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This course is meant to be a survey of psychology. We will look at how the field has evolved over the last century, from ancient roots in philosophy, medicine, literature, the arts, into an academic discipline with a wide variety of subspecialties. We will discover that beneath frequently heated controversies on specific issues, an underlying agreement prevails on the fundamental ideals of empirical verification of factual statements and rational analysis of arguments. The form which this agreement has taken in the development of the discipline constitutes much of the subject matter of the course. Our narrative and selection of topics is organized around selected chapters in our textbook. You need to study this book carefully as objective exams will be entirely based on its contents. Lectures will highlight and expand on selected topics, and/or classic experiments, rather than provide exhaustive coverage of the materials presented in the book. |