The Origins of Modern
Psychology
CHAPTER 1 SECTION 3
Modern Psychology
• First laboratory devoted to the scientific study of
psychology: University of Leipzig in Germany in
1879
Wundt and Structuralism
William Wundt (1832-1920)
 Trained as a physician
 Established 1st laboratory
 Mission= describe the contents of the conscious
mind
 Study psychology the same way as other science
Structuralism
 Break contents of the mind into basic units
 Identify the structures of the conscious experience
 Describe its major components (feelings, sensations,
and images)
Edward B. Tichener (1867-1927)
 Wundt’s student
 Brought structuralism to the U.S.
 Research method depended on a method called
introspection- participants gave verbal reports of
their conscious experiences.
Problems of Structuralism
 Patients had difficulty producing similar reports
 Raised questions: Is there any common elements of
conscious experience?
 Replaced by other approaches
 Conscious experience not considered a legitimate
subject for a long time
Functionalism
 Developed in the U.S. in late 1800s
 Concerned with the purposes of consciousness—what




the mind does and why
William James= “stream of consciousness” = can’t be
broken down into elements= lose reality
Want to see how people use information and adapt
to their environment
Applied psychology= practical aspects
Peak in 1906-James Rowland Angell andRobert S.
Woodworth
Gestalt Psychology
 Gestalt= “pattern,” “shape,” or “configuration”
 Emphasized that perception of a whole differs from
that of the individual stimuli that make up the whole
 Challenged structuralism
 Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka
 Began in Germany in 1912
Apparent Motion
 a rapid sequence of stationary images creates the
illusion of movement, as in a movie
 Wertheimer described the visual illusion
 We perceive unified forms, rather than bits and
pieces
Behavioral Perspective
 Focuses on observable behaviors
 Emphasizes the importance of learning in
understanding how various behaviors occur
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
 Russian physiologist
 Studied digestion in dogs
 Noticed that dogs would salivate at sight of food or
the sound of jangling keys= Learned association
James B. Watson (1878-1958)
 American psychologist
 Read Pavlov’s work
 Believed psychology should be concerned with
observable behavior
 Developed and applied principles in the laboratory
under strictly controlled conditions.
 Used laboratory animals at first and expanded to
human participants
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
 Proponent of behaviorism
 “greatest contemporary psychologist”
 Behavior changes as a result of its consequences.
 Environmental consequences, rather than free will,
shape human behavior.
 Goal is identify and change the environmental conditions
that control behavior.
 Methods have used to teach people with schizophrenia to
speak, improve safety in factories, to teach basic skills to
the mentally retarded, and train animals.
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
 Watsons’ contemporary
 Delved deeply beneath observable behaviors
 Profound impact on psychology but very
controversial
 Trained as neurologist
 Patients suffered a variety of anxieties and
disturbances
Psychodynamic Perspective
 Suggests that both normal and abnormal behaviors




are determined primarily by unconscious forces
Psychodynamic forces = interact with each other
The unconscious mind exerted great control over
behavior
“slips of the tongue”
Analysis of dreams—not always aware of true
meaning
Early Childhood Experiences
 Major influence on personality development
 Freud gained great fame and notoriety by suggesting
that people (even children) are driven by motives
that are sexual in nature.
Psychoanalytic Therapy
 Freud first turned to hypnosis but not everyone can
by hypnotized.
 Attempts to bring unconscious causes of distress to
the conscious level.
 According to Freud, once the sources of distress are
brought to awareness, they can be changed.
Problems
 Over time, both the psychodynamic and behavioral




approaches were questioned.
Neither gave room for personal freedom
Behaviorist views of human nature were either
neutral or negative.
Psychodynamic saw behavior resulting from
irrational forces that are not even under conscious
control.
Neither focuses on the creative potential and
psychological health of human beings.
Humanistic Perspective
 Emphasizes free will and individual’s control of their
own behavior
 More positive view of human nature
 View themselves as a “third force” because they are
an alternative to the behavioral and psychodynamic
perspectives in psychology.
Proponents
 Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
 Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
 People have choices in their lives
 Instead of developing general principles, they sought
to understand each person as a unique individual.
 Important principle: all human beings have a basic
need to grow to their fullest potential.
The Physiological Perspective
 Special interest in the functioning of the nervous
system (brain and neurons (nerves cells)
 Images of the brain have revealed that different areas
of the brain have different tasks
 Recent years-influence of heredity and stress
 Stress has an influence on our health status.
The Evolutionary Perspective
 Charles Darwin (1859) – theory of evolution
 Principle of natural selection: strongest or most fit
organisms are those who have adapted best to their
environment; survive and reproduce
 Ask what role a physiological structure or behavior
plays in helping the organism survive and adapt to
its environment
 Successful applied: mate selection, aggression, kin
selection, care of offspring, and parenting
Example
 When a cat is frightened, its hairs “stand on end.”
 An evolutionary researcher would want to
understand how this behavior contributed to the
survival of the species.
 The most plausible explanation is that when the
hairs are erected, the animal looks larger and more
intimidating to potential predators.
 Cats who were able to erect their hairs when
frightened passed their genes on to future
generations.
 A once-adaptive behavior persisted.
Aggression
 Aggressive organisms are able to acquire resources
and defend their own territories.
 It is predicted that men display more direct
aggression (hitting, kicking), whereas women will
display more indirect aggression (gossiping,
ostracizing).
 The evolutionary explanation centers on maternal
involvement on the part of women.
 Indirect aggression minimizes the chances of
retaliatory injury compared to direct aggression.
Functional Approach
 Evolutionary psychologists are interested in why
certain physical structures developed and how they
contribute to adaptation.
Comparative Approach
 Often evolutionary psychologist compare the use of a
structure among species
The Cognitive Perspective
 Behaviorists did not study cognitive processes, but others disagreed




that observable behavior should be the sole subject matter of
psychology.
Study higher mental processes such as thinking, knowing, and
deciding to determine how we store and recall information, solve
problems, and make decisions.
Use more sophisticated techniques to examine brain functioning.
Psychologist George Miller and Jerome Bruner established the
Center for Cognitive Studies at Harvard University in 1960, and
Ulric Neisser published the book Cognitive Psychology in 1967.
The appearance of a widely read article supporting the study of
cognitive processes combined with the ability of the computer to
simulate human thought processes, generated considerable interest
and research.
The Cultural and Diversity
Perspective
Male Dominated to Diverse
 The presence of women and minority psychologist
sprovides a vivid contrast to the Caucasian, maledominated field of only a few years ago.
 Numerous barriers for women and ethnic minorities
in the past: not accepted in colleges or denied
degrees
Examining “Truth”
 Psychologists are beginning to realize that the
culture in which research is conducted; the gender,
ethnicity, and personal biases of the researcher; and
the gender and ethnicity of the research participants
all influence our research results and contribute to
our conception of “truth.”
Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930)
 student of William James who studied at Harvard
 denied a degree because she was a woman
 distinguished teaching career
 founded one of the 1st psychology laboratories in U.S.
 1st women elected president of the American
Psychological Association
Kenneth B. Clark (1914-2005)
 1st African American elected president of the
American Psychological Association in 1970
 Noted for his research on the harmful effects of
segregation
 Cited in Brown v. Board of Education
Richard Suinn
 1st Asian American elected as president of the
American Psychological Association in 1997
Contemporary Psychological Literature
 Gender issues
 Ethnic groups
 National cultures
 Sexual orientation,
 Persons with disabilities
Cultural Psychology
 Psychological Revolution: move towards cultural
psychology
 We need to know what kinds of cross-cultural
similarities exist in psychological principles and
basic processes.
 Knowledge about these similarities should help us in
our endeavors to apply these principles to improve
our lives.
David Matsumoto
 “the psychological principles we derive about people
may be consistent or discrepant across cultures.”
 To the extent that differences do exist, it is important
for all of us to appreciate how cultural factors
moderate our psychological processes.
 We can learn how our own viewpoint, developed
within our own cultural framework, can distort our
interpretation of other’s behaviors
Matsumoto, Kasri, and Kooken (1999)
 Cross-cultural study of the intensity of facial
expressions of emotions in Americans and Japanese
 Americans exaggerated their ratings
 Previously, it had been assumed that the differences
between the two cultures occurred because Japanese
participants suppressed their ratings.
The Environmental, Population, and
Conservation Perspective
 Increasing concerns about the effects of
overpopulation on the quality of life and the quality
of our environment.
 Applying psychological principles to help save the
planet.
 Challenge: the task of increasing proenvironmental
behavior
 Listserv: Email- conservation-psychologyrequest@umich.edu with subject: SUBSCRIBE
Present Day Psychology
Eclectic Approach
 Present-day psychologists do not align themselves
strictly with one approach but combine several
different approaches.
Employment
 Most psychology majors who complete their education
with a B.A. or B.S. degree are employed by for-profit
companies and not-for-profit organizations.
 The majority of psychologists with advanced degrees are
either self-employed or work in some type of educational
setting.
 A person cannot assume the title of psychologist unless
he or she meets certain standards of education and
training established by a state board.
 Most do not engage in research but in the application of
psychology: health service provider or direct service
specialties
Psychological Specialties
Clinical Psychology
 Specialize in helping people with behavioral or
emotional problems to adjust to the demands of life
 Not psychiatrists
 After completing an undergraduate degree, clinical
psychologists earn a doctoral degree (4 more years)
 They then complete an internship for at least 1 year
to develop their diagnostic and therapeutic skills
while being supervised by experienced psychologists
Psychiatry
 Psychiatrist are medical doctors who have earned an
M.D. degree.
 After graduating from medical school, they complete
a 3-year residency.
 They are trained in the medical assessment of
disorders and are more likely to view the disorders as
caused by medical conditions
Counseling Psychology
 Administer psychological tests and provide therapy
 Often work with clients who have less serious
problems such as people who are having difficulty
dealing with everyday problems such as a physical
handicap or a vocational decision.
Research Psychologist
 Psychologist whose primary activity is to conduct
and report the results of experiments
 Areas of specialty: animal behavior, biopsychology,
cognitive processes, cross-cultural, developmental,
educational, motivation, personality, psychometrics,
sensation and perception, and social
Ethnocentrism
 The view that other cultures are an extension of one’s
own
 Modern psychology is highly identified with the U.S.
Cross-Cultural Psychology
 Branch of psychology that seeks to determine if
research results are universal
Careers
 School psychologist
 Industrial and organizational psychologist
 Consumer psychology
 Health psychology
 Forensic psychology
 Sports psychology
 neuropsychology