variables
- Observer bias
Principles of natural selection
Overproduction of offspring
Variation in features/traits
Heritability of traits
Differential survival
Limits to functionalist thought
Evolution has no foresight
- Not all traits have evolved to solve a given problem
Evolution is not a moral force — naturalistic fallacy
Some traits are vestigial
Some traits are simply from chance
Natural selection
Mechanism through which the organism with the most adaptive traits has a better probability of survival, and so passes on the genes to the next generation.
Charles Darwin’s The Descent of Man
Sexual selection
Mechanism through which the organism that is the most attractive to its mate, is more probable of passing on the genes from one generation to the next.
Intrasexual selection (within members of same sex)
Intersexual selection (between members of different sex)
Sexual dimorphism
the systematic difference in form, size, color, or structure between males and females of the same species, often driven by sexual selection and evolutionary pressures
Anisogamy
a widespread form of sexual reproduction defined by the fusion of two morphologically distinct, size-differentiated gametes: small, motile, numerous male gametes (sperm) and large, nutrient-rich, few female gametes (eggs)
Social monogamy
a mating system where a male and female form a long-term pair bond, cohabitate, share resources, and cooperatively raise offspring, but do not necessarily engage in exclusive sexual relationships.
Robert Trivers parental investment theory
In species in which parental investment is unequal, the more parentally invested sex will be
* More vigorously competed for than the other sex
* More selective when choosing a mate
* Less invested sex will have more intra-sexual competition for access to mates.
Aggression
Any social behavior that is related to fighting with a conspecific.
Ex. Territoriality, social rank, mate access, defense, infanticide
Pro-social behaviors
Organisms working together for common or mutual benefits. Usually decreases the fitness of the individual but is actually beneficial over long-term.
Direct and indirect benefits
Kin selection theory
Behaviour that seems to be altruistic came about through natural selection because it preferentially helps close relatives who are genetically more similar to the helper.
Reciprocal altruism
“You scratch my back, I scratch yours.”
A form of long-term cooperation
