Prologue: The Story of
Psychology
1
Psychology’s Roots
Prescientific Psychology
www.bodydharma.org/photo/buddha.jpg
In India, Buddha wondered how sensations and
perceptions combined to form ideas.
2
Prescientific Psychology
Confucius (551-479 B.C.)
home.tiscali.be/alain.ernotte/livre/confucius.jpg
In China, Confucius stressed the power of ideas
and the importance of an educated mind.
3
Prescientific Psychology
Hebrew Scriptures
www.havurahhatorah.org/images/hebrewbible.jpg
Hebrew scriptures linked mind and emotion to the
body.
4
Prescientific Psychology
Plato
http://www.law.umkc.edu
http://www.law.umkc.edu
Socrates
Socrates (469-399 B.C.) and Plato (428-348 B.C.)
Socrates and his student Plato believed the mind
was separate from the body, the mind continued to
exist after death, and ideas were innate.
5
Prescientific Psychology
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
http://faculty.washington.edu
Aristotle suggested that the soul is not separable
from the body and that knowledge (ideas) grow
from experience.
6
Prescientific Psychology
Rene Descartes (1596-1650)
http://ocw.mit.edu
http://www.spacerad.com
Descartes, like Plato, believed in soul (mind)-body
separation, but wondered how the immaterial
mind and physical body communicated.
7
Problem of Interactionism 1:
Problem of Interactionism
The Dualism runs into problem trying to explain how non-material mind and material brain are
supposed to interact causally.
Problem (1):
Where is the interaction supposed to take place,
given that all physical events are located in space in
time, and the non-material events are not spatially
located?
Problem (2):
How the physical event in the brain is supposed to
affect causally a non-material substance?
How can a non-material event, such as purportedly
non-physical intention to drink a glass of water,
cause a chain reaction in the brain leading to a
physical act of picking up the glass and drinking?
Prescientific Psychology
Francis Bacon (1561-1626)
http://www.iep.utm.edu
Bacon is one of the founders of modern science,
particularly the experimental method.
9
Prescientific Psychology
John Locke (1632-1704)
biografieonline.it/img/bio/John_Locke.jpg
Locke held that the mind was a tabula rasa, or
blank sheet, at birth, and experiences wrote on it.
10
Prescientific Psychology
What is the relation of mind to the body?
Mind and body are
connected
Mind and body are
distinct
The Hebrews
Socrates
Aristotle
Plato
Augustine
Descartes
11
Prescientific Psychology
How are ideas formed?
Some ideas are inborn
The mind is a blank
slate
Socrates
Aristotle
Plato
Locke
12
Defining Psychology
•
•
•
•
Role of philosophy
Influence of biology
Importance of outward behavior
Psychology is defined as the scientific
study of behavior and mental
processes.
The Birth…and Afterbirth of
Psychology
• Classical origins
• Wilhelm Wundt
– First psychology lab, 1879
at the University of
Leipzig
– Examined introspection,
or the analysis of one’s
conscious experiences
Psychological Philosophy
Structuralism
Titchner (1867-1927)
Wundt (1832-1920)
Wundt and Titchener studied the elements (atoms)
of the mind by conducting experiments at Leipzig,
15
Germany, in 1879.
Psychological Philosophy
Functionalism
Mary Calkins
James (1842-1910)
Influenced by Darwin, William James established
the school of functionalism, which opposed
16
structuralism.
Schools of Thought:
“Old Skool”
• Structuralism
– E.B. Titchener
– Introspection
– Break down immediate sensation, past memories, feelings
• Functionalism
– William James
– Darwin’s influence
– Conscious experience is adaptive
Yeah! Why?
– focus on observable, conscious behaviour
Break it
down!
Titchener
No way! Why
is it
ADAPTIVE?
James
Psychological Philosophy
Functionalism
• Functionalism was the psychological school of
thought that followed Structuralism and moved
away from focusing on the structure of the mind
to a concern with how the conscious is related to
behavior... How does the mind affect what
people do?
• One of the major proponents of Functionalism
was Thorndike who studied the primary issue of
functionalism... What function does a behavior
have? In addition, this school of thought
focused on observable events as opposed to
unobservable events. (p.5)
18
Psychological Practice
Psychodynamics and the Unconscious Mind
p. 6
Freud (1856-1939)
Sigmund Freud and his followers emphasized the
importance of the unconscious mind and its effects
on human behavior. The “science of mental life.”
Psychological Practice Develops
Behaviorism (p.7)
Skinner (1904-1990)
Watson (1878-1958)
Watson (1913) and later Skinner emphasized the
study of overt behavior as the subject matter of
20
scientific psychology.
Schools of Thought:
Classics I’m a
• Behaviorist School
– John Watson, Ivan
Pavlov, B.F. Skinner
– Observable,
measurable behavior
serious
man
Und zen
zie child
becomes
neurotic!
• Psychoanalysis
– Sigmund Freud
– Role of the
unconscious
– Sex and aggression
– Early childhood events
– Evolved into
psychodynamic school
Sigmund Freud
Behaviorist John B. Watson
Psychological Practice Develops
Rogers (1902-1987)
http://www.carlrogers.dk
http://facultyweb.cortland.edu
Maslow (1908-1970)
Humanistic Psychology
Maslow and Rogers emphasized current
environmental influences on our growth potential
22
and our need for love and acceptance.
Schools of Thought:
Classics
• Humanistic School
–
–
–
–
–
Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow
Human potential for growth
Free will
Here and now
Need for acceptance and love
• Cognitive School
– Jean Piaget, Albert Ellis, Aaron
Beck
– Importance of thoughts and
thought processes
– Perception, thinking, memory,
language
Cognitive psychologist Jean Piaget
Psychology’s Big Debate
Nature versus Nurture
Darwin (1809-1882)
Darwin stated that nature selects those that best
enable the organism to survive and reproduce in a
24
particular environment.
Psychological Philosophy
Empiricism vs. Nativism (p.8)
• Empiricism is the view that real knowledge
comes from the senses. This formed the basis
for the foundation of modern science - the
reliance on empirical evidence, or evidence that
is observable. Empiricism is based on the
theory that the mind is formed through
experience.
• Nativism is the view that certain skills or abilities
are 'native' or hard wired into the brain at birth.
• Do empiricism and nativism remind you of
another famous debate?
25
Schools of Thought:
Biological and Evolutionary
• Biological
– Looks to the body and its processes to explain human
behavior
– Genes, hormones, neurotransmitters, and organ
structure/function
– Includes neuroscience which specifically examines the
role of the brain and its chemicals in regulating
behavior
• Evolutionary Psychology
– Examines human behavior through processes of
adaptability, survival value and reproductive value
– How has human behavior changed to ensure survival?
Schools of Thought:
The Biopsychosocial Approach
• Regardless of the particular school of
thought, contemporary psychology has
come to embrace the biopsychosocial
approach
– Biological influences
– Psychological influences
– Social-Cultural influences
OBEY
.
Schools of Thought:
The Biopsychosocial
Approach
Each particular school of thought may emphasize one
area more than another (p.10)
• Which area/s do you think each school would emphasize?
Schools of Thought:
Women’s Contributions?
• Women overcame limitations on access to
education, restrictions on awarding advanced
degrees, and exclusion from psychological
societies
–
–
–
–
Mary Whiton Calkins
Margaret Floy Washburn
Mary Cover Jones
Rosalie Rayner
• Today, women earn the majority of Ph.D.s in
psychology and hold nearly half of the
leadership roles in psychological societies
Enduring Issues in
Psychology
• Psychologists representing all schools of thought debate
what shapes behavior
• Some on-going debates include the following:
– Nature vs. Nurture
– Person vs. Situation
– Mind vs. Body
– Stability vs. Change
– Diversity vs. Universality
• The failure to resolve the debates suggests both sides are
valid and shed light on behavior
Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective
Focus
Sample Questions
Neuroscience
How the body and brain
enables emotions?
How are messages
transmitted in the body? How
is blood chemistry linked with
moods and motives?
Evolutionary
How the natural selection
of traits promotes the
perpetuation of one’s
genes?
How does evolution influence
behavior tendencies?
Behavior genetics How much our genes and
our environments
influence our individual
differences?
To what extent are
psychological traits such as
intelligence, personality,
sexual orientation, and
vulnerability to depression
attributable to our genes? To
our environment?
31
Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective
Focus
Sample Questions
Psychodynamic
How behavior springs
from unconscious drives
and conflicts?
How can someone’s
personality traits and
disorders be explained in
terms of sexual and
aggressive drives or as
disguised effects of unfulfilled
wishes and childhood
traumas?
Behavioral
How we learn observable
responses?
How do we learn to fear
particular objects or
situations? What is the most
effective way to alter our
behavior, say to lose weight or
quit smoking?
32
Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective
Focus
Sample Questions
Cognitive
How we encode, process,
store and retrieve
information?
How do we use information
in remembering? Reasoning?
Problem solving?
Social-cultural
How behavior and
thinking vary across
situations and cultures?
How are we — as Africans,
Asians, Australians or North
Americans – alike as members
of human family? As products
of different environmental
contexts, how do we differ?
33
Psychology’s Subfields: Research
Type of
Research
Basic Research
Applied Research
Clinical Research
Purpose
To expand the general knowledge base of
psychology.
To solve a specific psychological
problem/issue.
To solve the issues involved with
psychological disorders (abnormal
psychology).
34
Psychology’s Subfields:
Occupations
Psychologist
Clinical
What he or she does
Studies, assesses, and treats people with
psychological disorders
Counseling
Helps people cope with academic,
vocational, and marital challenges.
Educational
Studies and helps individuals in school
and educational settings
Industrial/
Organizational
Studies and advises on behavior in the
workplace.
35
Psychology’s Subfields: Applied
Industrial
6%
Educational
9%
Other
3%
Counseling
15%
Clinical
67%
Data: APA 1997
36
Clinical Psychology vs. Psychiatry
A clinical psychologist (Ph.D.) studies, assesses,
and treats troubled people with psychotherapy.
Psychiatrists on the other hand are medical
professionals (M.D.) who use treatments like drugs
and psychotherapy to treat psychologically
diseased patients.
37