Unit 1:
Psychology’s History and
Approaches
Psychology’s Roots
Prescientific Psychology
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Ancient Greeks
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Socrates and Plato
Mind is separable from the body and continues after the body
dies
●Knowledge is innate (born within us)
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Aristotle
Loved data
●Careful observation
●Knowledge is not pre-existing/It grows from experiences
stored in our memories
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Psychology’s Roots
Prescientific Psychology
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Rene Descartes
Enlightment
●Empiricism –senses
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Psychology’s Roots
Psychological Science is Born
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Wilhelm Wundt (1879)
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University of Leipzig (first lab)
Reaction time experiment
●Seeking to measure what?
●Introspection
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Psychology’s Roots
Thinking About the Mind’s Function
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William James
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Functionalism (darwin)
Mary Calkins-first women
●Margaret Floy Washburn
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1st phd women
Experimental psychology
Psychological Science Develops
1920’s-1960’s
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Behaviorism
John B. Watson
●B.F. Skinner
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“study of observable
behavior”
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“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.”
Psychoanalysis
●Freud
●Study of the Unconscious
●Psychoanalysis to treat mental disorders
Psychological Science Develops
(1960’s)
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Humanistic psychology
Carl Rogers
●Abraham Maslowhttp://study.com/academy/lesson/abrah
am-maslows-contribution-to-thehumanistic-movement-inpsychology.html
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Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychological Science Develops
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Psychology
Science
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Behavior
●Mental processes
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Contemporary Psychology
Psychology’s Biggest Question
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Nature – Nurture Issue
Biology versus experience
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Charles Darwin
Natural selection
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Nurture works on what nature
endows.
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
What is an approach or perspective?
●Different views for explaining or analyzing any
given phenomenon.
●Usually used to explain behavior or mental
processing.
●Psychological perspectives – ways which
psychologists classify collections of ideas.
●Kind of like political parties and each perspective
has its own viewpoint and sometimes they agree
and sometimes they don't.
Grizzly Bears!
●Why do Grizzly Bears
hibernate?
●Is it based on evolution?
Did hibernation help their
ancestors to survive?
●Is it biological? Do their
inner physiology drive
them to hibernate?
●Is it environmental? Is it
because cold
environments hinder food
gathering during winter?
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
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Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
4 lobes of the brain
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Evolutionary Psychology
● The study of the roots of behavior
and mental processes using the
principals of natural selection.
● Perspective: How the natural selection
of traits promoted the survival of
genes.
● All behavior is a result instincts that
helped our species survive.
● How does evolution influence behavior
tendencies?
● Key Words: Ancestors, Heritability,
Natural Selection, Maturation,
Survival
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
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Perspective:
Psychoanalytic
Treatment?????
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Id, Ego, Superego
Id=Pleasure principle
●Ego=Reality principle
●Superego=Conscience
(inhibitions and moral
values)
●Battleground
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Id, Ego, Superego
Behavioral Psychology
●The scientific study of observable
behavior, and its explanation by
principles of learning.
●Perspective: How we learn
observable responses.
●How do we learn to fear particular
objects or situations?
●Key Words: Learning, Observable
actions (Behavior),
Reinforcement, Rewards,
Punishment
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Cognitive Psychology
●The scientific study of all the mental activities
associated with THINKING, knowing,
remembering, and communicating.
●Perspective: How we encode, process, store, and
retrieve information.
●How do we use information in remembering or
problem solving?
●Key Words: Thinking, Memory
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Psychological
Approaches/Perspectives
Social-cultural Psychology
●The study of how situations and cultures affect our
behavior and thinking.
●Perspectives: How behavior and thinking vary across
situations and cultures.
●How are we all alike as humans? How do we differ based
on culture or society?
●Key Words: Others influence, culture, environment,
conformity, society
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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.
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