Introduction to Psychology: Some Takeaways

As I’m moving more towards a career in copywriting, I’m regaining my earlier fascination with psychology…how the mind works, why we feel what we do, and why we want stuff.

When I stumbled onto this free online course at Udemy, I immediately signed up with my Facebook profile.

Here are some of the takeaways from the introductory session:

1. I think, therefore I am.

The underlying philosophical doctrine behind psychology is mentalism or mental causation, which claims mental states drive an individual’s actions (effect). In plain English, we behave and act the way we do because of what we think.

2. Your behavior is influenced by your beliefs, feelings, desires.

Defined as the science of mental life, men such as Kant says that what you do is always rooted in what you think, what you feel, and what drives you.

Say, your boss never gives you major accounts to handle. If we go by Kant’s rationale, he (a) believes you’re not good enough to deal with big clients; (b) he hates seeing your guts, ergo he’ll hate seeing you doing something big; or (c) he’s just a misogynist and he’s driven to prove that women don’t amount to anything (a-----e!).

3. There are several levels of explanation for behavior.

Behavior is influenced on three levels: (a) sociocultural, the institutional rules and group membership norms that we conform to; (b) biophysical, which includes genetics, evolution and the physical environment; and (c) psychological, the study of the mind.

While sociocultural and biophysical influences are more concerned with the universe we move in, psychology is more focused on the vast universe within us.

It’s just the first day of class so I expect I’m going to learn a lot more. For now, these are just for starters and I’m writing them down—in my own words—so I’ll be able to remember. See, I’m motivated by the desire to remember stuff I learn and that drive yields this lecture note and blog post. ;) Psychology in motion!