Introductory Psychology 9.00 - Lecture Notes

Instructor: John Gabrieli

Course Overview

• Focus: Understanding human nature scientifically
  • How minds and brains work
  • Scientific understanding of feelings, thoughts, and actions
• Topics Covered:
  • Brain functions
  • Sensory perception (visual and auditory)
  • Thought processes
  • Emotion and personality
  • Development from infancy through adulthood
  • Social behavior and interaction
  • Mental health and psychopathology
  • Psychological and neurological aspects of behavior

Why Psychology is Special

• All aspects of learning and society involve human behavior
• Understanding human behavior is crucial for fields like economics, art, literature, etc.
• Even simple perceptions are interpretations by the mind
• The construction of the mind affects our experiences and interactions

Visual Perception

• Illusions:
  • Length of lines can appear different based on surrounding context
  • Perceived size of objects can be influenced by surrounding objects (e.g., circles, monsters)
  • Color and brightness perception can be altered by context (e.g., grey shades)
  • Perspective can affect perceived size and depth of objects (e.g., table tops)
• Visual system is brilliant but follows certain principles which can be exploited to create illusions

Expectation and Perception

• Expectations shape our interpretation of visual scenes
  • Example: Trained seal act vs. costume ball
• Context influences the interpretation (e.g., letter B vs. number 13)
• Attention and Perception:
  • Limited attentional resources lead to missing obvious things (e.g., counting passes and missing a gorilla)

Memory and Thought

• Memory is often gist-based, leading to false memories (e.g., word lists and "sweet")
• Automaticity:
  • Mind performs many tasks automatically without conscious thought
  • Efficiency vs. lack of control (e.g., reading errors)
• Heuristics and Biases:
  • Simple rules to estimate probabilities often lead to errors (e.g., birthday problem)
  • Mental maps are often inaccurate (e.g., geographical locations)
• Predictions of happiness and actual happiness often differ significantly
  • Studies show that major life events (e.g., tenure decisions, lottery wins, accidents) have less impact on long-term happiness than expected

Social Psychology and Behavior

• Discrepancy between stated values and actual behavior
  • Example: Responses to racist comments
  • Experimental setup showed participants’ actions often didn't align with their expressed values
  • Highlights difficulty in confronting biases and stereotypes
  • Importance of understanding and addressing social psychology for overcoming societal issues

Summary

• This course will explore various dimensions of human psychology through scientific evidence
• Main areas include perception, memory, thought, emotion, social behavior, and mental health
• Focus on both psychological and neurological perspectives