Agenda
1. Bellringer: One thing you’d like to see this year. (5)
2. Class Expectations and Syllabus (15)
3. Lecture: Origins of Psychology, Major Thinkers (20)
4. Who am I? Activity (10)
5. Reaction Time Activity (15)
6. HW: Creating a Psychology Meme (5)
Psychology is…
 The study of behavior and mental
processes
 Behavior = what you do
 Mental processes=experiences, thoughts,
feelings, sensations, and perceptions
 “Psych” = mind; “ology” = study
(Aristotle)
History of Psychology
 Psychology has its roots in philosophy focusing on two
major questions:
 Is there a connection between mind & body?
 Are Ideas innate or experiential?
Socrates – 469-399 B.C.
 “know thyself” emphasized the importance of selfexamination and personal reflection.
 Believed the mind was separate from the body, the
mind continued to exist after death, and ideas are
innate
Plato – 428-348 B.C.
 Supports the ideas of his teacher Socrates
 Believed in innate ideas; suggested that the brain is
the seat of mental processes – supports dualism
meaning the mind and body interact .
Aristotle 384-322 B.C.
 Suggested that the soul is not separable from the
body and that knowledge (ideas) grow
from experience
 Denied existence of innate ideas; suggested that the
heart is the seat of mental processes; supports
monism the idea that mind and body are one thing
Rene Descartes 1596-1650
 Disagreed with Socrates and Plato
 Wondered how the mind and body communicated
 Dissected animals and found the fluid in the brain
contained animal spirits.
Francis Bacon – 1561-1626
 One of the founders of modern science,
particularly the experimental method
 John Locke – 1632-1704
 Mind at birth is a blank slate or “tabula rasa”
upon which experience writes.
 This helped to form idea of empiricism.
 Empiricism – view that knowledge comes from
experience via the senses and science flourishes
through observation and experiment.
 By late 1800s Psychology emerges as a
science
 Major Themes in Psychology:
 Nature vs. Nurture (ideas of natural selection)
 Stability vs. Change
 Rationality vs. Irrationality
Key Figures in the Field of
Psychology
William Wundt – 1832-1920
 1. founder of psychology – campaigned to
make psychology an independent discipline
from philosophy and physiology
 2. 1879 (birth date of psych) – established the first
formal laboratory for psychological research at
University of Leipzig, Germany – first experiment was
Wundt’s attempt to measure “atoms of the mind”
 3. used technique called introspection – means to
look within/self-reflective/self-examination and
reporting what thinking, feeling, sensing at a particular
moment
Edward Titchener – 1867-1927 - student of Wundt’s
who joined Cornell University
 1. brought psychology to the U.S.
 2. introduced structuralism – a school of thought that
focused on the inner workings of the consciousness or
the mind’s structural elements. Used introspection.
William James – 1842-1910 - Harvard teacher
and writer
 1. introduced functionalism – a school of
thought that focused on how and why the mind
works – considered the functions of our
thoughts and feelings – how things work
 2. wrote Principles of Psychology in 1890
Mary Calkins – student of
William James and first female
president of the American
Psychological Association (1905)
Margaret Washburn – first female to receive a
Ph.D. in psychology (1931)
John Watson – 1878-1958
 1. Founder of behaviorism – a science rooted in
overt behavior that observers could record and
measure - OBSERVATION
 2. minimized the importance of heredity – believed that
the environment molds the behavior of organisms
B.F. Skinner – 1904-1990 - modern behaviorist
 1.supported behaviorism
 2. studied how behavior is shaped by rewards and
punishments or positive and negative outcomes
 **Watson and Skinner hit of one of basic questions
– nature (genetic) vs. nurture (environment and/or
experience)
Who am I?
 Started the first psychology experiments, utilized introspection.
 Believed in a “Blank Slate”
 In my research, animal spirits inhabit the brain.
 Introduced the idea of structuralism.
 Changed the focus of psychology from introspection to observation.
 First woman to receive a Ph.D in Psychology
 Looked at punishment vs reward, still utilized in education today.
Creating a Psychology Meme