SOSC1960
Discovering Mind and Behavior
Lecture 1
Introduction
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Teaching Team
Instructor
Beatrice LAI, Ph.D
Office: Room 2387
Contact: beatricelai@ust.hk, ext 7817
Consultation: by email appointment (with confirmation)
TAs
Stephen CHOY, Vivien PONG, Kayee WONG
Contact: sosc1960ta@ust.hk
Consultation: by email appointment (with confirmation)
Classroom Etiquettes
Be punctual
Turn off your mobile phones
WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
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True or False?
When people are asked to give painful electric
shocks to other people to punish their mistakes,
most of us would refuse to do so.
People pull harder in a tug-of-war when they are
part of a team than when they are pulling by
themselves.
A group of people stood by and did nothing while
a woman was being stabbed to death.
“Opposites attract”: We are more likely to be
attracted to people who possess qualities and
characteristics that we don’t have.
Common sense and science
Do not always trust common sense or
common beliefs, because they could be
empirically unwarranted.
We need to examine any statement
empirically and critically. Scientific method is
needed.
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What is psychology?
Definitions
“…the scientific study of behavior and mental
processes” (Feldman, 2008)
“…the discipline concerned with behavior and
mental processes and how they are affected by
an organism’s physical state, mental state, and
external environment” (Wade & Tavris, 2005)
“…the science of mental processes and
behavior” (Kosslyn & Rosenberg, 2005)
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Unifying themes
Subject matter: behavior and mental
processes
Method: science
Coverage: all aspects of the human experience
http://www.apa.org/about/division.html
http://www.apa.org/topics/
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WHAT ARE THE DIFFERENT
AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGY?
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Different Areas of Psychology
Research Methods
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Memory
the processes through which we encode, store,
and retrieve information
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How do people remember information?
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A visual mnemonics for days of the months
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Learning
the processes through which relatively
permanent change in behavior is brought
about
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阿笨與阿占
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Social psychology
how people’s thoughts, feelings, and actions
are affected by others
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Sensation and perception
the processes of sensing and perceiving the
world
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States of consciousness
different states of awareness of the sensations,
thoughts, and feelings experienced at a given
moment
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Hypnosis (催眠)
Intelligence
the capacity to understand the world, think
rationally, and use resources effectively
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Intelligence
IQ?
How intelligent is a person with an IQ score of
200?
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Development
the pattern of growth and change that occur
throughout the lifespan
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Robin & Trzesniewski (2005)
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Personality
the pattern of enduring characteristics that
produce consistency and individuality in a
given person
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I make decisions based on
A. feelings
B. feelings and reason equally
C. reason
I find it hard to give a
speech of strangers
A. yes
B. somewhat
C. no
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Marrying the rich?
Health psychology
the relationship between psychological factors
and physical health
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Appledaily, 28 Aug 2006 40
城市智庫研究, N=382
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Psychological Disorders
Required textbook
Feldman, R. S. (2016). Understanding
Psychology (13th ed). New York: McGraw-
Hill.
Assessment
Quiz 1 30%
Quiz 2 30%
Assignments 30%
Class Participation 10%
Quizzes (30% + 30%)
MCs, noncumulative
Lecture notes and required readings
No make-up exam unless for validated medical
reasons
Assignment (30%)
Two assignment questions will be distributed
You need to complete both assignments.
Class Participation (10%)
Attendance
Active participation in class discussions
and activities
Course Communication Platform
Canvas (https://canvas.ust.hk)
Announcements
Lecture materials
Discussion
Distribution of scores
Where do Psychologists Work?
Psychologists
Researchers vs. Practitioners
researchers: to develop psychological
knowledge (tool makers)
practitioners: to apply psychological knowledge
(carpenters)
Psychologists
Researchers Practitioners
Developing theoretical Applying psychological
Aim:
understanding of behaviors knowledge
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Researchers Practitioners
The Education of a Psychologist
B.A. or B.S.
Bachelor’s degree
M.A. or M.S.
Master’s degree
Ph.D.
Doctor of philosophy
Psy.D.
Doctor of psychology
What is Psychology?
Psychology is the scientific study of
behavior and mental processes
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Major Perspectives
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Neuroscience Perspective
Considers how people and nonhumans
function biologically
Brain and Neurons
Genes
Evolution
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Neuroscience Perspective
Brain and Neurons
Phineas Gage
Macmillan, M. (2006). Restoring
Phineas Gage: A 150th Frontal 58
Retrospective. J. Hist. Neurosci. 9: Lobe
Neuroscience Perspective
Genes
The Genain Quadruplets
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Neuroscience Perspective
Evolution
Genes play a central role in an individual’s adaptation to
environmental demands
Survival of the fittest
Species with traits better adapted to their
environment survive and reproduce
Natural selection
Through reproduction, more adaptive traits are
selected to be passed onto future generations by
genes
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Examples
Imprinting in birds
Emotionally attached to the first
moving object
Parent-infant attachment
Emotional attachment to the
primary caregiver
Konrad Lorenz
(1903 - 1989)
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Examples
Mate Selection
Differences are consistent across cultures
E.g. China, Taiwan, Japan, USA, Canada, UK,
Germany, Italy, Africa, India
Men Women
Physical attractiveness Economic resources
Youth
Good housekeeping
skills 62
Psychodynamic Perspective
Behavior is motivated by inner forces and
conflicts about which we have little
awareness or control
Theory is developed from
memories of patients
with serious mental
disorders
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Sigmund Freud
Id
Libido: sexual instinct, aggressive impulses
The pleasure principle: the drive to seek
immediate satisfaction
Unconscious
Present at birth
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Ego
Reason and logical thinking
The reality principle – find ways to gratify the
id that are acceptable to the superego
Develops gradually during the 1st year
Conscious
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Superego
Societal rules,
“shoulds” and should nots”
Conscious
Develops at age 5-6
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Ego keeps the
three components
in balance
Otherwise, tension
occurs
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Freud’s Psychosexual Theory
Development is fundamentally stage-like, with
each stage centered on a particular conflict
between sexual urges and demands of society
The specific personality a child develops depends
on the degree of success the child has in moving
through the various stages
Over-indulgence or lack of gratification results in
fixation
conflicts or concerns that persist beyond the
developmental stage in which they first occur 68
Oedipus complex
Castration anxiety
Electra complex
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Which stage is David Beckham fixated at?
Obsessive-compulsive disorder
David Beckham
suffers from OCD and it manifests itself through constant cleanliness
and perfection of all that is around him. Anything out of order is enough
to cause a conflict and must be attended to immediately. Examples of
this complete order is that everything must be in pairs, if there are
three books on a table one must be added, or one must be removed.
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Evaluation
Contributions
Ideas of unconsciousness and childhood roots
of adult personality
Limitations
Lack of empirical data and verification,
partially due to the fuzziness of the concepts
Derivation of the concepts and theories from a
limited population
Important changes in personality can take
place during adolescence and adulthood
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Behavioral Perspective
Focuses on observable behavior that can
be measured objectively
Learning leads to permanent change in
behavior
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Give me a dozen healthy infants,
well-formed, and my own specified world to
bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any
one at random and train him to become any
type of specialist I might select – doctor,
lawyer, artist, and yes, even beggar-man and
thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations, and
race of his ancestor (Watson, 1924)
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Criticism of Behavioral Perspective
X Humans are not passive recipients of
environmental influences
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Cognitive Perspective
Focuses on how people think, understand,
and know about the world
Information-processing theory
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Cognitive Perspective
Does using a cell-phone impair people’s
driving ability?
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Phone
Conversation
Traffic
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Humanism
Emphasis is on free
will
Achieving self-
fulfillment
Maslow’s Self-
Actualization
“It’s always ‘Sit,’ ‘Stay,’ ‘Heel’— never ‘Think,’
‘Innovate,’ ‘Be yourself.’”
Rogers’ Conditions
of Worth
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Maslow and Self-Actualization
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Rogers’ Conditions of Worth
Self-actualizing tendency
– striving to fulfill innate capabilities
Positive Regards:
warmth, affection, love, and respect
Conditions of worth:
the conditions that others place upon us in
order to receive their positive regard
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• Conditional • Unconditional positive
positive regard regard - unconditional
- positive love and acceptance of
regard given an individual by
when another person
providers’
wishes fulfilled
What kind of people
are considered to be
fully functioning?
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Readings
Ch. 1
Next topic
Research Methods
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