Word comes from Greek psyche (soul, spirit,

mind) and logos (study of) Stems from philosophy and physiology Not made an independent science until 1879

ORIGINS

WILHELM WUNDT

Founder of Psychology Est. 1st formal

laboratory for research in psych at University of Leipzig in 1879

Est. 1st journal dedicated to publishing research on psych in 1881

WUNDT

Believed psych should be modeled after physics and chemistry

Believed we should focus on consciousness (awareness of immediate experience)

So, psych became the study of conscious experience

Focused on the mind and mental processes

WUNDT

Wrote over 54,000 pages of books and articles

Students of Wundt spread around the world

USA saw 24 schools of psychology open in 10 years

G. STANLEY HALL

Student of Wundt Est. America’s 1st

psych research lab at Johns Hopkins (1883)

1887: launched 1st journal in America

1892: helped start the APA (American Psychological Assoc.)

The first schools of thought in psychThe first schools of thought in psych

STRUCTURALISM

Edward Titchener was leader of this movement

Idea based on notion that purpose of psych is to analyze consciousness into its basic parts and investigate how those parts are related

Identify and examine fundamental components of conscious experience (sensations, feelings, and images)

Concerned mostly with sensation and

perception in vision, hearing, and touch Used INTROSPECTION: careful, systematic

self-observation of one’s own conscious exp. Subject given stimulus and asked to analyze

their exp

STRUCTURALISM

FUNCTIONALISM

Began by William James

Believed psych should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than structure

James wrote Principles of Psychology (1890), one of the most influential books in psych

FUNCTIONALISM

James applied theory of natural selection to consciousness

Believed consciousness was a continuous flow of thoughts

He called this “stream of consciousness”

FUNCTIONALISM

Interested in how people adapt behavior to the world around them

This led to new subjects in psych

Mental testing, patterns of development in children, education practices

This attracted women to psych

Structuralism strengthened commitment to

lab research Functionalism left a more lasting mark on

psych It paved the way for new schools of thought

that dominate modern psych: applied psychology and behaviorism

STRUCTURALISM VS. FUNCTIONALISM

BEHAVIORISM

Founded by John B. Watson

Def: theoretical orientation based on the idea that scientific psych should study only observable behavior

This was a redefinition of what psych should be about

Watson believed the scientific method rested

on verifiability Can only be verified with observation We can’t observe the human mind so psych

must be a science of behavior

BEHAVIORISM

BEHAVIOR: any observable response or

activity by an organism Watson addressed the issue of nature vs.

nurture Nature: hereditary Nurture: environment and experience Watson favored nurture, which gave

behaviorism a strong environmental slant

BEHAVIORISM

BEHAVIORISM

Goal is to relate behaviors (responses) to observable events in the environment (stimuli)

STIMULUS: any detectable input from the environment

Thus, behaviorism is referred to as stimulus-response psychology

BEHAVIORISM

Ivan Pavlov’s experiments made behaviorism more accepted

Led to animal research (easier to control)

Psych now has gone from study of the mind to observing simple responses made by lab animals

FREUD AND THE UNCONSCIOUS

Freud, an Austrian physician, treated people w/psych problems w/ a procedure called psychoanalysis

This led to Freud’s belief in something called the unconscious

FREUD

UNCONSCIOUS contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behavior

Believed slips of the tongue represent true feelings (Freudian slip)

Believed dreams represented important thoughts and feelings

FREUD

PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY: attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior

FREUD

Suggests that people are not masters of their minds

Proposed behavior is greatly influenced by coping with sexual urges

Freud was controversial

“Sometimes a cigar is

just a cigar”

B.F. SKINNER

A behaviorist Only study observable

data Emphasized

environmental factors in molding behavior

Believed we could understand and predict behavior w/o physiological explanations

SKINNER

Principle: organisms tend to repeat responses that lead to positive outcomes and not repeat those that have negative outcomes

This has influenced every area of society

SKINNER

Wrote Beyond Freedom and Dignity (1971)

Said all behavior is governed by external stimuli

People are controlled by their environment

“Free will is an illusion”

HUMANISM

HUMANISM: emphasizes unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and potential for personal growth

Very optimistic view of human behavior

HUMANISM

Believe research on lab animals holds no bearing on human behavior

Most prominent members: Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow

HUMANISM

Carl Rogers argued we are governed by our sense of self---”self-concept”

Maslow and Rogers argue that humans have a desire to evolve

Psychological disturbances come from that need being thwarted

PSYCHOLOGY AS A PROFESSION

APPLIED PSYCHOLOGY: branch concerned with everyday, practical problems

World War I made this a prominent field

PSYCHOLOGY AS A PROFESSION

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY: branch concerned w/diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders

Need to treat trauma was higher

World War II made this prominent

REFOCUS ON COGNITION

COGNITION: the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge (consciousness)

There has been a resurgence of the study of cognition thanks to Piaget, Chomsky, and Simon

COGNITION

Cognitive Perspective states that manipulation of mental images influences behavior

This stimulated an increase in the study of physiological bases for behavior

PHYSIOLOGY

Biological Perspective states that much of behavior can be explained in bodily structures and biochemical processes

Early psych was based on middle and upper-class

white people Reasons: It was more cost effective Original interest was in the individual, not the

group Concern of creating stereotypes ETHNOCENTRISM: belief that one’s own group

is superior to others and to view that group as the standard for judging the worth of foreign ways

INCREASED INTEREST IN CULTURAL DIVERSITY

CULTURAL DIVERSITY

Political and social upheaval of the 1960s and 70s changed psych

Movements for women’s rights, gay rights, and civil rights paved the way

CULTURAL DIVERSITY

2 recent trends that led to more human diversity studies:

1) increased global interdependence through advances in communication

2) ethnic makeup of Western world is more diverse

EVOLUTIONARY PSYCH

Def: examines behavioral processes in terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations

Natural selection favors traits that increase reproduction

EVOLUTIONARY PSYCH

Led by David Buss in the mid 1990s

First real theoretical perspective since cognitive revolution of 60s and 70s

Critics say it is untestable

PSYCHOLOGY

Def: the science that studies behavior and the psychological and cognitive processes that underlie it, and it is the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems

PSYCHOLOGY

Growth of psych has been remarkable

Increase in membership of the APA is proof

Second-most popular undergraduate major

10% of all doctoral degrees in sciences and humanities

Over 1100 technical journals worldwide

SPECIALTIES IN PSYCHOLOGY

4 areas: 1) Clinical psych 2) Counseling psych 3) Educational and

school psych 4) Industrial and

organizational psych

CLINICAL VS. PSYCHIATRY

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST

Undergraduate school

Earn a Ph.D., Ed.D., or Psy.D.

PSYCHIATRIST Go to medical school for

postgraduate Earn a M.D. as well as a

Ph.D., Ed.D., or Psy.D. Residency at a hospital Branch of medicine

concerned with diagnosis and treatment of psych problems

SEVEN KEY THEMES

1: Psychology is empirical

EMPIRICISM: knowledge should be acquired through observation

Base ideas on data obtained through research

2: Psychology is theoretically diverse THEORY: system of interrelated ideas used to

explain a set of observations No single theory can explain everything Different ways of seeing things

SEVEN KEY THEMES

SEVEN KEY THEMES

3: Psychology evolves in a sociohistorical context

Trends, issues, and values affect psych and vice versa

Psych evolves both historically and socially

4: Behavior is determined by multiple causes Multifactorial causation of behavior Behavior is complex and is governed by

interacting factors

SEVEN KEY THEMES

SEVEN KEY THEMES

5: Behavior is shaped by cultural heritage

CULTURE: widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations

SEVEN KEY THEMES

6: Heredity and Environment jointly influence behavior

Nature vs. Nurture argument

SEVEN KEY THEMES

7: People’s experience of the world is highly subjective

We all have our own biases, expectations, and motivations