what man has done
how man governs
HISTORY
POLITICAL
SCIENCE
how man makes a living
ECONOMICS
SOCIAL
SCIENCES
PSYCHOLOGY
how man thinks and acts
as an individual
SOCIOLOGY
ANTHROPOLOGY
what makes groups of men
similar and dissimilar
how man thinks as acts
in a group
QUESTION
HYPOTHESIS
EXPERIMENT
additional
hypothesis
RESULTS
CONCLUSIONS
THEORY
others replicate and
test theories
reject/revise
hypothesis
Ancient Greece.
Socrates suggested that man “know thyself” – a
process of introspection by “looking within” to
examine our own thoughts and feelings to act in a
way consistent with what each believes is right
Aristotle outlined the laws of associationism (a learned
connection between two ideas or events)
During the Middle Ages emotions and behaviors were thought to be
inspired by spiritual forces.
The Age of Enlightenment re-introduced science to philosophical and
scientific thought: rationalism emphasized reason over faith in direct
contradiction with Middle Ages thought
Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt) – the basic elements of
consciousness are divided between objective sensations
(sight and taste) and subjective feelings (emotional
responses and mental images)
Functionalism (William James) – study of mental
processes (functions or purposes of consciousness)
Inheritable Traits (Francis Galton) – heredity
determines a person’s personality and behavior
Gestalt : perception (consciousness) is more than the
sum of its parts, it involves the “whole pattern”
Evolutionary: investigates how primal survival instincts can influence
behavior
Biological: focuses primarily on the
activities of the nervous system, the brain,
hormones, and genetics
Psychodynamic: emphasizes internal unconscious conflicts; the
emphasis is on sexual and aggressive instincts that collide with cultural
norms (socially acceptable behavior)
Humanistic: emphasizes an individuals potential for growth and the role
of perception in guiding mental processes and behaviors
Cognitive: focuses on the mechanisms through
which people receive, store, and process information
Behavioral: examines the learning
process, focusing in particular on the
influence of rewards and punishments
Sociocultural: explores how
behavior is shaped by history,
society and culture
Psychologists approach their various subjects with a number of presuppositions
 The Nature of Man: an issue of philosophy
 The Nature of the Question: an matter of purpose
 The Nature of the Resources: a question of procedure
Assumption: Adaptive organisms survive and transmit their genes to future
generations
Applications:
 Applies Darwin’s ideas of Natural
Selection (an evolutionary process
in which individuals of a species that
are best adapted to their
environments are the ones most
likely to survive; they then pass on
their traits to their offspring) to
Psychology
 William James: “the father of psychology”; adaptive behavior
patterns are learned and maintained because they are successful
 David Buss: a core principle of Psychological adaptation involves
an organism’s need to reproduce
Assumption: biological/physiological processes influence behavior and
mental processes
Applications:
 Stanley Schachter: studied eating
behaviors by manipulating external cues
to determine effects on eating
Howard Gardner: studied brain damage
and neurological disorders; different
parts of the brain have different
functions; created theory of multiple
intelligences
 Hans Eysenck: the importance
of genetics; intelligence is
inherited
 William James: humans share common instincts
(e.g. curiosity, parental love, sympathy, etc.) which
are passed genetically from generation to
generation
 Masters and Johnson:
studied human sexuality
Assumption: unconscious motives and conflicts influence behavior
Applications:
 Sigmund Freud: free association (patient is instructed to say
anything that comes into his mind) relieves the operation o
the mental process by bringing the unconscious to the
conscious
 Carl Jung: unconscious consisted of two components—a personal
(or individual) one and a collective one: cultures had similar
archetypes (cultural symbols that appear to be nearly
universal and that are stored in collective unconscious
 Erik Erikson: people go through certain psychological crises at
different phases of development, each crisis needs to be
resolved before a person can progress to the next stage of
development
Assumption: people make free and conscious choices based on their
unique experiences; human behavior is primarily determined by
one’s environment
Applications:
 Carl Rogers: human behavior is governed by ‘self-concept’—the
image a person has of himself
 Abraham Maslow: people have a
“hierarchy of needs”, beginning with
the basics (food, shelter), progressing
to the “higher” (love, self-esteem,
understanding), and culminating in
self-actualization
Assumption: perceptions and thoughts influence behavior; how people
process information and images is part of our “mental
programming”
Applications:
 Jean Piaget: people develop through different
stages, at different rates
 Albert Bandura: social cognition theory (a form of
learning in which the person observes and
imitates the behaviors of others); people
approach a situation based on “expectancies”
learned from previous experiences
 Lawrence Kohlberg: explains moral development through a period of
stages
The central idea of the cognitive approach is one of a logical
progression—whether applied to personality, morality, or behavior
Assumption: personal experience and reinforcement guide individual
development; it is not what a person thinks, but what he does
Applications:
 John Watson: psychology must be
limited to overt, observable
behavior; controlling a person’s
environment would influence him
in a certain direction
 Ivan Pavlov: developed the idea of “psychic reflexes” whereby an
action can bring about an unrelated action; classical conditioning
 B.F. Skinner: behavior is strongly influenced by rewards and
punishment
Assumption: socio-cultural, biological, and psychological factors create
individual differences
Applications:
 Solomon Asch: people tend to conform
to other people’s ides of truth even
when they disagree with those
truths
 Stanley Milgram: people will change
their behavior at the request of—
or even in the presence of—
someone they perceive to be an
authority figure
Evolutionary
Sociocultural
Biological
Psychology
Behavorial
Psychodynamic
Cognitive
Humanist
Which of these approaches serves Psychology best?
Psychologists must choose research methodology that is not only
scientifically sound but also suitable for the topic. Each type has
advantages and disadvantages.
Interview
Researchers study people face to face by asking questions
Researchers can obtain personal,
detailed information
Subjects’ responses may not be
completely honest
Researchers’ biases can influence
behavior
Laboratory Study
Participants are observed in a laboratory setting
Independent variable: the factor that the experimenter manipulates
or changes in a study
Dependent variable: the factor in a study that changes or varies as a
result of changes in the independent variable
Experimental group: the group on which the critical part of the
experiment is performed
Control group: the group that does not participate in the critical part
of the experiment
Researcher can be completely
Objective
Method usually provides accurate
Information
Setting is somewhat artificial; may
not reflect the “real world”
Survey Method
People respond to a series of questions about a particular subject
Sample: a group that represents a larger group
Representative sample: a group that truly represents a selected
characteristic of a larger population
Stratified sample: subgroups in the population are represented
proportionally in the sample
Researchers can gather information
on feelings, opinions, and behavior
patterns
Survey’s sample may not be
representative of population as a
whole
Results can be amazingly accurate
Questions may not be phrased
objectively
Allows for a large number of subjects
Interpretation of results may be
distorted
Naturalistic Observation
Researchers observe the behavior of people or animals in their natural habitat
Correlation: a measure of how closely one thing is related to another
Causation: how one event makes another event happen
Behavior is completely natural
Researchers cannot interact with
subjects and my interpret subjects’
responses incorrectly
No control over the setting or the
events that occur
Case Study
Researchers conduct in-depth investigations of individuals or small groups
Method provides background
information that may shed light on
present behavior
Subjects’ responses may not be
completely honest
Researchers’ biases can influence
behavior
May focus on isolated circumstances
or events that cannot be replicated
Psychological Test
Tests provide accurate, objective
information—there is little chance
of distorting results
Convenient
Tests are limited in the amount of
information they can obtain
Does not always provide a complete
representation of an individual’s
true abilities or personality
Longitudinal Method
A group of participants is observed at intervals over an extended period of time
Method provides information needed Method is expensive and time
for certain kinds of research, such as
consuming
studies on development
Participants may not be available for
Enables researchers to see how
the duration of the study
individuals change over time
Cross-sectional Method
Researchers compare the differences and similarities among people in different
age groups at a given time
Method provides information needed Method is expensive and time
for certain kinds of research, such as
consuming
studies on development
Participants may not be available for
Enables researchers to see how
the duration of the study
individuals change over time
Problems and Solutions in Research
Avoiding a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy. A self-fulfilling prophecy is a
situation in which a researcher’s expectations influence that
person’s own behavior, and thereby influence the participant’s
behavior. This can be minimized by:
Single-blind experiment: an experiment in which the
participants are unaware of which participants received the
treatment
Double-blind experiment: an experiment in which neither the
experimenter nor the participants know which participants
received the treatment
The Placebo Effect. A change in a participant’s illness or behavior
that results from a belief that the treatment will have an effect
rather than the actual treatment.
The Milgram Experience. Researchers must follow ethical guidelines
in experimentation
experimenter
subject
“answerer”
actor
Socrates
http://www.kidspast.com/images/socrates.jpg
Aristotle
http://westernparadigm.files.wordpress.com/2008/10/aristotle.jpg?w=263&h=315
Wilhelm Wundt
http://psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/Wilhelm_Wundt.gif
William James
http://psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/William_James.GIF
PHOTO CREDITS
Introduction to Psychology
Francis Galton
http://www.reproductive-revolution.com/francis-galton.png
Terapias Gestalt
http://www.terapiasnaturales.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/04/gestalt.jpg
Evolution
http://daily.swarthmore.edu/static/uploads/by_date/2009/02/19/evolution.jpg
Nervous System
http://www.capitalcitychiro.net/images/stock/nervous%20system.gif
Middle Ages Exorcism
http://www.australianparanormalsociety.com/news/wp-content/uploads/am4.jpg
Age of Enlightenment
http://www.memo.fr/Media/MOD_LUM_000.jpg
Brain (cartoon)
http://www.st-augustines.worcs.sch.uk/images/Departments/psychology/psych_2.jpg
Good v. Evil
http://www.blacksunjournal.com/wp-content/images/1506l.jpg
Group Hug
http://graphics.tomrue.net/images/group-hug.jpg
Lab rat
http://www.101usesforajohnhoward.com/wp-content/uploads/2006/07/25labrat.gif
Herd
http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_1V7wnZxPqok/RoOCiW5wfoI/AAAAAAAAFPc/1MdGesWwUJM/s400/herd-of-sheep.jpg
Darwin
http://oreh.pef.uni-lj.si/~markor/Darwin/Charles_Darwin.jpg
William James
http://psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/William_James.GIF
David Buss
http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0204/020904bussdavid.jpg
PHOTO CREDITS
Introduction to Psychology
Stanley Schachter
http://www.socialpsychology.org/images/socialfigures/schachter.gif
Howard Gardner
http://www.howardgardner.com/images/Howard%20Gardner%20Compressed.jpg
Hans Eysenck
http://wpcontent.answers.com/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/1f/Hans.Eysenck.jpg/200px-Hans.Eysenck.jpg
William James
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/questionofgod/images/voices/james_sidebar.jpg
Masters and Johnson
http://images.stltoday.com/stltoday/resources/sex625may3.jpg
Sigmund Freud
http://blog.syracuse.com/shelflife/2008/05/freud.jpg
Carl Jung
http://www.crystalinks.com/jung.jpg
Erik Erikson
http://isites.harvard.edu/fs/docs/icb.topic20826.files/Erikson2.jpg
Carl rogers
http://www.myers-online.de/myers/zeitleiste/images/vRogers.jpg
Abraham Maslow
http://quangkhoi.net/learningcenter/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/maslow1.jpg
Jean Piaget
http://lakeplacidcsd.net/lpcsweb/highschool/dev.web/piaget.jpg
Albert Bandura
http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/december5/gifs/graw_bandura.jpg
Lawrence Kohlberg
http://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/features/images/kohlberg_lecture.gif
PHOTO CREDITS
Introduction to Psychology
John Watson
http://www.nndb.com/people/078/000030985/john-b-watson-1-sized.jpg
Ivan Pavlov
http://nobelprize.org/nobel_prizes/medicine/laureates/1904/pavlov.jpg
B.F. Skinner
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/wasserman/Glossary/skinner.jpg&imgr
efurl=http://www.psychology.uiowa.edu/Faculty/wasserman/Glossary/homepage.html&usg=__kkqrz4gNzKQbOC4D3GR1mJe5ZE=&h=316&w=319&sz=24&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=T29QO16IxvOGLM:&tbnh=117&tbnw=118&pr
ev=/images%3Fq%3Db%2Bf%2Bskinner%26gbv%3D2%26ndsp%3D18%26hl%3Den
Solomon Asch
http://aschcenter.blogs.brynmawr.edu/files/2008/10/aschpipeforweb.jpg
Stanley Milgram
http://www3.niu.edu/acad/psych/Millis/History/2003/Milgram_head.gif
SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY
Introduction to Psychology
Belch, Hal. What is Psychology?: Psychology Approaches. Culver City,
CA: Social Studies School Service. 2004
Kasschau, Richard A. Understanding Psychology. New York, NY: Glencoe
McGraw-Hill. 2003
Rathus, Spencer A. Psychology: Principles in Practice. Austin, TX: Holt,
Rinehart and Winston. 2003