History and Perspectives Notes Organizer
AP Psychology
Name:
College Board Learning Objectives (2-4%)
 Recognize how philosophical and physiological perspectives shaped the development of psychological
thought.
 Describe and compare different theoretical approaches in explaining behavior:
o Structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism in the early years;
o Gestalt, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, and humanist emerging later;
o Evolutionary, biological, cognitive, and biopsychosocial as more contemporary approaches.
 Recognize the strengths and limitation of applying theories to explain behavior.
 Distinguish the different domains of psychology (e.g. biological, clinical, cognitive, counseling,
developmental, educational, experimental, human factors, industrial-organizational, personality,
psychometric, social).
 Identify the major historical figures in psychology (e.g. Mary Whiton Calkins, Charles Darwin, Dorothea
Dix, Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, William James, Ivan Pavlov, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, B.F. Skinner,
Margaret Floy Washburn, John B. Watson, Wilhelm Wundt).
MODULE 1: PSYCHOLOGY’S HISTORY
PRESCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY
 Socrates and Plato

Aristotle

Descartes

John Locke 
o
Empiricism
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE IS BORN
 Wilhelm Wundt

Early Schools of Thought
o Structuralism
o
Functionalism
o
Behaviorism
AP Psychology, Lallemand, 15-16
THINKING ABOUT THE MIND’S STRUCTURE
 Edward Bradfort Tichener

Margaret Floy Washburn 

Structuralism

Introspection
THINKING ABOUT THE MIND’S FUNCTIONS
 William James

Functionalism

Mary Whiton Calkins
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE DEVELOPS
 Behaviorists

o
John B Watson
o
B.F. Skinner
Freudian Psychology
o

Sigmund Freud
Humanistic psychologists
o
Carl Rodgers
o
Abraham Maslow
AP Psychology, Lallemand, 15-16



Cognitive Revolution
o
Cognitive Psychology
o
Cognitive Neuroscience
Define Psychology
o
Behavior
o
Mental processes
o
Science
MODULE 2: PSYCHOLOGY’S BIG ISSUES AND APPROACHES
PSYCHOLOGY’S BIGGEST QUESTION

Nature-Nurture Issue

Natural Selection

Nature via Nurture: Nurture works on what nature endows.
PSYCHOLOGY’S THREE MAIN LEVELS OF ANALYSIS
 Levels of Analysis
Meyers, D. G. and Fineburg, A. C. (2014). Psychology for AP. New York, NY: Worth.

Biopsychosocial approach
AP Psychology, Lallemand, 15-16

Positive psychology
o
Doretha Dix
7 PERSPECTIVES OF MODERN DAY PSYCHOLOGY
Perspective
People
Focus
Humanistic
Questions
How can we work toward fulfilling our
potential? How can we overcome
barriers to our personal growth?
Psychodynamic/
Psychoanalytic
How can someone’s personality traits
and disorders be explained by unfulfilled
wishes and childhood traumas?
Biologic/
Neuroscience/
Biophysiological
How are nervous signals passed? What
part of the brain is functioning when?
How is blood chemistry linked with
mood or motive? To what extent is our
personality or intelligence due to genes?
The environment?
How does evolution influence behavior
tendencies?
Evolutionary
Behavioral
How do we learn to fear particular
objects or situations? What is the most
effective way to alter behavior?
Cognitive
How do we use information in
remembering? Reasoning? Solving
problems?
Sociocultural
How are we alike as members of one
human family? How do we differ as a
product of our environment?
PSYCHOLOGY’S SUBFIELDS
AP Psychology, Lallemand, 15-16