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The Story of Psychology A widely varied field of enquiry, presented as a smooth flow... Credit Aristotle the Greek philosopher with asking the right questions. Today we call this 'critical thinking' Psychology began as a science in 1879 when Wilhelm Wundt measured 'atoms of the mind’(mp2; cp2) In American Psychological Association format this is: (Wundt, 1879) reported that: This is the format that you will see in multiple-choice. Wilhelm Wundt's Experiment Wundt 1879, reported that: Subjects heard a ball hit a platform, then pressed a telegraph key 1/10 second to press the key without being aware of thinking about it; 2/10 second to press the key with awareness of thinking about it. Conclusion: Thinking about things requires extra time and effort; action requires much less. Watson & Behaviourism Watson 1920,dismissed introspection, as well as occultism. Defined psychology as 'the science of observable behaviour' in the mid 1920s. (mp5, cp5) This approach dominated N.A. institutions until the 1970s. Skinner applied Watson's methods to rats and birds, showing commonalities with humans with respect to learning. Freud & The Unconscious Freud 1895, asked 'how much do our unconscious processes and childhood emotional responses influence our adult life'? (mp5, cp5) Remember what Wundt discovered about conscious processes: they take more effort Freud has had a huge impact on our culture, especially in books and movies. Writers love him. Remember that for 'The Ward'. Why? Because we all like to believe that we are driven by mysteries below and beyond our conscious perception. Cognitive Psychology Cognitive psychology scientifically explores the way we perceive, process & remember information. Cognitive neuroscience is the interdisciplinary study of brain activity linked with cognition. The two big approaches in this course are cognitive neuroscience & evolutionary psychology; first we ask: “Where is it in the brain?” The second biggest question is: “how did it get there?” To answer that question, we need to combine genetics & paleoanthropogy. Assuming that you basically know what genetics is, go to google and type in: Define: paleoanthropology the study of the origins and predecessors of the present human species, using fossils and other remains. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/paleoanthropology Darwin: Evolution & Psychology Darwin 1859, proposed the process of natural selection, which we now know is caused by genetic mutations, not the environment.(mp7, cp7) To understand evolution, you need to understand permutation, the ordered combination of things. From Wikipedia: Informally, a permutation of a set of objects is an arrangement of those objects into a particular order. In evolutionary psychology, some arrangements enhance survival, some do not. For example: Our brain is arranged for left-side languagebased dominance. Think: Biology = Stage; Environment = Script Biological Influences Natural Selection of Adaptive Traits Genetic predisposition responding to environment brain mechanisms hormonal influences Psychological Influences Learned fears and other learned expectations Emotional responses Cognitive processing and perceptual interpretations Social-Cultural Influences Presence of other people cultural, social, and family expectations peer and other group influences compelling models, such as media celebrities. The usual way we look at a problem/phenomenon in psychology is the Bio-Psycho-Social approach. Fig. 1.1 (module); Fig. 1 (chapter) Current Perspectives Table 1.1 will be on the exam; make sure to study it. This class will stress the neuroscience approach, because contrary to Watson and Skinner, the brain is no longer a 'black box'. Study Tip 1: Author, Year • Wundt, 1879: Wundt and his pioneering students who developed the empirical methodologies that first granted psychology a disciplinary identity distinct from philosophy. • http://plato.stanford.edu/entries/wilhelm-wundt/ • Watson, 1925: Dismissed introspection and redefined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior. • Freud, 1895: emphasized the ways our unconscious thought processes and emotional responses to childhood experiences affect our behavior. • Darwin, 1859: Natural selection shapes behavior as well as bodies. He championed the concept of the 'niche' the specialty each species has to optimize survival. • For this course, think of intelligence as a 'Darwinian niche'.