Learning Target(S): • Define psychology and trace its

historical development. • Identify and apply the major

modern perspectives/approaches.

Psychology’s RootsPre-scientific

Psychology Is the mind

connected to the body or distinct?

Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate filled by experience?

History of PsychologySocrates (469-399 B.C.) & Plato (428-348 B.C.)

Socrates and Plato believed the mind was separate from the body.

Socrates

Plato

4

History of Psychology Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Aristotle suggested that the soul is not separable from the body.

5

John Locke (1632-1704)

The mind was a tabula rasa, or blank sheet, at birth, and experiences

wrote on it.

History of Psychology

René Descartes (1596-1650)

The body and mind are separate, knowledge is

innate

Founding Fathers of Ψ Wilhelm Wundt = “Father

of Modern Psychology”– 1st psych lab – Measure the simplest human

processes (reaction time)

Edward Titchener (& Wundt) – Structuralism– Break down conscious experience

into objective sensations & components

Founding Fathers of Ψ• William James – Functionalism

– How our behavior and mental processes help us adapt to our environments

• John B. Watson – Behaviorism– Emphasized study of observable

behavior

Founding Fathers of Ψ

• B.F. SkinnerReinforcement & behavior

Founding Fathers of Ψ• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) -

Psychoanalysis – Emphasizes unconscious motives and

conflicts in behavior

Gestalt Psychology

• German psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, & Wolfgang Kohler (1920s)

• Emphasizes tendency to organize & integrate stimuli into meaningful patterns

“the whole is more than the sum of its parts”

What is Psychology?• Psychology: the scientific study of

behavior and mental processes– Empirical science, not pseudoscience!

• Four goals of psychology:1) Description2) Explanation3) Prediction4) Control

Other Milestones in Scientific Psychology

• G. Stanley Hall – first psych lab in U.S. @ Johns Hopkins U. (1883)– 1st American psych journal (1887) – American

Journal of Psychology• Herman Ebbinghaus – studies on memory

(1885)• American Psychological Association (1892)• Margaret Floy Washburn – 1st woman to

receive Ph.D. in psychology (1894)• Mary Whiton Calkins – first woman president

of APA (1905)• Francis Cecil Sumner – 1st African-American

Ph.D. in psychology

Modern Psychology Perspectives

Learning Target: Compare and contrast the seven major psychological perspectives.

Why do we do the

things we do?

Why do we think the way we do?

Evolutionary/Biological• Applies Darwin to Ψ

– Inherited behaviors ensure survival– Natural selection

• Interaction of genes & behavior• Parts of the brain, chemicals, hormones,

nervous system

Psychodynamic• Modern psychoanalytic school• Unconscious desires and urges drive our behavior• Conflicts from childhood

Behavioral (Learning)• John Watson, B.F. Skinner• Focuses on OBSERVABLE behaviors• How we learn behaviors

– Associations– Rewards & punishments– Observation

• How to change or modify behaviors

Cognitive• Wilhelm Wundt, Jean Piaget, Herman Ebbinghaus• Focuses on mental processes• How we encode, process, store, & retrieve info• Perception of the world around us

Humanistic• Focuses on positive growth (get in touch with

our emotions)• People are good by nature and have free will• Motivated to reach self-actualization• Control over choices

Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers

Socio-Cultural• How our behavior & thoughts are influenced by

society & culture

Even in the same high school, behaviors can change in accordance to the various subcultures.

Individualist v. CollectivistVariable Individualist Collectivist

Personal Identity Separate from others Connected to others

Major Goals Self-defined; be unique; realize your personal potential; compete with others

Defined by others; belong; occupy your proper place; meet your obligations to others; be like others

Criteria for self-esteem Ability to express unique aspects of the self; ability to be self-assured

Ability to restrain the self and be part of a social unit; ability to be modest

Sources of success and failure

Success comes from personal effort; failure, from external factors

Success is due to help from others; failure is due to personal faults

Major frame of reference Personal attitudes, traits, and goals

Family, work group

Levels of Analysis – Biopsychosocial Model