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Prologue

The Story of Psychology

The brain is the most complex physical object known to us in the entire cosmos

Questions psychologists ponder:

To what extent to genetics/environment affect our personalities?How are we alike as members of the human family?

How often/why do we dream?

What do babies perceive and think?

Does sheer intelligence affect wealth, creativity, or sensitivity?

What triggers bad and good moods?

What is Psychology?

Psychologys Roots

Psychological Science is bornQ 1: When and how did psychological science begin?

Aristotle theorized about learning and memory, motivation and emotion, perception

and personality

December 1879 - Wilhelm Wundt conducted first psychological experiment

They tested how long it took people to hear a bat hit a platform and how long it

took them to be consciously aware that they were perceiving the sound (1/10 and

2/10 of a second)

He was measuring the atoms of the mind - fastest and simplest natural processes

Over time the science of psychology was organized into different branches:

early: structuralism and functionalism later: Gestalt, behaviorism, and psychoanalysis

Thinking About the Minds Structure- Structuralism

Introduced by Wundts student Edward Bradford Titchener

An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural

elements of the human mind

Method: engage people in introspection (looking inward) and report their sensations,

feelings, images, etc as they experienced them

Titchener told Lewis that we know more about ourselves than we could learn from

outside observation Introspection, and thus structuralism, sort of failed. It is unreliable (results varied),

humans often dont know why they feel what they feel, and recollections often err.

Thinking about the Minds Functions- Functionalism

Philosopher-psychologist William James

a school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes

function - how they enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish


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As a functionalist, he explored down-to-earth emotions, memories, willpower habits,

and moment-to-moment streams of consciousness

Influenced by Darwin; he assumed that thinking was adaptive - it contributed to

survival.

His legacy came mostly from his Harvard teaching and writing

In 1878, he began a 12 year textbook project - Principles of Psychology In 1890, he admitted Mary Calkins into his graduate seminar. All the males dropped

out, so he tutored her alone.

She earned a Ph.D. from Harvard but they denied her it and offered her one from

Radcliffe College, which she refused.

She was APAs first female president in 1905

Margaret Floy Washburn

got title of being first psychology Ph.D. from Harvard

2nd woman APA president in 1921

wrote The Animal Mind

her thesis was the first foreign study Wundt published in his journal there are now way more women in psychology (2/3 of Ph.D.s)

Psychological Science Develops

Q 2: How did psychology continue to develop from the 1920s through today?

Psychology developed from philosophy and biology

Magellans of the mind came from many different disciplines

Wundt- phil and physiologist

James - phil

Pavlov- physiologist

Freud- physician Piaget- biologist

Until the 1920s, psychology was defined as the science of mental life

From the 20s to 60s, American psychologists John B. Watson and B.F. Skinner

(behaviorists) dismissed introspection and redefined it as the scientific study of

observable behavior

Behaviorism- the view that psychology 1. should be an objective science that 2.

studies behavior without reference to mental processes. Most researchers today agree

with 1. but not 2.

Humanistic psychology

historically significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthypeople and the individuals potential for personal growth

reaction to Freudian psychology and behaviorism

Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow

emphasized the importance of current environmental influences on growth

potential and the importance of having our needs for love and acceptance satisfied

Cognitive Revolution


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1960s

support ideas of earlier psychologists, such as how mind processes and retains

info

has expanded to become more scientific

cognitive neuroscience- the interdisciplinary study of the brain activity linked with

cognition (including perception, thinking, memory, and language) Psychology- the science of behavior and mental processes

behavior- anything an organism does

mental processes- the internal, subjective experiences we infer from behavior

(sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, etc)

Contemporary Psychology

Psychology is growing and globalizing

Q 3: What is psychologys historic big issue?

nature-nurture issue

the controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make tothe development of psychological traits and behaviors. todays science sees them

as arising from an interaction of nature and nurture

Plato said inborn. Locke said blank slate. Descartes said some ideas are innate

Darwin

On the Origin of Species

natural selection- the principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations,

those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to

succeeding generations

natural selection is used in psychology because it is believed that things like

emotional expressions are a part of it look at questions on pg 7

Nurture works on what nature endows.

Every psychological event is simultaneously a biological event.

Q 4: What are psychologys levels of analysis and related perspectives?

levels of analysis- the differing complementary views, from biological to psychological

to socio-cultural, for analyzing a given phenomenon

everything is related to everything else

biopsychosocial approach- an integrated approach that incorporates biological,

psychological, and socio-cultural levels of analysis see chart pg 8!!

Analogy 2D views of a 3D object are helpful, but incomplete.

Psychologys current subfields (see pg 9 for defs):

neuroscience

evolutionary

behavior genetics


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psychodynamic

behavioral

cognitive

socio-cultural

Q 5: What are psychologys main subfields?1. basic research- pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base

1.1.biological psychologists- link between brain and mind

1.2. developmental- changing abilities from womb to tomb

1.3. cognitive- how we perceive, think, and solve problems

1.4. personality- investigate our persistent traits

1.5. social- exploring how we view and affect one another

2. applied research- scientific study that aims to solve practical problems

2.1.ex: industrial/organization psychologists

3. applied counseling (?)

3.1.counseling psychology- a branch of psychology that assists people with problemsin living and in achieving greater well-being (personal and social functioning)

3.2. clinical psychology- a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats

people with psychological disorders

1 and 2 give tests, provide counseling and therapy, and sometimes conduct basic and

applied research

4. psychiatry- a branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by

physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as

psychological therapy

self-test at worthpublishers.com/myers

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