History of Psychology
Started as Philosophy
• Socrates & Plato
– Mind and Body are Separate
– Knowledge is inborn
• Aristotle
– Mind & Body are One
– Knowledge grows from experiences & memories
Philosophical Developments
•A
Question: How are mind and
body related?
• René Descartes (1596–1650)
-Interactive Dualism
• The mind and body are
separate but interact
(fluids through the nerves) to
produce conscious
experience of sensations
& emotions
Heading Towards a Science
• Francis Bacon & John Locke
• Both focus on how the mind is shaped by
experience
• Led to EMPIRICISM – What we
know comes from experience,
therefore science should rely on
observation & experimentation.
Physiology Influence
• Study of functions & parts of humans
• By 1600’s began to focus on brain
• Began to develop explanations for the
functioning of the senses.
• Becomes foundation for psychology as a science
Psychology as
Science is Born!
Psychology
The Science
December
1879
Wilhelm
Wundt
What is Psychology?
The science of behavior and mental processes
– Behavior - observable actions of a person or animal
– Mental Processes - feelings, sensations, perceptions, memories,
dreams, motives and other subjective experiences
– Science - an objective way to answer questions based on
observable facts/data and well-described methods
• Separated from philosophy in 19th century
– influences from physiology remain
Wilhelm Wundt
Who’s
Your
Daddy?
–Leipzig, Germany
–The “father of psychology”
–Founder of modern psychology
–Opened the first psychology lab in
1879
–applied laboratory techniques to
study of the mind/consciousness
–Wrote Principles of Physiological
Psychology connecting physiology
to psychology
Wilhelm Wundt
(1832–1920)
E.B. Titchener
•Wundt’s student,
– Professor at Cornell
University
– Analyzed the intensity,
clarity and quality of the
parts of consciousness
•Founder of structuralism
E. B. Titchener
(1867–1927)
Structuralism
• Studied the basic elements (structures) of thoughts and
sensations (consciousness).
• Felt consciousness could be broken into 3 parts:
1. physical sensations
2. feelings
3. images
• Introspection – subject would view an object and try to
reconstruct their sensations & feelings they felt while
viewing it.
– Not scientific – too subjective, not repeatable, not able to be used for
studying all topics (learning, development, mental disorders).
William James
•First American psychologist
•Started psychology at Harvard in 1870s
•Opposed Wundt and Titchener’s approach
•Author of the first psychology textbook
(Principles of Psychology - 1,400 pages!)
•Founder of Functionalism
–functionalism – influenced by Darwin
to focus on how behaviors help us
adapt to the environment
William James
(1842–1910)
Functionalism
• Emphasized studying the function of
consciousness and how consciousness helped
people adapt to their environment
– Wanted to understand how mind and consciousness
worked
– Used naturalistic observation
– Viewed consciousness as a stream of constantly
changing states .
DAILY
DOUBLE
Explain the difference between
Structuralism & Functionalism.
Structuralism – basic parts of a
person’s thoughts and feelings.
Focus on basic senses &
perception.
Functionalism – how our
consciousness helps us to function
or adapt to our environment.
William James’ Students
• G. Stanley Hall
– First Ph.D. in psych
– Started first U.S. psych lab
– Started the American Psychological Association.
• Mary Whiton Calkins
– First woman to complete Ph.D. program but Harvard
didn’t give her a degree!
– Became first woman president of the APA in 1905
• Margaret Floy Washburn
– First official Ph.D. in psychology
– Studied different animal species
– 2nd female president of APA
John B. Watson
• Founder of Behaviorism
• Studied only observable
and objectively described
acts
• Emphasized objective
and scientific
methodology
• Performed the Little
Albert Classical
Conditioning Study on
Fear
John B. Watson
(1878–1958)
B.F. Skinner
• Behaviorist
• American psychologist
at Harvard
• Focused on learning
through rewards and
observation
• Studied learning and
effect of reinforcement
& punishment (Operant
Conditioning)
B. F. Skinner
(1904–1990)
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
• Behaviorist
• Russian Physiologist
• Studied learning through
associations (classical
conditioning) in dogs
• Emphasized the study of
observable behaviors
Santa?
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)
• Austrian physician that focused on
illness
• Founder of the psychoanalytic
perspective
• Believed that abnormal behavior
originated from unconscious drives
and conflicts that were aggressive
and sexual in nature.
Freud’s Influence
• Influence on “pop culture”
– Freudian slips
– Anal-retentive
• Influence on psychology
– Psychodynamic theory
– Unconscious thoughts
– Significance of childhood experiences
Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow
(1902-1987)
(1908-1970)
• Helped to create Humanistic Psychology
• Stressed the study of conscious experience and an
individual’s free will to reach their potential
• Healthy individuals strive to reach their potential
(self-actualized).
Wolfgang Kohler
• Created Gestalt
Psychology
• The whole is different
from the sum of its parts.
• Integrate pieces of
information into
meaningful wholes.
Wolfgang Kohler
(1865-1965)
What do you see?
You See the whole picture first rather than the individual dots
that make it up. – Gestalt Psychology
Scene from Ferris Bueller (start at 1:05)
Cognitive Neuroscience
• Combines the biological and cognitive schools
of thought in psychology
• Study of the Brain and how it works when we
perceive, think, remember and use language.