Crash Course.docx

Erick Israel Rojas Torres

Crash Course – Psychology Episode 1 – intro In this episode, Hank talks about some misconceptions of psychology, about how diverse psychology is and also about the different personalities in the field, like Sigmund Freud or Wilhelm Wundt. He also talked about some main points of view in the field, like the structuralism, functionalism or the psychoanalysis. The idea that surprised me the most is that Freud discovered that we could ‘heal’ ourselves (at least in a mental-psychological way) by just talking it out and making introspection.

Episode 2 – Psychological Research and Experimentation This episode talks about intuition and about how it works, how we react regarding it and how it affects us. Then he talks about ‘Operationalizing’ following the scientific method. That is, making a question and a theory, a hypothesis, and testing it out with a replicable experiment. Is mentioned that ‘Case studies’ are done to individuals and that they can’t be replicated, and thus are often misleading. Naturalistic observations are great at describing behavior, but they’re very limited in explaining it. A good way of collecting information is by making questions and interviews. Once behavior is described, it is possible to start making sense out of it and even predict future behavior. This can be done by looking at how one trait or behavior is related to another one, or how they correlate. Correlations predict the possibility of cause-and-effect relationships, though they can’t prove them. On the last part of the video, Hank talks about experiments, how they work. He mentions how placebos double blind procedures are used.

Episode 3 – The Chemical Mind Everything psychological is biological. In this episode, Hank talks about how the chemicals in our body influences how we think, sense and feel basically anything that surrounds us.

Erick Israel Rojas Torres

He talks about what and how neurons work and about the different kinds of neurons that exist, it’s a really good explanation, as he even talks about how each one of their parts work and how they are related to our body. Neurons transmit signals when stimulated by sensory input or triggered by neighboring neurons. He then also talks about neurotransmitters, like endorphins, which are opiatelike transmitters linked to pain control and pleasure. There are also excitatory neurotransmitters, inhibitory neurotransmitters, gamma-aminobutyric acid neurotransmitters and about dopamine. Two major mental illnesses are discusses, Alzheimer’s (which is a progressive, neurological deterioration that can occur in middle or old age, due to generalized degeneration of the brain.) and schizophrenia, which is a psychiatric disorder involving a breakdown in the relation between thought, emotion and behavior. On the last part of the video, Hank talks about what and how hormones work, about the different types of hormones that exist and how they react and interact with our body and the things that happen around us.