PSYCHOLOGY’S HISTORY AND APPROACHES

and his student concluded that the mind is separable from body and continues after the body dies, and that knowledge is innate.

Plato’s student said knowledge is not preexisting; instead it grows from the experiences stored in our memories.

Psychology’s Roots

John Locke (1632-1704) Took 20 years and hundreds of pages to

complete one of history’s greatest papers—An Essay Concerning Human Understanding.

Famously argued that the mind at birth is a tabula rasa (blank slate) on which experience writes.

Helped form modern empiricism – knowledge originates in experience and science should rely on observation and experimentation.

Wilhelm Wundt – Functionalism

1879 in Germany, professor Wundt created a lab with the help of two students.

Seeking to measure the fastest and simplest mental processes.Press lever when hearing a

sound – 1/10 of a sec.Press level when consciously

aware of perceiving the sound – 2/10 of a second.

Considered psychology’s first experiment.

Didn’t last.

Structuralism Wundt’s student,

Edward Titchener, received Ph.D. in 1892.

Joined Cornell University and introduced “structuralism.”People engage in self-reflective introspection (looking inward), training them to report elements of experience as they looked, listened, tasted, and touched.

Didn’t last either

Problems with Introspection Required smart, verbal people

Proved somewhat unreliable – its results varying from person to person and experience to experience.

Moreover, often we just don’t know why we feel what we feel or do what we do.

Functionalism William James thought it better to consider the

evolved functions of our thoughts and feelings. Influenced by Charles Darwin. Consciousness serves a function – it enables us

to consider our past, adjust to our present circumstances, and plan our future.

James encouraged exploration of down-to-earth emotions, memories, willpower, habits, and moment-to-moment streams of consciousness.

James wrote the first psychology textbook (took him 12 years) – Principles of Psychology.

Behaviorism From 1920s into the 1960s, John B.

Watson, followed by B.F. Skinner, redefined psychology as “the scientific study of observable behavior.”You cannot observe a sensation, a

feeling, or a thought, but you can observe and record people’s behavior as they respond to different situations.

Psychoanalysis Observing patients led Sigmund

Freud to his discovery of the

unconscious. Of great interest to Freud was

the mass of unacceptable passions and thoughts that he believed we repress, or forcibly block from our consciousness because they would be too unsettling to acknowledge.

He believed in hypnosis, dreams and free association as a way to unlock repressed feelings.

Modern Psychological Approaches

Biological How the body and brain enable

emotions, memories, and sensory

experiences; how genes combine

with environment to influence individual differences.

How are messages transmitted within the body?

How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives?

To what extent are traits such as intelligence, personality, and depression attributable to genes? To our environment?

Evolutionary How the natural selection of traits promoted

the survival of genes.

How does evolution influence behavior tendencies.

Psychodynamics

How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts.

How can someone’s personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as the 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 best way to alter our behavior, say, to lose weight or stop smoking?

Cognitive How we encode, process, store, and retrieve

information.

How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Solving problems?

Humanistic How we meet our needs for love

and acceptance and achieve self-fulfillment.

How can we work toward fulfilling our potential?

How can we overcome barriers to our personal growth?

Psychologist Carl Rogers – unconditional positive regard, client-centered therapy

Abraham Maslow – Hierarchy of Needs

Socio-cultural How behavior and thinking vary across

situations and cultures.

How are we humans alike as members of one human family? As products of different environmental contexts, how do we differ?

Psychology’s Subfields

Basic Research Pure science that aims to

increase the scientific knowledge base.Biological psychologists – explore

the links between brain and mind.Developmental psychologists –

study our changing abilities from womb to tomb.

Cognitive psychologists – experiment with how we perceive, think, and solve problems.

Personality psychologists – investigate our inner traits.

Social psychologists – explore how we view and affect one another.

Applied Research Scientific study that aims to solve

practical problems. Industrial/organizational psychologists – study and

advise on behavior in the workplace. Within I/O psychology, human factors psychologists

focus on the interaction of people, machines, and physical environments.

Counseling & Clinical Psychologists

Counseling psychologists help people to cope with challenges and crises (including academic, vocational, and marital issues) and to improve their personal and social functioning.

Clinical psychologists assess and treat people with mental, emotional, and behavior disorders.

Both administer and interpret tests, provide counseling and therapy, and sometimes conduct basic and applied research.

Psychiatrists

Medical doctors licensed to prescribe drugs and otherwise treat physical causes of psychological disorders.

Also, often provide psychotherapy.

Some clinical psychologists are lobbying for a similar right to prescribe mental-health-related drugs.

In 2002 and 2004, New Mexico and Louisiana became the first states to grant that right to specially trained and licensed psychologists.