Download History and Approches 2014 Review

History and Approaches
Review 2014
Its History
• The field is organized into waves
– Schools of thought
• Each wave = a new school of thought
Wave 1: Introspection
• 1879 – Wilhelm Wundt
– Set up 1st Psych lab
– Studied subjects and asked them to report their
cognitive reactions to simple stimuli
(introspection)
• Structuralism the idea that objective stimuli
lead to subjective emotions
Wave 1: con’t
• 1890 William James “The Principles of
Psychology”
• Took Wundt’s structure of the mind and focused on
its functions
– Looks at the adaptation of the mind to its environment
• Other Wave One People:
– Mary Whiton Calkins 1st woman president of APA
– Margaret Washburn 1st PhD in Psych
– G. Stanley Hall  1st president of the APA
Wave 2: Gestalt Psych
• Led by German psychologist Max Wertheimer
• Sought to keep human thought and behavior as
one entity
• Focused on ones whole experience rather than
the accumulation of various perceptual
experiences
• Ex: looking a at painting and then describing how
it makes you feel;
– The whole is greater than the sum of its parts
Wave 3: Psychoanalysis
• The work of Sigmund Freud
• Major focus: the unconscious mind; what
determines how we think and behave
– Builds over time through the repression of memories
and traumatic events
• Unlocking the unconscious
– Dream analysis, word association, and psychoanalytic
therapy
• Largely discredited for being unscientific
Wave 4: Behaviorism
• Ivan Pavlov father of Classical Conditioning
• John Watson took Pavlov’s idea and applied it
to humans
– Ex: baby Albert experiment
• B. F. Skinner Operant Conditioning
– Behavior based on reinforcement or punishment
• The BIG picture
– The ONLY aspect of importance is observable
behavior
• Dominant from the 1920s – 1960s
Wave 5: Eclectic
• No one way of thinking of human thought and
behavior
• The idea that one draws from multiple
perspectives
The Perspectives
• DON’T GET CONFUSED WITH THE WAVES
• The waves are the different ways of thinking
throughout the history of the field
• The PERSEPECTIVES analyze thought and
behavior today
Humanist Perspective
• 1970s a result of the reductionist ideas of the
behaviorists
• Abraham Maslow (hierarchy)
• Carl Rogers (positive regard)
• Stressed individual choice and free will
• Our behaviors are guided by physiological,
emotional, or spiritual needs
• Ex: in meeting social needs, an introverted person
may satisfy this requirement by maintaining a
small group of friends as opposed to a large one
Psychoanalytic Perspective
• As mentioned:
– All behavior is rooted in the unconscious mind
• To understand our actions we must:
– Examine our unconscious mind
• Back to our example of introversion:
– If a person is introverted it is most likely the cause
of some traumatic childhood experience involving a
crowd
– The person may even experience acute anxiety
without explanation
Biopsychology: Neuroscience
• Human cognition is nothing more than an
interaction of our genes, hormones, and
neurotransmitters
• Introversion/extroversion may be explained by
an expression of certain genes and their effect
on the brain
Evolutionary Perspective
• Examine human thoughts and actions through
natural selection
• Traits necessary for survival have been passed
down the generational line
• Ex: our extroverted subject makes friends and
alliances, thus ensuring survival
Behavioral Perspective
• Behaviors explained in terms of learning
(conditioning)
• Behaviors are performed and based on its
consequence will be either repeated or not
• Ex: If our extroverted subject was praised for
doing so, then the behavior will continue. The
opposite can be said of punishment
• Looks at environmental conditions on the
learning of the subject
Cognitive Perspective
• Thought and behaviors are examined through
our interpretation, processing, and
remembering of information
• How we look at the world is important to
determine how we think and behave
• Ex: If our extroverted subject sees
extroversion as important in order to get to
know others, then they will engage in such
activities
Social - Cultural
• Studies how our thoughts and behaviors vary
from others living in other cultures
• Culture as a catalyst for how we think and act
• Ex: Our extroverted subject may value
extroversion in terms of their culture. If the
culture attaches positive views of extroversion
then the person will likely follow suit