Unit 1
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Empiricism
Structuralism
Functionalism
Experimental
psychology
Behaviorism
Humanistic
psychology
Cognitive
neuroscience
Psychology
Nature-nurture issue
Natural selection
Levels of analysis
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Biopsychosocial
approach
Biological psychology
Evolutionary
psychology
Psychodynamic
psychology
Behavioral
psychology
Cognitive psychology
Social-cultural
psychology
Psychometrics
Basic research
Developmental
psychology
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Educational
psychology
Personality
psychology
Social psychology
Applied research
Industrialorganization
psychology
Human factors
psychology
Counseling
psychology
Clinical psychology
Psychiatry
SQ3R
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Empiricism
• Experimental
psychologists
Sturcturalism
Functionalism
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Ancient Greek philosophers
◦ Socrates & Plato: logic basis
 Mind separate from body & continues on after death.
 Knowledge is innate (born with us)
◦ Aristotle: data basis
 Observed principles from observations
 Claimed knowledge grows with experiences
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1600’s philosophy and theory
◦ Rene Descartes (French philosopher)
 Agreed with Socrates & Plato with innate ideas and mind
being separate from the body (dualism).
 Animal spirits flowed through the fluid in the brain and
nerves, eventually creating memories.
◦ Francis Bacon (English philosopher)
 Presented the idea that the human mind always tries to make
patterns of random events. (Novum Organuum)
 Made an observation that we remember events to confirm
our beliefs.
◦ John Locke (British political philosopher)
 Mind at birth is a tabula rasa (blank slate)
 Helped originate the idea of empiricism (science should rely
on observation and experimentation.)
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Wilhelm Wundt
◦ Created the first experimental apparatus at the University
of Leipzig in Germany in 1879.
◦ Measured awareness based on hearing and then perceiving
of a telegraph sound.
◦ Wundt’s students were the first psychology graduate
students.
Branches of psychology soon were born
◦ Structuralism
◦ Functionalism
◦ Behaviorism
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Edward Bradford Titchener
◦ Wundt’s student receiving his Ph.D. in 1892 and joined Cornell University
◦ Introduced Structuralism
 Attempted to engage people in self-reflective introspection (looking inward) while
reporting elements of their experience.
 Had the view that “there is one thing, and only one in the whole universe which we
know more about than we could learn from external observation…we have, so to
speak, inside information” (ourselves)
 Problems:
 Introspection required smart, verbal people.
 Results varied from person to person and were unreliable.
 Often, we don’t understand why we feel or do the things
we do.
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William James
◦ Consider evolved functions of our thoughts and feelings.
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The nose smells, the brain thinks
◦ Believed thinking was adaptive/helped humans survive.
◦ Consciousness is a function in which we consider our past,
present and future.
◦ Most known for his teaching at Harvard
◦ Admitted Mary Calkins (first female) into his graduate seminar,
where all the males dropped out.
◦ Made the first psychology text book called Principles of Psychology, which took him
12 years (10 longer than he anticipated.)
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Mary Calkins
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Margaret Floy Washburn
◦ Tutored her exclusively, but she was refused a degree by Harvard, but was offered a
degree by Radcliffe instead; she refused it.
◦ Went on to become a memory researcher and the first APA female president in 1905.
◦ Became the first female psychology student
◦ Became the second female APA president in 1921.
◦ Barred from joining the organization of experimental psychologist, though her
adviser Titchener founded it.
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Behaviorists
Humanistic Psychology
Cognitive neuroscience
Psychology
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Psychology developed from established fields of philosophy and biology.
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Wundt: philosopher and physiologist
James: American philosopher
Pavlov: Russian physiologist
Freud: Austrian physician
Piaget: Swiss biologist
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In the 1920’s, psychology was defined as “the science of mental life.”
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Between the 1920’s and 1960’s, psychology was redefined as “the
scientific study of observable behavior.”
◦ Wundt, Titchener, James, and Freud
◦ Watson & Skinner (Behaviorists)
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The 1960’s and beyond, many rebelled against Freudian psychology and
behaviorism.
◦ Rogers, Maslow (Huminists)
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Also in the 1960’s, the cognitive revolution started which led to
cognitive psychology and cognitive neuroscience.
Today, psychology is defined as the science of behavior and mental
processes.
◦ Behavior: meaning what an organism does or observable action
◦ Mental processes: meaning the internal subjective experiences we infer from behavior
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Nature-nurture issue
◦ Very old concept, yet still debated today.
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Natural selection: Darwin
◦ Darwin’s idea of selective traits which enable an
organism to survive.
◦ Believed that natural selection occurs with both
animal traits and animal behaviors.
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Levels of analysis
Biopsychosocial
approach
Biological
Evolutionary
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Psychodynamic
Behavioral
Cognitive
Social-cultural
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The levels of analysis are differing complimentary
views for analyzing any given phenomenon.
◦ Biological influences:
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Natural selection of adaptive traits
Genetic predispositions responding to environment
Brain mechanisms
Hormonal influences
◦ Psychological Influences:
 Learned fears and other learned expectations
 Emotional responses
 Cognitive processing and perceptual interpretations
◦ Social-cultural influences:
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Presence of others
Cultural, societal, and family expectations
Peer and other group influences
Compelling models (such as in the media)
Biological
Social-cultural
Evolutionary
Humanistic
Psychodynamic
Cognitive
Behavioral
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Psychometrics
Basic research
Developmental
psychology
Educational psychology
Personality psychology
Social psychology
Applied research
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Industrial-organizational
psychology
Human factors
psychology
Counseling psychology
Clinical psychology
psychiatry
Psychometrics
Biological psychology
Developmental psychology
Cognitive psychology
Educational psychology
Personality psychology
Social psychology
Industrial-organization (I/O) psychology
Human factors psychology
Counseling psychology
Clinical psychology
Psychiatry
Basic
research
Applied
research
•Builds psychology’s
knowledge base.
•Tackles practical
problems