history & approaches

• Psychology's Roots
• Psychological Science is Born
• Psychological Science Develops
• Contemporary Psychology
• Socrates (469-399 B.C.) and Plato (428-348 B.C.)


  Believed the mind was separate from the body, the mind continued to exist after death, and ideas were innate
• Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)


  Suggested that the soul is not separable from the body and that knowledge (ideas) grow from experience
• Rene Descartes (1596-1650)


  Believed in soul (mind)-body separation, but wondered how the immaterial mind and physical body communicated. Believed in animal spirits and nerves communicating in the body
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626)


  One of the founders of modern science, particularly the experimental method (empiricism)
• John Locke (1632-1704)


  Held that the mind was a tabula rasa, or blank sheet, at birth, and experiences wrote on it
• Relation of mind to the body

  • Mind and body are connected
  • Mind and body are distinct
• How are ideas formed

  • Some ideas are inborn
  • The mind is a blank slate
• Structuralism


  Wundt and Titchener studied the elements (atoms) of the mind by conducting experiments at Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. Wundt established first psych laboratory
• Structuralism


  • Define makeup of conscious experience, breaking it down into objective sensations (light and taste) and subjective feelings (emotional responses, will, mental images)
  • Believe that mind functions by creatively combining the elements of experience
  • Introspection (self-reflection)
• Functionalism


  Influenced by Darwin, William James established the school of functionalism, which opposed structuralism. Functions of our thoughts and feelings
• Functionalism


  • Emphasizes the uses or functions of the MIND rather than the elements of experience
  • Deals with overt behavior as well as consciousness
• William James (1842-1910)


  Wrote first modern psychology textbook, The Principles of Psychology
• The Unconscious Mind


  Sigmund Freud and his followers emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind and its effects on human behavior (SEX & UNCONSCIOUS)
• Behaviorism


  Watson (1913) and later Skinner emphasized the study of overt behavior as the subject matter of scientific psychology
• Behaviorism


  • John Watson (1878-1958): Founder of behaviorism
  • Psychology must limit itself to observable, measurable events-to behavior
• Behaviorism


  • Pressing a lever, turning left or right, eating and mating, heart rate, dilation of the pupils
• Humanistic Psychology


  Maslow and Rogers emphasized current environmental influences on our growth potential and our need for love and acceptance
• We define psychology today as the scientific study of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (inner thoughts and feelings)
• The American Psychological Association(APA) is the largest organization of psychology with 160,000 members world-wide, followed by the British Psychological Society with 34,000 members
• Nature versus Nurture


  Darwin stated that nature selects those that best enable the organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment
• Andrea Yates: Low self-esteem (psychological), Mood disorder-depressed (biological-brain chemistry), Husband didn't help with kids (socio-cultural), Equals-Biopsychosocial Approach
• Psychology's Perspectives


  • Neuroscience
  • Evolutionary
  • Psychodynamic
  • Behavioral
  • Cognitive
  • Social-Cultural
  • Humanistic
• Neuroscience Perspective


  Focus on how the physical body and brain creates our emotions, memories and sensory experiences. Study hormones, genes, and activity of the central nervous system, especially the brain
• Evolutionary Perspective


  Focuses on Darwinism. We behave the way we do because we inherited those behaviors. Thus, those behaviors must have helped ensure our ancestors survival
• Psychodynamic Perspective


  Fathered by Sigmund Freud. Our behavior comes from unconscious drives. Usually stemming from our childhood
• Psychoanalysis


  Emphasizes the importance of unconscious motives and conflicts as determinants of human behavior. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) believed that unconscious thought, especially sexual and aggressive impulses, were more influential than conscious thought in determining human behavior. Thought mind was unconscious, consisting of conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes. People motivated to gratify these impulses and urges
• Behavioral Perspective


  Focuses on our OBSERVABLE behaviors. Only cares about the behaviors that impair our living, and attempts to change them
• BEHAVIORISTS


  Focus on how people learn. Rewards and punishment. John B. Watson
• Cognitive Perspective


  Focuses on how we think (or encode information). How do we see the world? How did we learn to act to sad or happy events? Cognitive Therapist attempt to change the way you think
• GESTALT


  Consider behavior in context rather than in isolation (age, race, gender, money, time, family, etc.). Perceptions more than the sum of its parts. Wholes that give meaning to parts
• COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY


  Not just rewards and punishment. How people perceive, store and interpret information. How thought processes develop over time (10 years old compared to today)
• Social-Cultural Perspective


  Focus on how your culture effects your behavior. Even in the same high school, behaviors can change in accordance to the various subcultures. How thinking and behavior change depending on the setting or situation
• Humanistic Perspective


  Focuses on positive growth. Attempt to seek self-actualization. Therapists use active listening and unconditional positive regard
• HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY


  People try to achieve their maximum potential (self actualization). Promote health and self-growth
• ECLECTIC


  Combination of approaches
• Psychology's Current Perspectives


  • Neuroscience
  • Evolutionary
  • Behavior genetics
  • Psychodynamic
  • Behavioral
  • Cognitive
  • Social-cultural