Download Introducing Psychology

Introductory psychology students
Fall Mass Testing
Annual online survey for 1 hour of credit
SEPT 15 - OCT 7
Wide range of psychology questionnaires
(traits, social attitudes, life goals).
1 hour of credit.
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SONA
6 Broad Theoretical Perspectives
Psychodynamic Perspective
Sigmund Freud:
“Parapraxes”
Free association
Talking cure
Famous case studies: Anna O
Sigmund Freud
• 1856-1939 Austria
• Neurologist
• Specialized in hysteric patients
• Conflicts of the unconscious
mind
• Founded psychodynamic perspective
• focuses on unconscious dynamic processes
that govern behavior
Psychodynamic Perspective
• Behaviour determined by
unconscious forces
• Esp. conflicts about sexuality
• Very controversial ideas
• “Psychoanalytic theory”
– Theory explaining personality,
motives and disorders via
“dynamic unconscious processes”
2. Behavioral Perspective
Ivan Pavlov
John Watson
E.L. Thorndike
B.F. Skinner
Classical Conditioning
Operant Conditioning
2. Behavioral Perspective
Central assumption:
Focus on observables, ignore
invisible “mind” stuff
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Behavior is observable. Therefore, psychology
is and should only be science of behavior
Influenced by logical positivism, a early 20th
century school of philosophy
“all knowledge is grounded in observable facts”
Behaviourism
• John B. Watson (1878-1958)
• Landmark 1919 critique of “schools”:
structuralism, functionalism, gestalt, Freud,
in Psychological Review: Behaviorist Manifesto
• Psychology should be science of “behaviour”.
• Behaviour = observable responses or activities
– Radical reorientation of scientific psychology toward
a science only of observable behaviour
– Study of consciousness abandoned
– Cognitive psychology topics abandoned until 1950s
John Watson and the Nature-Nurture Debate
• Radical “environmentalism”
“give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my
own special world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee
to take any one at random and train him to become any
type of specialist I might select – doctor, lawyer, artist,
merchant-chief, and yes, even beggar-man and thief…”
• Pioneered application of classical
conditioning to understanding of
disorders, especially phobias.
• Re-oriented psychology toward
“stimulus-response relationships”
• Behaviorism became known as
“S-R psychology”
Behaviourism of B. F. Skinner
• B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
– Principles of operant conditioning
• Responses followed by desired
outcomes increase in frequency
– Controversy
1. There is no free will
2. Innate differences are unimportant
3. Cognitive psychology is pointless
– Radical environmentalist
– Best-selling author
• Beyond Freedom and Dignity
• Walden II
3. The Cognitive Perspective

Behav focus too limited, restrictive
(but Skinner disagrees always)
What about…. attention, memory,
reasoning, problem-solving, concept
formation…???
Putting the Psyche Back in Psychology:
The Return of Cognition
• Cognition = mental
processes involved in
acquiring knowledge
• 1950’s and 60’s – Piaget,
Chomsky, and Simon
– Application of scientific
methods to studying
internal mental events
– Cognitive psychology: the
new dominant
perspective?
3. The Cognitive Perspective
Why then? (1950s)
1) Cognitive development theory
e.g., Jean Piaget, 1950s
2) Rise of “Information theory”,
digital processors, computers
e.g., Herbert Simon, 1950s
3) Language development theory
e.g., Noam Chomsky, 1950s
3. The Cognitive Perspective
e.g. importing information-theory
concepts into psychology
memory:
“encode, store, retrieve”
thinking:
“parallel distributed
processing”
perception:
“computation models
of vision”
4. Humanistic Psychology
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Existentialism, Phenomenology
Rebellion against “ratomorphicrobotic” psychology
Main assumption:
>we are not slaves to conditioning
>subjectivity IS important to
behavior
• Prev perspectives are all dehumanizing.
• New perspective needed: “Humanistic”
• Rise of humanistic psychology (“Third Force”)
• 1961 Journal of Humanistic Psychology
• 1963 Association for Humanistic Psychology
• 1971 APA Division 32
Focus on what is uniquely human:
 conscious awareness
 freedom of choice
 desire for individual growth
Humanistic values freedom & growth
Humanistic therapy freedom..to..grow
Carl Rogers
Client-Centered therapy
Abraham Maslow
“Self-actualization”
“Be All You Can Be”
self-actualization slogan
adopted by US Army
Introductory psychology students
Fall Mass Testing
Annual online survey for 1 hour of credit
SEPT 15 - OCT 7
Wide range of psychology questionnaires
(traits, social attitudes, life goals).
1 hour of credit.
Find it here 
SONA
5. Biological Perspectives

Behavioral Genetics
Are behavior differences (at least
partly) due to gene differences?
Which genes?
How do genes & environments
interact developmentally?
Twins Cover Story
5. Biological Perspectives
Behavioral Neuroscience
Brain  behavior
Locationalization
Connectivity
Memory, Fear, Mentalizing,
Empathy, .. God Spot (huh?)
Physiological Psychology:
The Biological Basis of Behaviour
Biological perspective - behaviour
explained in terms of physiological
processes
• James Olds (1956)
– Electrical stimulation of the brain
evokes emotional responses in
animals
• Roger Sperry (1981)
– Left and right brain specialization
• Donald Hebb (1949)
– Cell-assemblies describe neural
networks
6. Evolutionary Perspective
Assumption


Body’s are piles of physical
modules laid down by evolution
Brains are piles of informationprocessing modules laid down by
evolution
6. Evolutionary Perspective
e.g., David Buss

mate preferences

jealousy
Evol Psych Example (title)
example of research
by David Buss
Scenario 1
you discover that your partner is
having sex with someone else
Scenario 2
you discover that your partner is
in love with someone else
Possible explanations
1) Cultural learning of patriarchal norms
2) Innate evolutionary mechanisms
that differ between M and W
parental
investment
paternity
certainty
Positive Psychology Movement
• Martin Seligman has a eureka moment:
•
•
•
•
1975
1990
1997
1998
depression role of “pessimistic attitude”
“Dad, why are you always so grumpy?” (daughter)
psychology itself is far too grumpy
elected to of APA
• Humanistic Perspective 2.0
• Where is our research on human happiness?
• We need a science of..
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Positive experiences
Positive traits
Positive institutions
Positive communities
Contemporary Psychology:
Cultural Diversity
• Ethnocentrism – viewing one’s own group as
superior and as the standard for judging
• Historically: middle and upper class white males
studying middle and upper class white males
• 1980’s – increased interest in how cultural factors
influence behaviour
• growing global interdependence
• increased cultural diversity
Cross-Cultural Research
• comparing and contrasting people of
different cultures (e.g., human values)
• test generalizability of psyc theory
Multicultural Research
• Ethnic group phenomena within
societies
• Acculturation, immigration, language
Feminist Psychology
• Psychological approach analyzing the
influence of social inequities on gender
relations and on the behaviour of the two
sexes
History of Psychology in Canada
• James Mark Baldwin
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Worked in Wundt’s lab, 1880s
PhD from Princeton
UofT in 1891: 1st Psy laboratory in Canada
Co-founder of APA, 1892
• Donald Hebb (McGill) 1940s-70s
 Founder of neuroscience of learning
 Hebbian learning: the cellular level of learning
 Hebb’s Law: "Neurons that fire together wire together.“
 Cell assembly theory of learning
• Brenda Milner (McGill) 1950s, present
 Student of Donald Hebb
 Founder of the neuroscience of memory
 Landmark studies of patient “HM”
Canadian Psychological Association
www.cpa.ca
• CPA formed in 1939
– to ensure psychologists contributed to war effort.
• Now serves to advance psychological research,
promote and regulate psychological education, and
support the practice of psychology in Canada.
•
CPA promotes research:
 Scientific journals
• Canadian Psychology
• Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology
 Scientific conferences
• Regulates psychological training by accreditating
graduate programs in clinical psychology
CPA Divisions
36
Psychology Today
Research Disciplines
Professional Specialties
©2001 Prentice Hall
Research Disciplines
1. Physiological
2. Experimental
3. Cognitive
4. Developmental
Research Disciplines
5. Social
6. Personality
7. Abnormal
8. Quantitative
Professional Psychology
• 1st clinic in 1896 (U. of Pennsylvania)
• 1937 only 1/5 APA members reported any
interest in clinical work.
• WWII … rapid rise of clinical psychology
• Professionalization spreads to other areas
Counseling Psychology
School Psychology
Forensic Psychology (Courts, Prisons)
Interdisciplinary
• Growing movement to combine strengths
of different fields
• Recent trend is towards interdisciplinary
research questions
What Will Happen Next?
• The future is up to your generation of
critical thinkers.
Table 1.2 Overview of Six Contemporary Theoretical Perspectives in Psychology
Psychology Today:
A Thriving Science and Profession
• Psychology is the science that studies behaviour
and the physiological and cognitive processes that
underlie it
and
• and it is the profession that applies the
accumulated knowledge of this science to
practical problems.
• Research: Seven major areas
- Personality, Psychometrics, Social, Cognitive,
Physiological, Developmental, and Experimental
• Applied Psychology: Four major areas
- Clinical, Counselling, Educational and School,
and Industrial Organization
Introductory psychology students
Fall Mass Testing
Annual online survey for 1 hour of credit
SEPT 14 - OCT 7
Wide range of psychology questionnaires
(traits, social attitudes, life goals).
1 hour of credit.
Find it here 
SONA
Clinical Psychologists are not:
• Psychotherapists
– Anyone who does any type of psychotherapy
• Psychoanalysts
– Individuals who receive training in
psychoanalysis
• Psychiatrists
– Medical doctors who diagnose and treat
mental disorders
CPA Accredited Clinical
Programs
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•
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•
•
•
•
•
•
Concordia University
Dalhousie University
Lakehead University
McGill University
Queen’s University
Simon Fraser University
Université de Montréal
Université Laval
University of British
Columbia
• University of Calgary
• University of Manitoba
• University of New
Brunswick
• University of Ottawa
• University of Regina
• University of Saskatchewan
• University of Victoria
• University of Waterloo
• University of Western
Ontario
• University of Windsor
• York University
What Areas do Psychology
Undergraduates Pursue?
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•
•
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•
•
•
•
•
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Psychology
Other
Counseling
Education
Social work
Medicine
Law
Health Sciences
Business
Sociology
What Psychologists Do
• Three categories of activities for psychologists:
– Teaching and doing research in universities and
college
– Providing health or mental-health services
(psychological practice)
– Conducting research or applying its findings in
non- academic settings such as business, sports,
government, law, and the military.
Studying Psychology:
Seven Organizing Themes
• Themes related to psychology as a field of study:
Psychology is empirical (Theme 1)
Psychology is theoretically diverse (Theme 2)
Psychology evolves in a sociohistorical context (Theme 3).
• Themes related to psychology’s subject matter:
– Behaviour is determined by multiple causes (Theme 4)
– Behaviour is shaped by cultural heritage (Theme 5)
– Behaviour is influenced jointly by heredity and
environment (Theme 6).
• Finally, people’s experience of the world is highly subjective
(Theme 7).
TAKE HOME MESSAGE
Psychology is a broad field, with
many specialties, but fundamentally,
it is a science of behavior and mental
processes
Professional Psychology
1. Clinical Psych
2. Counseling Psych
3. Educational Psych
4. Industrial/Organizational
(I/O) [business psyc]
Some I/O sub-disciplines
a. Personnel Psyc
b. Organizational Psyc
c. Engineering Psyc
" Human Factors Psychology "
e.g., human-computer interaction
e.g., human-robot interaction
Some I/O sub-disciplines
Psychology as a Profession
Next time…
Psychology
as a
Science
©2001 Prentice Hall