Unit 1:
Psychology’s History and
Approaches
Unit Overview
What is Psychology?
●Contemporary Psychology
●
What is Psychology?
Psychology’s RootsPrescientific
Psychology
●
Ancient Greeks
Socrates and Plato
●
Mind is separable from the body and continues after the
body dies
●Knowledge is innate (born within us)
●
Aristotle
●
Loved data
●Careful observation
●Knowledge is not pre-existing/It grows from experiences
stored in our memories
●
Psychology’s RootsPrescientific
Psychology
Rene Descartes
●Francis Bacon
●John Locke
●
Tabula Rasa
(blank slate)
●
●
Empiricism (NC)
Psychology’s RootsPsychological
Science is Born
●
Wilhelm Wundt (1879)
University of Leipzig (first lab)
●Reaction time experiment
●
Seeking to measure what?
●Introspection
●
Psychology’s RootsThinking
About the Mind’s Structure
●
Edward Titchener
Structuralism NC
●
●
Introspection
“There is one thing, and only one
in the whole universe which we
know more about than we could
learn from external observation.
That one thing is ourselves. We
have, so to speak, inside
information”
Psychology’s RootsThinking
About the Mind’s Function
●
William James
Functionalism NC
●Mary Calkins
●Margaret Floy Washburn
●
●
Experimental psychology
William James (1842-1910)
Published Psychology’s
first textbook
●
The Principles of Psychology
(1890)
●
Analysis
●Introspection
●Experiment
●Comparison
●
Psychological Science Develops
Wundt and Titchener: focused on inner sensations, images and
feelings
●James: introspection analysis of consciousness and emotion
●Freud: emphasized the ways emotional responses to childhood
experiences and our unconscious though processes affect our behavior
●
“Science of mental life”-through the 1920’s
Psychological
Science
Develops
1920’s-1960’s
●
Behaviorism
John B. Watson
●B.F. Skinner
●“study of observable
behavior”
●
“You can not observe a sensation, a feeling, or a
thought, but you can observe and record
people’s behavior as they respond to different
situations.”
Psychological Science Develops
(1960’s)
●
Humanistic psychology
Carl Rogers
●Abraham Maslow
●
●
Cognitive Neuroscience NC
Psychological Science Develops
●
Psychology
Science
●Behavior
●Mental processes
●
Contemporary Psychology
Psychology’s Biggest Question
●
Nature – Nurture Issue
Biology versus experience
●
●
Charles Darwin
Natural selectionNC
●
Nurture works on what nature
endows.
Psychology’s Three Main Levels of
Analysis
●
Levels of Analysis NC
Biological
●Psychological
●Social-cultural
●
●
Biopsychosocial Approach NC
Psychology’s Three Main Levels of
Analysis
Psychology’s Three Main Levels of
Analysis
Psychology’s Three Main Levels of
Analysis
Psychology’s Three Main Levels of
Analysis
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives (The
Umbrella)
Biological psychology NC
●Evolutionary psychology NC
●Psychodynamic psychology NC
●Behavioral psychology NC
●Cognitive psychology NC
●Humanistic psychology NC
●Social-cultural psychology NC
●
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
How the body and brain create
emotions, memories, and sensory
experiences
●How evolution and heredity influence
behavior
●How messages are transmitted
through the body
●How blood chemistry is linked to
moods and motives.
●Major focus: the influence of biology
on our behavior.
●
Perspective:
Neurobiological
Best way to treat/help
patients???????
●
4 lobes of the brain
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
How behavior springs from
unconscious drives and conflicts
●Analysis of personality traits and
disorders in terms of sexual and
aggressive drives as the disguised
effects of unfulfilled wishes and
childhood traumas
●Unresolved complexes hidden within
ones unconscious (Oedipus and Electra,
Potty training)
●ID, EGO, SUPEREGO
●Unconscious of why we do what we do
●
Perspective:
Psychoanalytic
Treatment?????
●
Id, Ego, Superego
Id=Pleasure principle
●Ego=Reality principle
●Superego=Conscience
(inhibitions and moral
values)
●Battleground
●
Id, Ego, Superego
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
How observable responses are
acquired and changed
●How we learn to fear particular
objects or situations
●How we most effectively alter our
behavior, say, to lose weight or stop
smoking.
●Reinforcements and Punishments
●How has ones environment shaped
who they are. (Watson quote)
●Personal experiences and
reinforcement guide individual
development
●Skinner box, Pavlov's dogs, Little
Albert
●Treatment?
●
Perspective:
Behavioral (Learning)
Behaviorism
Little Albert
Pavlovs dogs
BGSU
Classical Conditioning
●Operant Conditioning
●Observational Learning
●
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
How we process, store, and retrieve
information
●How we use information in
remembering, reasoning, and solving
problems
●Interpretation of mental images,
thinking, and language
●Memory
●
Perspective:
Cognitive
How would someone in this
perspective treat your fear?
Treatment????
●
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Our capacity to choose our life
patterns and not just be driven by
unconscious forces or shaped by the
environment
●A reaction to behaviorism and
psychoanalysis
●How we seek maturity and fulfillment
●How people experience and
understand their own lives
●How people find meaning in life
●Maslow’s Hierarchy of needs
●
Perspective:
Humanistic
Treatment?
●
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
+
Application of Theories
JOHN
John is 40 years old. He lives alone with his mother. He has never
been married but has a good job as an engineer. His life seemed to be
going well until one day a month ago. John’s boss chewed him out for
not doing something right at work. During the last month, John has
been worried and depressed because he has started to forget things.
He told his mother, who told Ethel who lives next door, and now
everybody knows. Here are some examples of what has been
happening to him: he was supposed to turn in plans for a new project
but forgot they were due. He had always remembered his mother’s
birthday, but it was a week ago and he completely forgot about it,
hurting her, even though she pretended not to be upset. A month ago,
a few days after the incident on the job, he met a woman he really
liked and set up a date with her for later in the week. But he had
forgotten that he was going to be out of town then, so he had to
cancel the date./ Explain John’s behavior and treatment you would
recommend based on the theory given to your group.
●
Psychology’s Subfields
Psychometrics NC
●Basic Research
●
Developmental psychology NC
●Educational psychology NC
●Personality psychology NC
●Social psychology NC
●
Psychology’s Subfields
●
Applied Research NC
Industrial/organizational psychology NC
●Human factors psychology NC
●Counseling psychology NC
●Clinical psychology NC
●Psychiatry NC
●
Tips for Studying Psychology
SQ3R NC
●Study Tips
●
Distribute your study time
●Learn to think critically
●In class, listen actively
●Overlearn
●Be a smart test-taker
●
Definition
Slides
Empiricism
= the view that knowledge originates in
experience and that science should,
therefore, rely on observation and
experimentation.
Structuralism
= an early school of psychology that used
introspection to explore the structural
elements of the human mind.
Functionalism
= a school of psychology that focused on
how our mental and behavioral processes
function – how they enable us to adapt,
survive, and flourish.
Experimental Psychology
= the study of behavior and thinking using
the experimental method.
Behaviorism
= the view that psychology (1) should be an
objective science that (2) studies behavior
without reference to mental processes.
●Most research psychologists today agree
with (1) but not with (2).
Humanistic Psychology
= historically significant perspective that
emphasized the growth potential of healthy
people and the individual’s potential for
personal growth.
Cognitive Neuroscience
= the interdisciplinary study of the brain
activity linked with cognition (including
perception, thinking, memory, and
language).
Psychology
= the science of behavior and mental
processes.
Nature-Nurture Issue
= the longstanding controversy over the
relative contributions that genes and
experience make to the development of
psychological traits and behaviors.
●Today’s science sees traits and behaviors
arising from the interaction of nature and
nurture.
Natural Selection
= the principle that, among the range of
inherited trait variations, those contributing
to reproduction and survival will most likely
be passed on to succeeding generations.
Levels of Analysis
= the differing complementary views, from
biological to psychological to social-cultural,
for analyzing any given phenomenon.
Biopsychosocial Approach
= an integrated approach that incorporates
biological, psychological, and social-cultural
levels of analysis.
Biological Psychology
= a branch of psychology that studies the
links between biological (including
neuroscience and behavior genetics) and
psychological processes.
Evolutionary Psychology
= the study of the roots of behavior and
mental processes using the principles of
natural selection.
Psychodynamic Psychology
= a branch of psychology that studies how
unconscious drives and conflicts influence
behavior, and uses that information to treat
people with psychological disorders.
Behavioral Psychology
= the scientific study of observable behavior,
and its explanation by principles of learning.
Cognitive Psychology
= the scientific study of all the mental
activities associated with thinking, knowing,
remembering, and communicating.
Social-Cultural Psychology
= the study of how situations and cultures
affect our behavior and thinking.
Psychometrics
= the scientific study of the measurement of
human abilities, attitudes, and traits.
Basic Research
= pure science that aims to increase the
scientific knowledge base.
Developmental Psychology
= the scientific study of physical, cognitive,
and social change throughout the life span.
Educational Psychology
= the study of how psychological processes
affect and can enhance teaching and
learning.
Personality Psychology
= the study of an individual’s characteristic
pattern of thinking, feeling, and acting.
Social Psychology
= the scientific study of how we think about,
influence, and relate to one another.
Applied Research
= scientific study that aims to solve practical
problems.
Industrial-Organizational (I/O)
Psychology
= the application of psychological concepts
and methods to optimizing human behavior
in workplaces.
Human Factors Psychology
= the study of how people and machines
interact resulting in the design of machines
and environments.
Counseling Psychology
= a branch of psychology that assists people
with problems in living (often related to
school, work, and marriage) and in
achieving greater well-being.
Clinical Psychology
= a branch of psychology that studies,
assesses, and treats people with
psychological disorders.
Psychiatry
= a branch of medicine dealing with
psychological disorders; practiced by
physicians who often provide medical (for
example, drug) treatments as well as
psychological therapy.
SQ3R
= a study method incorporating five steps;
Survey, Question, Read, Rehearse, Review.