The History of Psychology

DO NOW

Make a prediction about how humans discovered that the brain was the center for behavior and emotion.

Do you have any guesses of the original body part that humans thought was the “center for thought and the soul”?

A minute from me to you…..

Aristotle 350BC • Aristotle was a philosopher in Ancient Greece. • He wrote the first psychology text book, “De Anima” or “Of

the Soul.”• This was the first time in recorded human history that a

person made a connection between the body and the soul. Aristotle speculated that the body was driven by the soul.

Accountable Dialogue

How this works: You will discuss the prompt with your “accountable dialogue partner.” - Please use complete sentences and incorporate

academic vocabulary. - You hold EACH other accountable for ON TASK

COMMENTS AND QUESTIONS. - Remember, sometimes the beauty lies in the question,

not the answer. - Record the key points on your dialogue sheet and

questions you have. One sheet per group.

Accountable Dialogue

Prompt: What did Aristotle mean when he said that the “body was driven by the soul”?

Hippocrates

• Hippocrates was the first to realize the brain was the center of the emotions and sensations.

• He was also the first to deny that behavior had to do with demons and angels.

• How did he discover this? • He noticed that people’s behavior changed

after they got hit in the head! Ouch!

Papyrus and Ancient Egypt

• Ancient Egyptians were the first to record clinical depression.

• They recorded it in narrative fashion, describing symptoms using characters and pictures.

• They noticed behavior patterns!

Joseph Gall and Phrenology • Primarily focused on measurements of the human skull, based

on the concept that the brain is the organ of the mind, and that certain brain areas have localized, specific functions or modules.

• Certain parts of the brain dictates different behaviors.

ACCOUNTABLE DIALOGUE

Prompt: What kind of societal consequences could have come from Joseph Gall’s work?

Wilhelm Wundt

• The father of Experimental Psychology!• Wundt believed that scientific psychology

should focus on analyzing consciousness, a person's subjective experience of the world and mind.

• Trained Introspection and Empirical Evidence.

A Volunteer is Needed at this time…

• Trained Introspection……

Wilhem Wundt

• Introspection was eventually discredited because it was too subjective.

Moving Back toward introspection

• Mindfulness Cognitive Behavior Therapy is a form of trained introspection.

• MCBT has great success curing episodic depression.

• Practicing mindfulness has been proven to help with the development of your pre-frontal cortex.

ACCOUNTABLE DIALOGUE

• Prompt: Why would trained introspection be too subjective? Why would it not be a reliable measurement?

William James and Functionalism

• Analyzed the function or purpose of behavior.

• Emphasis on causes and consequences of behavior influences the direction of psychology.

• Inspired by evolutionary theory (Charles Darwin).

Functionalism

The behavior was a result of the antecedent and there was a motive (function) behind it.

Examples?

ACCOUNTABLE DIALOGUE

• Prompt: Identify a typical teenage behavior and describe it using functionalism.

Sigmund Freud

• That’s who our fish is named after (assuming he isn’t dead by the time you see this slide).

Psychoanalysis

Freud developed therapeutic techniques such as the use of: Free association (in which patients report their thoughts without reservation and in whichever order they spontaneously occur) andDiscovered transference (the process in which patients displace on to their analysts feelings derived from their childhood attachments), establishing its central role in the analytic process.

Textbook time!

• Read about Freud and write down the most interesting things you learned.

ACCOUNTABLE DIALOGUE

Prompt: How do you feel about Freud’s assumption of human sexual motivation?