Introductory Psychology 
Assignment 1

Your first assignment paper will involve reporting on someone’s use of folk (or everyday) psychology to explain his or her behavior.  Remember, a folk psychological explanation is one based on or involving mental states (i.e., making reference to mental verbs such as thinking, knowing, wanting, hoping, desiring, believing, pretending, feeling etc.).   Just ask someone WHY they behaved the way they did.  You see your friend putting on a coat. Ask him or her why he or she put on the coat.  

You may have already completed this part of the assignment.  I asked most of you to write down why you did or did not raise your hand to volunteer on the first day of class.  You may use this incident to complete the first assignment.  

Once you have a response that you can work with (see below), you are ready to write your paper. The paper should have three sections:

A.  Describe exactly what behavior is being explained.  Be objective!

B.  Record exactly what the person (or you) said, word for word, to explain the behavior.

C.  Explain why you think the explanation was a Folk Psychological one by arguing how --implicitly or explicitly-- the person giving the explanation adopted each of the four assumptions of Folk Psychology (mental states, awareness, rationality, perfect perception).   

On this last point -- You may have to read into what was said in order to identify each assumption.  For example, in response to the question, “Why are you going to a casino in Wendover to gamble?” a person may say, “Because I like gambling!” You can argue that this is a Folk Psychological explanation because

1.  The explanation assumes the existence of mental states. To like gambling may not be a mental verb but wanting to do something that one likes does involve reference to a mental verb (wanting).

2. The explanation assumes that the person who likes gambling is aware of the fact that he or she likes to gamble and so wants to do it.  He or she is conscious of the fact that he or she wants to gamble.

3. The explanation assumes the person is rational because the behavior follows logically from a mental state. That is, going to the casino to gamble is a behavior which follows logically from the mental state of wanting to gambling.  

4. The explanation assumes that the person can perceive the world correctly and not only get to the casino but also correctly play the games. That is, the person is not delusional and able to correctly perceive and deal with any obstacle to realize his goal of going gambling and enjoying it.

If you don’t think that the explanation you have is a folk psychological one, just ask someone else to give you an explanation for his or her behavior.