History of Psychology:
Aristotle, before 30 BC
Greek naturalist and
philosopher who theorized
about learning, memory,
motivation, emotion,
perception, and personality.
René Descartes:
1596-1650
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Originated the concept of Dualism,
viewed mind and body as
interactive machines.
Stated that the mind could follow body
and vice versa.
Proposed the idea of both voluntary and
involuntary behavior.
Ruled out areas other than the brain
for mental functioning.
John Locke:
1632-1704
Knowledge should be
acquired by careful observation.
 No innate ideas: all knowledge
comes from experience or
reflection.
 Mind is a blank slate written on
by experience (tabula rasa).
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Dorothea Dix 1802 -1887
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She was shocked and horrified by the
treatment of the mentally ill
Became a social reformer
Spent 40 years lobbying U.S. and
Canadian legislators to establish state
hospitals for the mentally ill
Her efforts directly affected the building
of 32 institutions in the United States.
Charles Darwin:
1850s
Studied the evolution
of finches and expands
his study to include humans.
 Opposed religious teachings of
the time by suggesting that
man was a common ancestor
to lower species.
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Birth of Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt:
Father of Psychology
1879: Leipzig, Germany.
 Intended to make psychology
a reputable science.
 Many American psychologists
eventually went on to study
in Leipzeig in the 1st Psych Lab
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Wilhelm Wundt:
Father of Psychology
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Most of his experiments on
sensation and perception.
Did not think that high order mental
processes could be studied
experimentally.
Trained in medicine and philosophy.
Wrote many books about psychology,
philosophy, ethics, and logic.
Can you read this?
This is bcuseae the
huammn mnid deos not
raed ervey lteter by
istlef, but the word as a
wlohe. Amzanig, huh?
Wilhelm Wundt
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Wundt’s work led to the 1st school of thought
in Psychology called STRUCTURALISM
Structuralism - focused on breaking down
mental processes into the most basic
components.
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Researchers tried to understand the basic
elements of consciousness using a method
known as introspection.
Introspection
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Looking inward at one’s
own mental processes.
E.B. Titchener
Wundt’s student.
 Taught at Cornell University.
 Structuralism: He furthered
Wundt’s work and understanding of
human thought process.
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Titchener coined term
“Structuralism”
Margaret Floy Washburn
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Student of Edward B. Titchener at the
Sage School of Philosophy at Cornell
University
There she was the first graduate
student recommended by Titchener to
the Ph.D. program, and became the
first woman to obtain her Ph.D. in
Psychology in 1894.
Margaret Floy Washburn
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Moved away from Titchener's structural
psychology
Openly critical of its reduction of the mind
into parts, and wrote a second book entitled
Movement and Mental Imagery (1917)
1903, she was ranked among the top 50
psychologists in America (when women were
excluded from many academic programs)
William James:
1842-1910
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Claimed that searching for building
blocks was a waste of time
because brain and mind are constantly
changing: focused on function.
Functionalism: the study of how a mental
process operates
Expanded psychology to animal behavior.
Author of 1st widely used Psych textbook
”Principles of Psychology”
Structuralism to Functionalism
(Wundt & Tichener to James and more)
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A shift in early schools of though
occurred in Psychology
the difference between stopping a train
to tear it apart to study its parts
(structuralism), and looking at how the
systems interact while it is running
(functionalism).
Mary Whiton Calkins
1863-1930
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Studied under William James at Harvard.
Admitted to Harvard as a "guest."
1895 - Presented Doctoral thesis to
Harvard faculty (Despite unanimous
approval from the thesis committee)
Harvard still refused to grant Calkins the
degree she had earned because she was a
____________
Mary Whiton Calkins
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At Harvard, Calkins invented the paired-
associate task
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which involved showing study participants
a series of paired colors and numerals,
then testing recollections of which number
had been paired with which color.
The technique was used to study memory
and was later published by Titchener, who
claimed credit for its development.
Mary Whiton Calkins
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Is famous in Psychology because:
First woman president of the
American Psychological
Association
Calkins wrote over a hundred
professional papers of topics in
psychology
American Psychological
Association (APA)
Founded in 1892:
the governing body of all
research not conducted
by universities.
American
Psychological Association
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Largest scientific and professional organization
representing psychology in the United States.
More than 134,000 researchers, educators, clinicians,
consultants and students as its members.
Mission: is to advance the creation,
communication and application of psychological
knowledge to benefit society and improve
people's lives.
APA
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Promoting research in psychology
Improving the qualifications and usefulness of
psychologists by establishing high standards of
ethics, conduct, education and achievement.
Herman Ebbinghaus
1885
Published
classic studies on
memory, nonsense
syllables, learning
curve.
G. Stanley Hall
First president of the APA,
established the first
psychological lab in the
U.S. in 1883, at
Johns Hopkins University.
 Started the American Psychological
Journal (1887) now the
American Journal of Psychology.
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Psychology = Eclecticism
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Utilizing of diverse theories and schools
of thought.
Mosaic, no single approach can create
the whole picture.
Unlikely for psychology to ever have a
unifying paradigm.
Present Day Psychology
Behavioral Approach
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All behavior is observable and
measurable
Abandoned mentalism for
behaviorism
All Behavior result of learning
Behaviorism
Ivan Pavlov, 1849-1936.
 Russian experimenter who showed
automatic/involuntary behavior in
learned responses to specific
stimuli in the environment.
 Created “Classical
Conditioning.”
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Behaviorism
John Watson, 1913.
 Psychology can never be as
objective as chemistry or
biology. Consciousness is not
that easy.
 “I can take a child and make him
into anything, a beggar, a doctor,
a thief.”
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John. B. Watson
Baby Albert experiment
 Used classical conditioning to
teach baby to fear white fuzzy
things (started with a rat)
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Behaviorism
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B.F. Skinner, 1950’s.
Dismissed importance of inherited
traits and instincts about human
behavior
Believed that all behavior is a result of
rewards and punishments in the past.
Any undesired behavior can be modified
via positive reinforcement, negative
reinforcement, and/or punishment
B.F. Skinner
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Used the famous “Skinner Box” as the
center of his research
Used rats and pigeons to explore what
he called OPERANT conditioning
SKINNER BOX
Another form of a SKINNER BOX
Videos
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http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P4Rb9n_sQDg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQtDTdDr8vs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TtfQlkGwE2U
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_ctJqjlrHA
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xt0ucxOrPQE
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CpoLxEN54ho
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WfZfMIHwSkU
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Eo7jcI8fAuI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mt4N9GSBoMI
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmBqwWlJg8U
Albert Bandura
born 1925
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Social Learning Theory: How people
acquire new behaviors by observing
and imitating others (modeling).
Famous Bobo Doll Experiment
His criticisms of behaviorists: All
behavior cannot be explained by rewards
and punishments. Treats people like
robots as if they have no free-will.
Psychoanalytic Theory
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All behavior is meaningful, and
much of it is controlled by
digging below the surface to
uncover the roots of
personality (unconscious
part of personality)
Psychoanalytic Theory
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Sigmund Freud, 1856-1939.
Studied neurology, but wanted to
be a medical researcher, forced
into being a private physician.
Became convinced that patients difficulties
were due to mental rather than physical
problems.
Proposed that distress due to problems that
dated back to childhood.
Siggy Freud
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Psychoanalysis: Freud’s therapy method
for treating people with emotional problems,
focus on unconscious mind, dream
interpretation and free association
Unconscious: Nearly all of our impulses are
sexual and aggressive in nature.
Psychoanalytic Theory
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Interpretation of Dreams, 1900.
Sold 600 copies in 8 years; today sells
millions every year.
Psychoanalytic Theory
Hidden Desires: Freud stated
that people are “cesspools of
hidden desires.”
 Unresolved Conflicts: If these
occur in childhood, this will
cause fixations in later life.
(Stages)
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Psychoanalytic Theory
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Freud’s Stages: Oral (Birth - 1 yr.),
anal (1 yr.), phallic (4 yrs. - separates
males/females), latency (Puberty), genital
(adult)
3 Personalities: Id, Ego, Superego:
Id: Wants/Desires, Basic primal instincts.
“Pleasure Principle”
Ego: “Reality Principle”
Superego: Conscious mind. “Do the right
thing.”
Psychoanalytic Theory: Criticisms
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Does not focus on observable behavior
cannot be scientifically proven or disproven
Too dark & negative view of human behavior
Ignores political and social explanations of
people’s problems.
Like Freud: “Neo-Freudians”
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“Neo-Freudians” – psychologists who
agreed with the basis of Freud's
psychoanalytic theory, but changed and
adapted the theory to incorporate their
own beliefs, ideas and theories.
Freud proposed a number of ideas that
were highly controversial, but also
attracted a number of followers.
Psychodynamic theory
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Neo-Freudians
Currently focuses on perceptions,
memories & thinking in our unconscious
Carl Jung 1875-1961
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Jung worked with psychiatric patients at
the University of Zürich asylum
Worked with Freud
Jung’s theories revolved around the
unconscious mind
Eventually, Jung rejected Freud's
emphasis on sex as the sole source of
behavior motivation
Carl Jung 1875-1961
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Human psyche exists in three parts: the
ego (the conscious mind), the personal
unconscious and the collective
unconscious.
collective unconscious was a
reservoir of all the experience and
knowledge of the human species
Alfred Adler
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1870 -1937
Austrian, like Freud
Became president of Vienna
Psychoanalytic Society
Adler eventually departed due in part to
his disagreements with some of Freud's
theories.
Adler had played a key role in the
development of psychoanalysis
Alfred Adler
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1870 -1937
Believed that every person has a sense
of inferiority
'striving for superiority' and believed
that this drive was the motivating force
behind human behaviors, emotions, and
thoughts.
From childhood people work toward
overcoming this inferiority
Humanistic Theory
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(1950-60s)
Strongly disagreed with both
Behaviorists and psychoanalysts
Stress the importance of people’s
feelings and free will
Believe humans are naturally positive
and seek personal growth
People have the ability to heal
themselves
Humanistic Theory
Humanism = Existentialism
A philosophy that emphasizes the uniqueness
and isolation of the individual experience in a
hostile or indifferent universe, regards human
existence as unexplainable, and stresses
freedom of choice and responsibility for the
consequences of one's acts.
Humanistic Theory
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Abraham Maslow:
Hierarchy of Needs:
People’s struggle is to be
the best they possibly can,
known as self-actualization.
Carl Rogers: Former minister;
believed all people strive for
perfection; some interrupted
by a bad environment.
Humanistic Theory
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Criticisms: Believes all people are
good and that people have the
ability to heal themselves. Too
vague, more of a philosophy for
life than a psychology.
Biopsychology / Biological Approach
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Seeks to understand the nervous system. All
actions, feelings associated with the nervous
system.
The anatomy and physiology explanation for
human thinking & behavior
Wilhelm Wundt: Expected psychology to rest almost
solely on Anatomy and Biology. Interested in how
bodily events interact with events in the external
environment to produce perceptions, memory and
behavior.
Biopsychology
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Roger Sperry won Nobel-Prize for his
Split-Brain research.
Weber, Fechner, Helmholtz’s work on
complex chemical and biological
processes within nervous and endocrine
system are related to behavior
Biopsychological (Neurobiological)
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Nervous System: Responsible for our
behavior; Specifically abnormal and
immediate responses.
Anatomy/Biology: Solely responsible for
human behavior.
Criticisms: Ignores mental processes.
Explains too little of human behavior, rejects
environmental influences.
Cognitive Theory
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Thinking: how mental thoughts affect
behavior. Humanism gives rise to the
Cognitive Theory.
Studies how we attend, perceive, think,
remember, solve problems
and arrive
at beliefs.
Know what’s going on in people’s heads first,
then applies it to their behavior.
For Example:
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Cognitivists consider how human
memory works to promote learning.
Study the physiological processes of
sorting and encoding information and
events into short-term memory and
long-term memory
Gestalt Psychology
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Gestalt Psychology: means “pattern”
or “configuration.”
Studies how people interpret sensory
information in order to acquire
knowledge.
“The whole is larger than the sum
of its parts”
Gestalt Psychology
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School of thought that looks at the
human mind and behavior as a whole
Started with Max Wertheimer,
1883-1943
Gestalt psychology formed partially as a
response to the structuralism (Wundt)
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199 × 188 - positivehealth.com
Example of Gestalt Principles
Gestalt
Gestalt…Got it?
Gestalt
What Artist is famous for
using Gestalt ideas as the
essence of his creations?
M.C. Esher
Jean Piaget 1896-1980
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Stages of Cognitive Development:
Researched children’s cognitive
development
Consist if 4 stages
Inferred mental processes from
observable behavior
Children must accomplish mental tasks
to prove they advanced to next stage
Cognitive Approach: Criticisms
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Downplays emotion, lack of
free will
Sociocultural Psychology
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Examines how cultural and political
(religious) experience effect our everyday
life.
Gender influences of behavior.
Job opportunities, politics to influence
people’s goals and ambitions.
Sociocultural Psychology
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It is NOT intrapsychic: Within
the mind or self.
Sociocultural Psychology
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Criticisms: Underestimated personal
on our behavior & Makes broad
generalizations about ethnic groups
and cultures.
Evolutionary Approach
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Very biological approach
Human thinking and behavior are products
of natural selection
Started with ideas of Charles Darwin
Evolutionary psychology postulates the
mind and behavior is shaped by
pressure to survive and reproduce
That is all your approaches 
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Now let’s practice our new knowledge