Prologue: Psychology

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Prologue Psychologys Roots

• Definition of Psychology
• The science of behavior (what we do) and mental
  processes (sensations, perceptions, dreams,
  thoughts, beliefs, and feelings)

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Psychologys Roots

• Prescientific Psychology

In India, Buddha wondered how sensations and
perceptions combined to form ideas.
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Prescientific Psychology

• Confucius (551-479 B.C.)

In China, Confucius stressed the power of ideas
and the importance of an educated mind.
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Prescientific Psychology

• Hebrew Scriptures

Hebrew scriptures linked mind and emotion to the
body.
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Prescientific Psychology

• Socrates (469-399 B.C.) and Plato (428-348 B.C.)

Socrates
Plato
Socrates and his student Plato believed the mind
was separate from the body, the mind continued to
exist after death, and ideas were innate.
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Prescientific Psychology

• Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Aristotle suggested that the soul is not
separable from the body and that knowledge
(ideas) grow from experience.
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Prescientific Psychology

• Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Descartes, like Plato, believed in soul
(mind)-body separation, but wondered how the
immaterial mind and physical body communicated.
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Prescientific Psychology

• Francis Bacon (1561-1626)

Bacon is one of the founders of modern science,
particularly the experimental method.
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Prescientific Psychology

• John Locke (1632-1704)

Locke held that the mind was a tabula rasa, or
blank sheet, at birth, and experiences wrote on
it.
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Prescientific Psychology

• What is the relation of mind to the body?

Mind and body are connected Mind and body are distinct
The Hebrews Socrates
Aristotle Plato
Augustine Descartes
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Prescientific Psychology

• How are ideas formed?

Some ideas are inborn The mind is a blank slate
Socrates Aristotle
Plato Locke
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Prologue Psychologys Roots

• Psychological Science
• Is Born
• Empiricism
• Knowledge comes from
• experience via the senses
• Science flourishes
• through observation
• and experiment

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Wilhelm Wundt
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Psychological Science is Born

• Structuralism-uses introspection to study
  structure of the mind

Titchner (1867-1927)
Wundt (1832-1920)
Wundt and Titchener studied the elements (atoms)
of the mind by conducting experiments at Leipzig,
Germany, in 1879.
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Psychological Science is Born

• Functionalism-study how mind and behavior
  function-how organisms adapt to environment

James (1842-1910)
Mary Calkins
Influenced by Darwin, William James established
the school of functionalism, which opposed
structuralism.
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Prologue Psychologys Roots

• Functionalism focused on how behavioral processes
  function- how they enable organism to adapt,
  survive, and flourish

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Psychological Science is Born

• The Unconscious Mind

Freud (1856-1939)
Sigmund Freud and his followers emphasized the
importance of the unconscious mind and its
effects on human behavior.
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Psychological Science Develops

• Behaviorism

Skinner (1904-1990)
Watson (1878-1958)
Watson (1913) and later Skinner emphasized the
study of overt (observable) behavior as the
subject matter of scientific psychology.
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William James
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Psychological Science Develops

• Humanistic Psychology

Maslow (1908-1970)
Rogers (1902-1987)
Maslow and Rogers emphasized current
environmental influences on our growth potential
and our need for love and acceptance.
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Other Pioneers

• John B. Watson (18781958)
• psychologists should study overt behavior
  Father of Behaviorism
• B. F. Skinner (19041990)
• American psychologist at Harvard
• studied learning and effect of reinforcement
• Father of Operant Conditioning

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John B. Watson (18781958)
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B. F. Skinner (19041990)
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Psychological Associations Societies

• The American Psychological Association is the
  largest organization of psychology with 160,000
  members world-wide, followed by the British
  Psychological Society with 34,000 members.

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Psychologys Three Main Levels of Analysis
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Prologue Contemporary Psychology

• Psychologys Big Issues
• Stability vs. Change
• Do our individual traits persist as we age?
• Do we become older versions of ourselves?

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Prologue Contemporary Psychology

• Rationality vs. Irrationality
• Rationality reasonableness, good sense of equity
  and proportion
• Irrationality not reasonable in thinking or
  behaving, distorted perception of reality

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Philosophical Developments
BIG

• Another Question
• Nature vs. Nurture

• the relative contribution that genes and
  experience make to development of psychological
  traits and behaviors
• Are abilities determined by our genes or our
  experiences?
• What are the interactions between genetics and
  environment?
• What effect does it have on behavior?

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Prologue Contemporary Psychology

• John Locke
• empiricist believed that knowledge is acquired
  solely through life experiences. Tabula Rasa
  blank tablet
• Claimed each of us is born a blank slate on
  which are written the life experiences we acquire
  through our senses.
• (Plato believed just the opposite)

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Prologue Contemporary Psychology

• Rene Descartes
• rationalist insisted we should doubt everything
  that is not proved by our own reasoning. True
  knowledge comes through correct reasoning and it
  is inborn.

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Charles Darwin
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Prologue Contemporary Psychology
Charles Darwin

• Natural selection
• principle that those inherited trait variations
  contributing to survival will most likely be
  passed on to succeeding generations

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Psychologys Current Perspectives
Perspective Focus Sample Questions
Neuroscience How the body and brain enables emotions? How are messages transmitted in the body? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives?
Evolutionary How the natural selection of traits the promotes the perpetuation of ones genes? How does evolution influence behavior tendencies?
Behavior genetics How much our genes and our environments influence our individual differences? To what extent are psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and vulnerability to depression attributable to our genes? To our environment?
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Psychologys Current Perspectives
Perspective Focus Sample Questions
Psychodynamic How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts? How can someones personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes and childhood traumas?
Behavioral How we learn observable responses? How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the most effective way to alter our behavior, say to lose weight or quit smoking?
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Psychologys Current Perspectives
Perspective Focus Sample Questions
Cognitive How we encode, process, store and retrieve information? How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Problem solving?
Social-cultural How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures? How are we as Africans, Asians, Australians or North Americans alike as members of human family? As products of different environmental contexts, how do we differ?
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Psychologys Subfields Research
Psychologist What she does
Biological Explore the links between brain and mind.
Developmental Study changing abilities from womb to tomb.
Cognitive Study how we perceive, think, and solve problems.
Personality Investigate our persistent traits.
Social Explore how we view and affect one another.
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Approaches to Psychology
Biological
Behavioral
Psychoanalytic
Humanistic
Cognitive
Sociocultural
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Biological Perspective

• Study the physiological mechanisms in the brain
  and nervous system that organize and control
  behavior
• Focus may be at various levels
• individual neurons
• areas of the brain
• specific functions like eating, emotion, or
  learning
• Interest in behavior distinguishes biological
  psychology from many other biological sciences

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Evolutionary Perspective

• Influenced by Darwin and the emphasis on innate,
  adaptive behavior patterns
• Application of principles of evolution to explain
  behavior and psychological processes

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Behavioral Perspective

• View of behavior based on experience or learning
• Classical conditioning-- Pavlov
• Operant conditioning-- Skinner

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John B. Watson
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The Behavioral Approach
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Psychodynamic Perspective

• View of behavior based on experience treating
  patients
• Psychoanalytic approach (Sigmund Freud)
• both a method of treatment and a theory of the
  mind
• behavior reflects combinations of conscious and
  unconscious influences
• drives and urges within the unconscious component
  of mind influence thought and behavior
• early childhood experiences shape unconscious
  motivations

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Sigmund Freud
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Cognitive Perspective

• How is knowledge acquired, organized, remembered,
  and used to guide behavior?
• Influences include
• Piaget studied intellectual development
• Chomsky studied language
• Cybernetics science of information processing

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Humanistic Perspective

• Developed by Abraham Maslow
• Carl Rogers
• behavior reflects innate actualization
• focus on conscious forces and self perception
• more positive view of basic forces than Freuds

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The Humanistic Approach
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Carl Rogers (19021987)
Abraham Maslow (19081970)
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Developmental Psychology

• Interaction between heredity and environment
• We undergo predictable patterns of change
  throughout our lives
• Studies change across the lifespan
• Infancy through adulthood

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The Sociocultural Approach
Psychoanalytic
Cognitive
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Cross-Cultural Perspective

• The study of psychological differences among
  people living in different cultural groups
• How are peoples thoughts, feelings and behavior
  influenced by their culture?
• What are the common elements across culture? Are
  these innate?

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Psychologys Subfields Research
Data APA 1997
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Psychologys Subfields Applied
Psychologist What she does
Clinical Studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders
Counseling Helps people cope with academic, vocational, and marital challenges.
Educational Studies and helps individuals in school and educational settings
Industrial/ Organizational Studies and advises on behavior in the workplace.
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Psychologys Subfields Applied
Data APA 1997
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Clinical Psychology vs. Psychiatry

• A clinical psychologist (Ph.D.) studies,
  assesses, and treats troubled people with
  psychotherapy.
• Psychiatrists on the other hand are medical
  professionals (M.D.) who use treatments like
  drugs and psychotherapy to treat psychologically
  diseased patients.

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Prologue Contemporary Psychology

• Psychologys Subfields
• Basic Research-- laboratory
• Biological psychologists explore the links
  between brain and mind
• Developmental psychologists study changing
  abilities from womb to tomb
• Cognitive psychologists study how we perceive,
  think, and solve problems

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Prologue Contemporary Psychology

• Psychologys Subfields
• Basic Research
• Personality psychologists investigate our
  persistent traits
• Social psychologists explore how we view and
  affect one another

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Prologue Contemporary Psychology

• Psychologys Subfields
• Applied Researchface to face
• Industrial/organizational psychologists study and
  advise on behavior in the workplace
• Clinical psychologists study, assess, and treat
  people with psychological disorders

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Prologue Contemporary Psychology

• Psychiatry
• A branch of medicine dealing with psychological
  disorders
• Practiced by physicians who sometimes use medical
  (for example, drug) treatments as well as
  psychotherapy

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Your Study of Psychology Survey, Question, Read,
Review and Reflect (SQ3R)

• Survey What you are about to read, including
  chapter outlines and section heads.
• Question Ask questions. Make notes.
• Read Make sure you read outlines, sections and
  chapters in entirety.
• Review Margin definitions. Study learning
  outcomes.
• Reflect On what you learn. Test yourself with
  quizzes.

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Additional Study Hints

• Distribute your time.
• Listen actively in class.
• Overlearn.
• Be a smart test-taker.