A History of Psychology

Psychology: Chapter 1, Section 3

Roots from Ancient Greece• Psychology has its roots all the way back to Ancient

Greece• Hippocrates (460-377 BCE) was known as the “father

of western medicine,” and the Hippocratic Oath is named after him

• The three most famous philosophers from Ancient Greece had important contributions to the field of psychology

• Socrates lived about 400 BCE• His most famous student was Plato (428-348 BCE)• Plato’s most famous student was Aristotle (384-322

BCE)

Socrates believed that we should examine our thoughts and feelings through introspection which

means “looking within”

What does this mean?

Plato wrote about Socrates’s advice, “Know thyself.” This has since become a motto in psychology

How does this saying contribute to the field of psychology?

Aristotle developed Plato’s ideas of associationism, which is when experiences often remind us of similar things that happened to us in the past

Although most Ancient Greeks believed that madness came as a punishment from the gods,

Hippocrates (460-377 BCE) believed it was caused by abnormalities in the brain.

The Middle Ages• During the Middle Ages, most Europeans believed that

confusion came from being possessed by demons. Possession came as a punishment for sins or for making deals with the devil

• In the smelting process, pure metals sink to the bottom and impurities float to the top

• People suspected of being possessed were thrown into deep water. If they sank, they were pure. If they floated, they were impure, and thus executed. This was called the water float test.

• The only problem was, if they sank, proving their purity, sometimes they also drowned.

• Let’s watch a demonstration of this logic from Monty Python

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zrzMhU_4m-g

Sometimes there were some holes in the logic of the Middle Ages

The Birth of Modern Science• The combination of the Renaissance, Reformation,

and the Enlightenment in the 1500’s through the 1700’s put an end to the Middle Ages, or Dark Ages, and began a new era of modern science

• Modern science used a process called the scientific method to try to figure out answers to problems

• The scientific method relies on asking questions, guessing on answers, and then testing those answers

Let’s try this on our own• Step 1: Ask a Question• Pair up with a person sitting near you• Find out which of you is older• Now, think of a question regarding your classmates;

for example, what is their favorite color, class, or TV show, or how much do your classmates like school?

• Now, the older person shares the question with his/ her partner

• Now the younger person shares his or her question

Step 2: State a hypothesis

• In the next step, you guess what the answer might be to your question. This is a hypothesis.

• First the younger person explains his/ her guess• Now the older person explains his/ her guess• Now, I’ll randomly choose some of you to share out

with the class your partner’s question and hypothesis (so review that if necessary)

Step 3: Conduct an Experiment

• Next, let’s consider how we could run an experiment that will help us find out our answer

• Let’s run the experiment if we can

Step 4: Analyze the Results

• Let’s look at our results

Step 5: Make a Conclusion

• What conclusion can we draw from our experiment?

Step 6/ Step 1:

• Now that we know something from our conclusion, what further questions arise?

• Share with your partner a further question. Younger person speaks first.

• Now the older partner shares• How does this process compare with what we

saw portrayed about the Middle Ages

Psychology Emerges as a Science

• The scientific approach developed in this era led to the creation of modern psychology in the 1800s

• Psychologists look for evidence to support hypotheses before drawing conclusions

• In 1879, the first laboratory was set up to conduct psychological experiments by Wilhelm Wundt. Psychology was now a laboratory science.

Wilhelm Wundt (seated) with colleagues in his psychological laboratory, the first of its kind

Wilhelm Wundt and Structuralism• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920, German) used his laboratory to

establish structuralism• Structuralists wanted to discover the basic elements of

consciousness• Wundt and the structuralists broke down consciousness into

two categories: objective sensations (like sight and taste) and subjective feelings (emotional responses and mental images)

• Structuralists believed the mind combined these elements of experience. For example, a person can experience an apple objectively by describing its shape, color and taste, or subjectively by remembering how they felt when they last ate an apple. The mind combines these experiences.

An Experiment• In one of Wilhelm Wundt’s experiments, he played a

sound, and asked people a yes/no question of whether they heard the sound or not

• He then played a sound and asked people what the sound was

• He timed how quickly they were able to respond.• What is your hypothesis of what the results would be?• He found that it took people longer to say what the sound

was than it took to say they just heard a sound• What conclusion can be drawn from that result?• Wundt concluded that sensation (just knowing that

something just happened ) was faster than perception (perceiving, or being able to say what happened)

William James and Functionalism• William James (1842-1910, American) wrote The

Principles of Psychology in 1890, which is considered to be the first psychology textbook

• James was one of the founders of functionalism• Functionalism studies how mental processes help people

and animals adapt to their environment• When behaviors are successful, they eventually become

habits, while less successful behaviors are dropped• This was similar to Charles Darwin’s ideas of natural

selection, only instead of the strongest physical characteristics helping someone survive, here the strongest psychological characteristics allowed a person or species to survive and reproduce

Difference Between Structuralists and Functionalists

• Functionalists do not believe that the consciousness could be broken down into parts. Instead, William James said that experience is a continuous “stream of consciousness”

• Structuralists rely on introspection, while functionalists include behavioral observation along with introspection

• Structuralists ask, “What are the elements (structures) of psychological processes?” while functionalists ask, “What are the purposes (functions) of behavior and mental processes?” and, “What do certain behaviors and mental processes accomplish for the person?”

Video

• Here’s a video explaining the two early approaches to psychology: structuralism and functionalism

• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTD3NxUyPvs

John B. Watson and Behaviorism• John B. Watson (1878-1958, American) did not believe

it was possible to scientifically study consciousness, since it couldn’t be directly observed and measured

• Watson founded the school of behaviorism, which defined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior

• Watson felt that since subconscious thoughts or innate personalities were not measurable, they were not that important

• Instead, he felt he could take anyone, regardless of innate personality, and train him or her to become a doctor or a thief

B.F. Skinner and Reinforcement• B.F. Skinner (1904-1990, American) added to

behaviorism the idea of reinforcement• Skinner showed that when an animal is rewarded, or

reinforced, for a certain behavior, it will learn to repeat that behavior

• With reinforcements, psychologists have been able to teach animals complex behaviors such as pushing buttons in the right order or jumping up and down a certain number of times

• Skinner believed that these experiments could be generalized to humans, that they learned the same way animals do

B F Skinner used pigeons to study random events and ritualistic behavior. Food was delivered at random times but the pigeon thought pecking or stomping would bring more foodSo the pigeon developed strange behavior

The Gestalt School• In the 1920s, German psychologists Max Wertheimer,

Kurt Kofka, and Wolfgang Kohler founded the school of Gestalt psychology

• Gestalt argues that perception is more than just the sum of the parts, so they reject the structuralist idea that experience can be broken down into parts

• The whole that is perceived gives meaning to the individual parts that are perceived

• Gestalt theorists reject the behaviorist view that learning is a mechanical, push button method of reinforcements. Instead, people have insight, where people can synthesize data and formulate patterns or solve problems

Gestalt psychologists would argue that we see a white triangle in this diagram because of our previous experience with trianglesThe whole is more than its parts

Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939, Austrian) is the most famous

of the early psychologists• He founded psychoanalysis, which emphasized

unconscious motives and internal conflicts as the cause of behavior

• Freud’s ideas have become part of the popular culture. Interpreting dreams, “Freudian slips,” free association, and defense mechanisms like repression and denial all come from his theories.

• Freud believed that most of what exists in a person’s mind is in the unconscious, and cannot be easily remembered. His theory about this is called psychodynamic thinking

Sigmund Freud introduced the idea of listening to patients, often having them lie on a couch

facing away from him, so they could be comfortable talking about their problems

Assessment

• Complete page 17, #1-3