The Science of Psychology

By:

April Ebrecht

What Is Psychology??

Psychology is the science of behavior Ultimate goal-Explain human behavior

-Systematically categorize behaviors & measures

-Categories of causes (ex. physio vs. environment.

Goals of psychological research

Fields of Psychology

-Areas of Psychological Research

(1) Physiological

(2) Psychophysiology

(3) Comparative

(4) Behavioral Analysis

(5) Behavior Genetics

(6) Cognitive

(7) Experimental Neuropsych.

(8) Developmental Psychology

(9) Social Psychology

(10) Personality Psychology

(11) Cross-Cultural Psychology

(12) Clinical Psychology

-Fields Of Applied Psychology

(A) Clinical Psychologist

(B) Clinical Neuropsychologist

(C) Health Psychologist

(D) School Psychologist

(E) Consumer Psychologist

(F) Community Psychologist

(G) Organizational/ Industrial Psychologist

(H) Engineering (Human Factors) Psychologist

Also: Sport Psychologist

Criminal/Forensic Psychologist

The Rise Of Psychology As A Science

Philosophical Roots of Psychology

-Animism (Attributing life giving spirit to anything that seemed to move independently, ex. Our bodies, sun, tides, rocks falling, etc).

-Modern society is prone to subjective interpretations of actions (ex. Will)

-However, on a scientific level, need to base explanations on actions that can be observed and measured objectively.

Scientific Method

-Idea that feelings, emotions, & other private experiences are the products of physical laws had to evolve.

Ancient Greeks (Plato, Aristotle)

Rene Descartes

Descartes-Father of modern philosophy & biological tradition that led to modern

physiological psychology

-We’re mechanical devices controlled by environment.

-Some movements are involuntary (reflexes)

-Proponent of Dualism- Belief that reality is divided into mind and matter.

-First to suggest that a link exists between the mind and body.

-Created one of the first models on how the nervous system works. Model- Simple system that works on known principles & is able to do some things a more complex system can.-John Locke, replaced Descartes' rationalism (pursuit of truth through reason) w/ empiricism ( truth through observation & experience)

-Proposed that all knowledge comes from experience (blank slate).

-Knowledge of complex experiences is linkages of simple sensations.

-In contrast, George Berkeley said knowledge was not simply from direct experience but was result of inferences based on past experiences.

-With the help of James Mill, went from animism to materialism (reality can be known from understanding of physical world).

Biological Roots of Psychology

-Luigi Galvani discovered muscles can be made to contract by electrical currents.-Johannes Muller began more direct & precise exploration of the body, applying experimental procedures.

-Important contribution with the doctrine of specific nerve energies.

-Doctrine implicated that the brain was similarly specialized.

-Muller’s ideas formed the basis for investigations into functioning of the nervous system.

-Pierre Flourens provided experimental evidence for implications of Muller’s doctrine.

-Discovered regions of brain that control heart rate, breathing, purposeful movements, & visual and auditory reflexes.

-First person to apply Flourens’ work to humans: Paul Broca-localization of a speech area in the brain.

-Fritsch & Hitzig used electrical stimulation as a tool for mapping the functions of the brain.

-Hermann Helmholtz helped demonstrate that mental phenomena could be explained by physiological means. Advocated a purely scientific approach.

-Successfully measured the speed of nerve impulses (only 90 ft/sec).

-Ernst Weber found that people’s ability to tell the difference between 2 similar stimuli followed orderly laws. Field of psychophysics

Major Trends in the Development of

Psychology

Structuralism

Wilhelm Wundt- first person to call himself a psychologist. His book, Principles of Physiological Psychology, was first textbook of psychology.

-Subject matter is structure of the mind. Emphasized introspective analysis.

- Problem with approach, difficulty in reporting raw data. All data is modified by experience.

Ebbinghaus: Research on Memory

-Attempted to measure human memory. Devised methods to measure memory and speed of forgetting.

-Approach entirely empirical, devised no theory of learning.

-Devised principle of eliminating variable errors (errors caused by random differences).

Functionalism

-Focused on process of conscious activity (perceiving & learning).

-Grew from new perspective supplied by Charles Darwin (Origin of Species & The Expression of Emotions in Man & Animals)

-Functionalism-Understanding a species’ structural or behavioral features by attempting to establish their usefulness with respect to survival & reproductive success.

-William James said thinking is not an end in itself; function is to produce useful behaviors.

-Taught first course in experimental psychology to be offered in the U.S.

-Theory of emotion one of most famous & durable psychological theories.

Basic Principles of Functionalism:

1. Study of mental operations not structures.

2. Mental processes are not studied as isolated & independent events, but as part of the biological activity of the organism.

3. Studies the relation between the environment & the response of the organism to the environment.

Freud’s Psychodynamic Theory

-Sigmund Freud formulated theory of human behavior.

-Although theory was based on observation of patients & not scientific observation, he remained convinced that the biological basis of theory would eventually be established.

-Theory of mind included structures (like Wundt) but emphasized function.

Behaviorism

-Derived from functionalism, denied that unobservable & unverifiable mental events were proper subject matter of psychology

-Behaviorism- the study of the relation between people’s environment & their behavior, without hypothetical constructs.

- One of the first behaviorists, Edward Thorndike, studied the behavior of animals.

Thorndike’s Law of Effect

-Stimuli that occur as a consequence of a response can increase or decrease the likelihood of making that response again.

Physiologist Ivan Pavlov showed that animals could learn to make a response to a stimulus that had never caused this response before.

-Behaviorism as a formal school of psychology began with the publication of Psychology from the Standpoint of a Behaviorist by John B. Watson.

-Defined psychology as the objective study of stimuli & the behaviors they produce.

Gestalt Psychology

-Max Wertheimer realized that perception of a motion picture was not that of a series of individual still pictures. Instead, we see continuity in time and space.

-Gestalt psychology-cognitive processes could be understood by studying their organization, not their elements.

-Elements of an experience interact-the whole is not simply a sum of it’s parts.

Humanistic Psychology

-Developed in 1950’s & 60’s as a reaction against both behaviorism & psychoanalysis.

Humanistic psychology- approach to the study of human behavior that emphasizes human experience, choice & creativity, self-realization, & positive growth.

-Father of humanistic psych, Abraham Maslow

-Had greatest impact on development of methods of psychotherapy.

Cognitive Revolution

-Reaction against the restrictions of behaviorism & turned to the study of consciousness, feelings, imagery, & other private events.

-Much of cognitive psych uses an approach called information processing (information received through the senses is processed by various systems of neurons in the brain.

-Modern model for the human brain is, for most cognitive psychologists, the computer.

Biological Revolution

-In early-mid 20th century, without a way of studying what went on in the brain, elaborate theories were spun on how the brain controlled behavior.

-Late 20th century, advances in neurobiology that revolutionized psychology.

- We can now study fine details of nerve cells, analyze the chemicals they use to communicate with each other, produce drugs that block these actions or mimic their effects, measure the activity of different parts of the brain-while people are watching visual displays, performing cognitive tasks, etc.- and genes are being discovered that play roles in certain behaviors.