The Story of Psychology
Prologue
AP Psychology
Aristotles’s Early Theories
• “the soul is not
separate from the
body…”
• Knowledge is not
preexisting, but
grows from the
experiences
stored in our
memories.
Decartes & Locke w/ a
side order of Bacon
• Locke agreed with
Bacon & argued
that the mind was
a blank slate at
birth.
• Empiricism is
started
Dr. Wilhelm Wundt
• Father of modern
pscyh. (Leipzig,
Germany 1879)
• First to perform
psych. Experiments
• Opened first psych.
Lab
Dr. Edward Bradford
Titchener
• Student of Dr.
Wundt
• Introduced
Structuralism in
1892.
Structuralism
• Goal-discovery of the structural
elements of the mind
• Method(s) -introspection & training
Structuralism’s Weakness
• Relied on smart & verbal people
• Unreliable due to varying results
w/different people
• People don’t know why we feel
they way we do
• People’s recollections err & selfanalysis inconclusive
Dr. William James
• Introduced
Functionalism
• Strongly influenced
by Darwin
• “Principles of Psych.”
• Admitted the first
women into his
psychology classes
Functionalism’s Focus
• The evolved
functions of our
thoughts &
feelings
• How the function
of mental &
behavioral
processes enable
us to adapt,
survive, & flourish
Mary Calkins
• 1st female psych.
Grad student
• Denied PHD @
Harvard
• 1st female APA
(American
Psychological
Association)
president, 1905
Dr. Margaret Floy
Washburn
• 1st female PHD
• “The Animal
Mind”
• 2nd female APA
president
Early Psychology (pre1920’s)
• “the science of mental life”
• Wundt & Titchener =inner
sensations, images, & feelings
• James= introspection of the
consciousness & emotion
Freud’s Focus
• The ways
emotional
responses to
childhood
experiences & our
unconscious
thoughts affect
our behavior.
Psychology 1920’s into
1960’s
• Dominated by Behaviorists
• John B. Watson & BF Skinner
• “the scientific study of observable
behavior”
1960’s & Beyond
• Humanistic Psych. Focused on
importance of environmental
influences on human growth
potential
• Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers
• Cognitive neuroscience- refocused
on how the mind perceives,
processes & retains info
What is Psychology?
• Psychology is the
scientific study of
behavior & mental
processes.
• “Psychology” has its
roots in the Greek
words “psyche”, or
mind & “-ology”, or a
field of study
Definition Breakdown
• Behavior- any action that can be
observed or recorded
• Mental processes- the internal,
subjective experiences we infer from
behavior such as; sensations,
perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs
,& feelings
• **The science of psychology is less a
set of findings than away of asking &
answering questions***