psych - 01 lecture_chapter

8/3/2019 Psych - 01 Lecture_chapter

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History of Psychology

Terms to review:

Introspection: a systematic examination of subjective mental experiences that

requires people to inspect and report on the content of their thoughts.

Structuralism: an approach to psychology based on the idea that consciousexperience can be broken down into its basic underlying components or

elements.

Stream of consciousness: a phrase coined by William James to describe ones

continuous series of ever-changing thoughts.

Functionalism: an approach to psychology concerned with the adaptive purpose

or function of mind and behavior.

Gestalt theory: the whole of personal experience is much greater than simply

the sum of its constituent elements.

Psychoanalysis: method that involves trying to bring the contents of the

patients unconscious into conscious awareness so that their conflicts could bedealt with.

Behaviorism: a psychological approach that emphasizes the role of

environmental forces in producing behavior. (Stimuli -> response)

Two streams combined..

e.g., most human history debate raged as to where conscious resided... the

heart? the mind? brain? spirit?

Ancient Egypt: Edwin Smith papyrus - first known medical documentshows basic understanding of some lateralization, speech centres, etc., but held

that heart was the centre of consciousness

Science has always been contextualized in a larger set of

societal/historical/political/ideological economic processes.

E.g. -theological/religious barriers impeded the progress of psychological

sciences

-direct study of human body was forbidden

doctrines regarding exemptionalism (humans are above animals)

Descartes:

-an extremely intense, unbalanced, driven personality

-proposed the first systematic account of the body as a machine; physiological

processes described in terms of mechanic interactions, controlled by hydraulics

and mechanics... thus, human and animal bodes were simply complicated


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machines, consistent with zeitgeist of the time.

Mind-Body Dualism

-what sets humans apart is humans have MINDS - non-physical but able to

interact with body.

-revolutionary: immaterial mind and the body can influence each other-splitting of mind and body still plagues us to some degree. Either accepts that

brain is the mind and we are soulless animals or we have to figure out how the

non-physical mind could exist and interact with physical body.

-Much of the rest of the history of psychology can be described as a struggle to

answer questions that emerge from dualism.

-Is mind a complicated but deterministic machine, or do we have free will, can we

do anything creative or we are stimulus-responding machines?

How to study an immaterial mind?took a while before people realized it could be studied using scientific techniques

Wilhelm Wundt

-wondered whether two stimuli that struck senses at same time would be

perceived at the same moment

-noticed that the pendulum was on the way down when he heard the bell. -

1/10th of a second to reorient their attention.

-therefore: mental processes can be studied scientifically.

Darwin-biggest influence - theory of evolution

-built on previous ideas of evolution

-Darwins ideas were influenced by the geological catastrophism (cataclysmic

type of event formed all) and uniformitarianism(Lyell - argued that geological

formations appeared over time)

-influenced by Thomas Malthus - essay on population - struggle for survival

on Beagle voyage collected thousands of species.

why do animals do the thing they do? what was the function of their behaviors?

**** e.g. a marine iguana: i threw one several times as far as I could into a deeppool left by the retiring tide, but it invariably return in a direct line to the spot

where it stood... As often as I threw it in, it returned...

perhaps this singular piece of apparent stupidity may be accounted by the

circumstance, that this reptile has no natural enemy on shore, whereas at sea it

can fall a prey to sharks.


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Functionalism:

William James - studied medicine then went through a major emotional crisis RE:

determinism vs. free will.

-His resolution was to decide, by an act of faith, that there was free will. My first

act of free will, shall be to believe in free will-To be a scientist he would approach the human as though it were deterministic.

-To be human he would assume that he has free will.

-this pragmatic perspective lead to the emphasis on psychological process as

serving some sort of purpose, helping organisms adapt to their environment.

coupled with emerging Darwinian thought James pragmatism gave birth to the

argues that psychology should be a practical science.

habit: we construct ourselves through our actions, thoughts, choices...

most of our present is determined by our past choices... so practice to improve.

we are still building on this foundation today

functionalism

consciousness as a mixture of deterministic processes and free will (we dont

know how free will is possible).

the matrix in which

The 20th century-psychology begins to fracture into many different paradigms and schools of

thought. Only now we are beginning to transcend these schisms.

Psychoanalysis:

Freud: the unconscious, self-awareness and healing, defenses and dysfunctional

interpretive filters.

Behaviorism: Pavlov, Skinner

mechanistic understanding of behaviour

emphasized environmental stimuli (reward and punishment)

controlling human behaviour

Gestalt Psychologyhumans as active creators of their world

focused on the insight that perception is constructed.

Social Psychology

Kurt Lewin - field theory

B = f(PE)


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WW2 gains momentum

how could this have happened?

Humanistic Psychology: Fulfillment & Well-being

emphasis on meaning, personal growthinfluenced by existentialists

anti-behaviorist, focusing on free will.

Cognitive Psychology: Rise of the machine

emphasis on humans as information processors

wrestled with behaviorism for prominence.

1980s to Now

new inter-disciplinary fields arise.

1990s - The brain, biology brining everything together, ability to scan the brain...

Modern: all types come together to better understand concepts. Psychology and

physiology. Phenomena are being understood at multiple Levels of Analysis

e.g., personality vs. situation?

Can be shown that personality is key using one method, and situation using

another.

e.g., nature vs. nature?

e.g., central vs. peripheral processing? no such thing as reason or emotion

(depending on how one interprets information).

3 levels of analysis: social, individual and biological.

example: why cant Jhonny read?

Social: parenting, peer influences, bullying, teacher expectations.

Individual: IQ, misbehaving, lack of self-discipline, work ethic.

Biological: ADHD, dyslexia, hearing impairment.

Environmental: traffic noise, crowded home & lack of resources (e.g., time,

space, privacy).

example: what is depression?

What does this mean? Means that problems can be solved on multiple levels.

e.g., Multiple tools for solving depression.

Behavior is Multiply determined

psych - 01 lecture_chapter

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