Download The history of Psychology

THE HISTORY OF
PSYCHOLOGY
From Aristotle to Austria to America
P E R H A P S T H E M O S T FA S C I N AT I N G
AND MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE OF ALL
I S T H E O N E W I T H I N U S.
PSYCHOLOGY DEFINED
 Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental
processes.
 A professional practitioner or researchers is called a psychologist.
 The term psychology literally means the study of the soul. It
derives from the Greek word psyche meaning “breath”, “spirit”, or
“soul” and logia, meaning the “study of.”
HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
 Philosophical interest in the mind and behavior dates back to
the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China and India.
 Greek philosophers like Thales, Socrates, and Aristotle dealt
with questions of nature versus nurture. They debated the nature
pleasure and pain, motivation, desire, free will, memory and our
perception of the world.
 In the 8th century, Islamic physicians in Fez, Morocco, used
practices that resembled psychotherapy to treat mental patients.
That was 1000 years before Sigmund Freud “established” the
practice.
Aristotle
PLATO 387 B.C.
Innate ideas – Suggests the brain
is the seat of mental processes.
PLATO – GREEK
PHILOSOPHER
EPISTEMOLOGY

What is knowledge?

How do we get knowledge?

What justifies a belief and makes it knowledge?

What is realism?

What is idealism?
ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
A R I S T O T L E 335 B. C.
FAT H E R O F P S YC H O L OG Y
Denied Innate ideas – Suggests
that the heart is the seat of mental
processes
ARISTOTLE – GREEK
PHILOSOPHER
MONISM VS. DUALISM
 Monism – A Greek idea that held that all things are linked and
inseparable, including the body and mind.
 Dualism – The body and the mind are separate. Rene Descartes, the
French philosopher, surmised that the body and the soul were separate
entities only somewhat dependent on each other.
 What is the nature of the soul? Descartes: “The sense perceptions and
physical passions of humans depends on the body, but awareness of them
is the job for the soul.”
1600
Monism- Brain and Nervous System
Dualism (Descartes)Body(Physical)
Mind(Spiritual)
Pineal Gland
FRANCIS BACON
 One of the founders of modern science
 Human mind and its failings
 Theories centered on experiment, experience, and common sense
judgment
NATIVISTS VS. EMPIRICISTS
Nativists – Innate Truth (nature) - Descartes
Empiricists – Blank Slate learned through sensory
experiences (nurture) – John Locke
TABULA RASA
MY HEAD IS BIGGER SO I’M A BETTER
PE RSON T HAN YOU…
 The German physician Franz Joseph Gall introduced the theory of
Phrenology in 1808.
 Phrenology holds that traits and abilities reside in certain parts of
the brain, and
 Can be measured by bumps and indentations in the skull.
PHRENOLOGY
1859 – CHARLES DARWIN
 Evolutionary process of natural selection
 Using animals in psychological research
1 8 7 9 : B I RT H O F P S YC H O L O G Y
Wilhelm Wundt
 University of Leipzig, Germany
 Established first Psychology Laboratory in 1879.
 Defined psychology as the study of consciousness.
He used scientific methods to study fundamental
psychological processes, such as mental reaction times
in response to visual or auditory stimuli.
TITCHENER AND STRUCTURALISM
Edward B. Titchener
 A student of Wundt
 Structuralism, the first major school
of thought in psychology, maintains that
complex conscious experiences can be
broken down into elemental structures or
parts of sensations and feelings.
 Introspection
1 8 8 0 : A M E R I C A N P S YC H O L O G Y
William James
 Functionalism emphasized studying
the purpose behaviors and mental
experiences.
 Offered the first course in
Experimental Psychology at Harvard
University.
1883: FIRST AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY
L A B O R A T O RY
G. Stanley Hall, a student of
James, became the first Ph.D. in
psychology in the United States in 1878.
 Founded the first psychology research
laboratory in the U.S. at Johns Hopkins
University in Baltimore.
 Founded the American Psychological
Association (APA).
STUDENTS OF
W I L L I A M JA M E S
MARY WHITON CALKINS
MARGARET FLOY WASHBURN
 Wellesley College – Teacher of
 Titchener’s first doctoral student at
experimental psychology
Cornell University
 Harvard University refused to
 Female to earn the first official Ph.D.
award her a Ph.D. in psychology
in psychology
 Researched dreams, memory and
 Mental processes in different animals
personality
 The Animal Mind
 1st female president of APA
 2nd female president of APA
A M E R I C A N P S YC H O L O G I C A L
ASSOCIATION
http://www.apa.org/
A TIMELINE OF
PSYCHOLOGY
1889: SIGMUND FREUD
 Theory of Psychoanalysis
 The Interpretation of Dreams.
 Freud believed glimpses of the
unconscious could be revealed in
dreams, memory blocks, slips of
the tongue and humor.
W A T S O N A N D B E H AV I O R I S M
1913/1920
 Behaviorism focused on overt,
observable behaviors that could be measured
and verified.
 The goal of Behaviorism is to discover the
fundamental principles of learning – how
behavior is acquired and modified in response
to environmental influences.
 Watson & Rosalie Raynor – Little Albert
BEHAVIORAL THEORY
Ivan Pavlov - 1905
B.F. Skinner - 1938
 Russian physiologist
 Operant conditioning
 Conditioned Responses
 Reinforcement & Punishment
 Pavlovian dogs
 Rats and pigeons
 Skinner Box
ERIK ERIKSON - 1950
 Stages of Psychosocial Development
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
Carl Rogers - 1951
 Humanistic Psychology emphasizes each
person's unique potential for psychological
growth and self-direction.
 Self-determination, free will and the
importance of choice are important in
psychological growth.
ABRAHAM MASLOW - 1954
Motivation & Personality
Psychological Motives
• Physiological Needs
• Self-actualization
Hierarchy of Needs
COGNITIVE REVOLUTION

How does the mind process and retain information?

Human Vision

Phantom Limbs

Evolution of Language

Mirror Neurons

Theories of Autism

Cognitive Neuroscience
WHICH SCHOOL
Psychology should study how behavior and mental
processes allows organisms to adapt to their environment.
School/Approach?
Founder?
WHICH SCHOOL
Psychology should emphasize each person’s unique
potential for psychological growth and self-directedness.
School/Approach?
Founder?
WHICH SCHOOL
Psychology should focus on elements of conscious
experiences, using the method of introspection.
School/Approach?
Founder?
WHICH SCHOOL
Human Behavior is strong influenced by unconscious
sexual and aggressive conflicts.
School/Approach?
Founder?
WHICH SCHOOL
Psychology should scientifically investigate observable
behaviors that can be measured objectively and should
not study consciousness or mental processes.
School/Approach?
Founder?
LESSON #2
CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY
A M E R I C A N P S YC H O L O G I C A L
ASSOCIATION
http://www.apa.org/
RESEARCH
BASIC
APPLIED
 The quest for knowledge for
 Designed to solve specific,
knowledge
 Laboratories/Natural Experiments
practical problems
 Uses principles discovered
through basic research
GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
 To describe how people and other species behave
 To understand the causes of these behaviors
 To predict how people and animals will behave under certain
conditions
 To influence behavior through the control of its causes
 To apply psychological knowledge in ways that enhance human
welfare
NATURE – NURTURE
ISSUE
BIOLOGY VS. EXPERIENCE
APPROACHES
TO
PSYCHOLOGY
BIOPSYCHOSOCIAL
APPROACH
 BIOLOGICAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS – Analyze behavior in terms of
brain functioning, hormones, genetics, and evolution
 PSYCHOLOGICAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS – Cognitive,
psychodynamic, and humanistic examination of human behavior
 SOCIAL-CULTURAL LEVEL OF ANALYSIS – Behavioral and Sociocultural examination of stimuli in physical and social environment shape
human behavior
PERSPECTIVES
 Psychodynamic
 Behavioral
 Humanistic
 Cognitive (Gestalt Psychology)
 Socio-Cultural
 Biological
 Evolutionary
BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
The study of physical bases of human and animal behavior including the
nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, and genetics.
Relevant to the study of Psychology in 3 ways:
• Comparative method:
• Physiology
• Inheritance
Biological Psychologists believe factors such as chromosomes, hormones and
the brain have a significant influence on human behavior.
BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
Advancements in technology, such as the PET scan and MRIs, have allowed
researchers to investigate the structure and activity of the brain.
• Neuroscientists-scientists who specialize in the study of the brain
and nervous system.
A criticism of Biological Psychology: has a strong tendency to reductionism.
• Reductionism: theories sometimes oversimplify systems that are
actually very complex.
NEUROBIOLOGICAL

Biological processes influence behaviors

Genetic factors influence behaviors

Brain chemistry, nervous system, and hormones

Localization of Function – Phineas Gage
EVOLUTIONARY
PERSPECTIVE
Applying the principles of evolution to explain psychological
processes and phenomena
Charles Darwin
• Wrote On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection, his
first book on evolution, in 1859.
• The Theory of Evolution -proposes the idea that individuals
fight for survival
• Species change over time and space.
• All organisms share common ancestors with other organisms.
• Evolutionary change is gradual and slow
EVOLUTIONARY
PERSPECTIVE
Charles Darwin (cont.)
• In The Voyage of the Beagle Darwin formed his theory of natural
selection by observing animals while traveling the world.
• Natural selection -The process whereby organisms better adapted
to their environment tend to survive and produce more offspring
(four main components)
1.
2.
3.
4.
Variation
Inheritance
High rate of population growth
Differential survival and reproduction
“TREE OF LIFE”
Evolutionary Psychologists
believe that all of the similarities
and dissimilarities among groups
of organisms are the result of the
branching process creating the
great “tree of life”.
P S YC H O DY N A M I C P E R S P E C T I V E
Emphasizes the importance of unconscious influences, early life experiences,
and interpersonal relationships to explain behavior or in treating people
with psychological problems

Sigmund Freud
• Psychosexual development: psychological development in childhood
takes place in 6 psychosexual stages, and each stage represents the fixation of
libido (sexual drives or instincts)
• Unconscious mind: contains our eros and thanatos
• Psyche: the id, the ego and the super-ego
• Defense mechanisms: operate at an unconscious level to get rid of
unpleasant feelings or make good things feel better for the individual.
PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
Erik Erikson
• Psychosocial Development: describes the impact of social
experience across the whole lifespan
Carl Jung
• Collective Unconscious: The part of the unconscious mind
that is derived from ancestral memory and experience and is
common to all humankind, as distinct from the individual's
unconscious
CARL JUNG
P S YC H O DY N A M I C P E R S P E C T I V E
Psychologists using this approach believe..
• All behavior has a cause which is usually unconscious
• Example: slips of the tongue
• Personality is made up of three parts: the id, ego, and super-ego.
• Behavior is motivated by two instinctual drives which come from
the id:
• Eros- the sex drive and life instinct
• Thanatos-the aggressive drive and death instinct
• The unconscious mind (the id and superego) are always in conflict
with the conscious part of the mind (the ego)
P S YC H O DY N A M I C P E R S P E C T I V E
Methodology of a Psychodynamic Psychologist:
• Case Study: in-depth investigations of a single person, group, event or
community.
• Freud’s Little Hans
• Dream Analysis: dream interpretation
• Free Association: mental process by which one word or image may
spontaneously suggest another without any apparent connection
• Projective Tests: TAT, Rorschach
• Slips of the Tongue (Freudian slip): an error in speech, memory, or
physical action that is interpreted as occurring due to the interference of
some unconscious wish, conflict, or train of thought
• Hypnosis: An artificially induced altered state of consciousness
BEHAVIORAL PERSPECTIVE
View people and animals as controlled by their environment , and that they
are a result of what they have learned from the environment.
Concerned with how stimuli affects response
•
•
Stimuli-environmental factors
Response-observable behaviors
Uses two main processes
1.
Classical conditioning-learning by association
Ivan Pavlov’s experiment where dogs learned to associate food with the ring of a
bell, eventually leading to the dogs producing saliva just at the sound of the
bell.
IVAN PAVLOV
LITTLE ALBERT
Watson and Little Albert
Brave New World
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
ACTIVITY
BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY
2. Operant
conditioning- learning from the consequences of behavior.
Studied by B.F. Skinner.
•
Reinforcement- a consequence that causes a behavior to occur with
greater frequency. (can be positive of negative)
•
•
•
•
Positive reinforcement: learning to do something in order to receive a
reward
Negative reinforcement: a specific action stopping a negative consequence
• B.F. Skinner was first to conduct research in this area
Punishment-a consequence that causes a behavior to occur with less
frequency. (can be positive or negative)
Extinction-the lack of any consequence following a behavior.
Operant Conditioning Activity
COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

Focuses on the mental processes in how people process and
remember information, develop language, solve problems, and think.

Deals with “mental” functions such as memory, perception, attention,
intelligence, etc.

Memory is compromised of 3 stages
1.
2.
3.
Encoding-information is received and attended to
Storage-where the information is retained
Retrieval-information is recalled
STROOP
EFFECT
Messing with your mind since 1935
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QUESTIONS?

Do we read words faster than we name colors?

Do you think children who haven’t learned to read yet would
have an easier time with this test? What about older people? What
about ESL or non-native English speakers?
CONCLUSIONS?

Reading is automatic… a skill we learn and becomes more and
more ingrained in us as we get older.

Color naming is a control process, something we must use
directed attention to accomplish.

Other conclusions?
HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
Focuses on the motivation of people to grow psychologically, the influence of
interpersonal relationships on a person’s self-concept, and the importance of
choice and self-direction in striving to reach self-actualization
Humanistic theories
Carl Rogers
• Self actualization: our desire to achieve our highest potential as people
• each person operates from a unique frame of reference in terms of building their
self concept (one’s own beliefs about themselves)
• psychologically healthy people enjoy life to the fullest, hence, they are seen as fully
functioning people
• Fully functioning person= an individual who is continually moving toward selfactualization. This type of person is open to life's experiences, has trust in himself, and
is able to express his feelings and act independently.
HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
Abraham Maslow
• individuals
have certain
needs that
must be met
in an
hierarchical
fashion from
the lowest to
highest.
HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
The humanistic Perspective says that the self is composed of
concepts unique to ourselves. The self-concept includes three
components:
-Self worth (or self-esteem)
-Self-image
-Ideal self
SOCIAL-CULTURAL
PERSPECTIVE
Focuses on how cultural factors influence patterns of behavior
Culture=characteristics of a group of people, including attitudes, behaviors,
customs and values
Major Topics in Cross-Cultural Psychology
•
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•
•
•
Emotions
Language acquisition
Child development
Personality
Social behavior
Family and social relationship
Social-cultural psychologists usually take one of two approaches
• etic approach-emphasizes similarities of cultures
• emic approach-emphasizes differences between cultures
IS VIOLENCE HISTORY?
After reading the book review (Singer, 2011) of
The Better Angels of our Nature (Pinker, 2011),
discuss an eclectic model to evaluate Pinker’s
thesis that “our era is less violent, less cruel,
and more peaceful than any previous period of
human existence.”