Download Ch 1 Intro to Psych

Chapter 1
Introduction to Psychology
What is Psychology?
• Psychology (Psyche: Mind/soul and Logos:
Knowledge or study
– Hippocrates thought the mind and body were separate
entities (Dualism)
– 300 b.c. Aristotle studied learning, memory, emotion,
etc.: He thought mind and body were the same entity
(Monism)
• Definition: The systematic, scientific study of
behavior and mental processes
– Behavior: Overt, i.e. can be directly observed (crying)
or measured such as skin temperature, breathing, etc.
– Mental Processes: Covert, i.e. cannot be directly
observed (remembering) but can be measured.
What Are the Goals of Psychology?
• Description of Behaviors: Naming and classifying
various observable, measurable behaviors (and
abnormal behaviors: DSM IV)
• Understanding/Explanation: The causes of behavior(s),
and being able to state the cause(s)
• Prediction: Predicting behavior accurately
• Control: Altering conditions that influence behaviors in
predictable ways
– Positive Use: To control unwanted behaviors, (e.g., smoking,
tantrums, etc.)
– Negative Use: To control peoples’ behaviors without their
knowledge
The Development of Psychology:
From Speculation to Science
• Prior to 1879
– Physiology and philosophy scholars studying
questions about the mind
• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) University of
Leipzig, Germany • Campaigned to make psychology an
independent discipline
– Established the first laboratory for the study of
psychology in 1879
• Psychology was born
History of Psychology (Briefly):
Beginnings
• Wilhelm Wundt: “Father” of Psychology
– The first psychology lab in Germany was designed to
study conscious experience. He noticed the
properties of the periodic table and wondered if such
patterns existed in the mind.
– Introspection: Looking inward (i.e., examining and
reporting your thoughts, feelings, etc.)
– Experimental Self-Observation: Incorporates both
introspection and objective measurement; Wundt’s
approach.
– Subjects were presented with a rose, metronome, etc.,
and their sensations and feelings were recorded.
History and Evolution of Psychology
• Structuralism
• Wundt’s ideas were brought to the U.S. by
Titchener and renamed Structuralism
• Structuralism depended upon Introspection.
• Subjects were exposed to stimuli and their
responses were recorded; e.g. “what did they
experience when they saw an apple”.
• Attempted to find how consciousness was
organized or structured.
Wilhelm Wundt’s International
Influence
• Leipzig, the place to study psychology
– Graduates of Wundt’s program set up new labs across
Europe and North America
• G.Stanley Hall (1846-1924),
– Established the first psychology laboratory in the U.S.
in 1883 at Johns Hopkins University
• Between 1883 and 1893, 24 new laboratories in
North America
The Battle of the “Schools” in the U.S.:
Structuralism vs. Functionalism
• Two intellectual schools of thought regarding
the science of psychology
– Structrualism – led by Edward Titchener
• Focused on analyzing consciousness into basic elements
• Introspection – careful, systematic observations of one’s own
conscious experience. Although Structuralism ceased to exist,
introspection is still a methodology used in psychology.
– Functionalism – led by William James
• Focused on investigating the function or purpose of
consciousness
• Led to investigation of mental testing, developmental patterns,
and sex differences
• Most historians give the edge to James and the
functionalists
– Today, psychologists are not really categorized as
structuralists or functionalists
History of Psychology (continued)
• Functionalism
• William James (American) and Functionalism
– Wrote “Principles of Psychology” in 1890 (First
psychology textbook)
– How the mind functions (as opposed to the
Structuralist approach) to help us adapt and survive
– Functionalists admired Darwin and his Theory of
Natural Selection: Animals keep features through
evolution that help them adapt to environments
– Eventually examined early childhood development
and education practices.
Who Won the Battle?
• Most historians give a slight edge to
William James and the Functionalists
– Today, psychologists are not categorized as
Functionalist or Structuralist
• Applied Psychology; Cognitive Psychology
and Behaviorism are descendants of
Functionalism
– Behaviorism – the early 1900s
– Arose from the work of Ivan Pavlov
Another Early Approach Gestalt Psychology (1920s)
• Back in Germany, Max Wertheimer also
disagreed with the functionalist approach but
for different reasons. He thought the “whole”
should be examined.
• Gestalt Psychology: “The whole is greater
than the sum of its parts.”
– Studied thinking, learning, and perception in whole
units, not by analyzing experiences into parts.
Has particular application in perceiving our
physical surroundings
The Studies of Ivan Pavlov
• In the early 1900s, A Russian Doctor named Ivan
Pavlov made famous his stimulus-response
experiment. Originally, he was concerned with
the role of salivation in digestion. Pavlov earned
a Nobel Prize in 1904 for his work on the
digestive process.
• As Pavlov noticed, a dog began salivating when
a meat powder was being presented; and later
salivated at the ringing of a bell (among other
things)
Early Psychologists
• John Watson (1878-1958) was the founder of
Behaviorism and began a revolution in Psychology
• His roots were in Pavlov’s Stimulus-Response
Model
• Psychology should study observable behavior not
consciousness (totally contradicting Structuralism
and to a degree, Functionalism)
• His Little Albert experiment was very controversial.
He was terminated by Johns Hopkins and went to
work at Maxwell House Coffee in advertising.
• His work further fueled the “nurture versus
nature” argument. WHAT INFLUENCES OUR
BEHAVIOR: BIOLOGY OR OUR ENVIRONMENT.
John Watson’s Famous Quote
• Nurture, and NOT Nature:
– “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….”
• Behaviorism emphasizes environment
Nurture versus Nature
• Perhaps psychology's biggest question.
• How are humans alike: due to common biology and
evolutionary history.
– The politically correct answer is 50% biological and 50%
environmental but as we will later see, some psychologists
suggest that 80% is biological or inherited. This 80% is based
upon studies of identical twins.
• How are we different: due to our differing environments
• Are gender differences biologically predisposed or formed
from experience?
• How are differences in intelligence and personality
influenced by heredity and environment.
• Take the 5 Factor Personality Test
The Big Five. According to
the five-factor model,
basic differences in
personality can be “boiled
down” to the dimensions
shown here. The fivefactor model answers
these essential questions
about a person: Is she or
he extroverted or
introverted? Agreeable or
difficult? Conscientious or
irresponsible?
Emotionally stable or
unstable? Smart or
unintelligent? These
questions cover a large
measure of what we might
want to know about
someone’s personality.
7 Major Areas of Psychology
1. Psychoanalytic (or Psychodynamic – a more modern term)
Theory
• Father of Psychoanalysis – Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939) from Austria
– According to Freud, behavior is largely influenced by our
unconscious wishes, thoughts, and desires, especially sex
and aggression which may have originated when we were
children . Freud thought our personality was formed by the
age of 5; neo-Freudians, however, suggest that personality
change occurs during the life span.
– Freud performed dream analysis and free association in an
attempt to access our unconscious.
– An example of one of Freud’s Defense Mechanisms):
Repression: When threatening thoughts are unconsciously
held out of awareness
Sigmund Freud
• Unconscious conflict related to sexuality plays a
central role in behavior
– 3 components of our personality interact to produce
our behaviors, the Id, Ego, and Superego
• Controversial notions caused debate and
resistance with psychology
• Freud’s Theory was the first comprehensive
theory which explained how behaviors are
exhibited and a method for treatment. This is
one reason why Freud has had a significant
influence on the field.
2. Behaviorism
• B.F. Skinner (1904 – 1990) (Operant Conditioning)
• Only behaviors should be observed.
– Environmental factors determine behavior
– Most influential person in psychology according to a
survey of psychologists
– Behaviors with positive outcomes are repeated
– Free will is an illusion (our behaviors are much like
Pavlov’s dog)
– A widely used behavior modification technique (rewards,
reinforcements, punishments, etc)
• Albert Bandura and Social Learning
– A Behaviorist approach
– We do not receive the reward or punishment
but observe how others are rewarded or
punished and this observation affects our
behaviors
The 1950’s: Opposition to Psychoanalytic Theory and Behaviorism
• Charges that both were de-humanizing
• Diverse opposition groups got together to form a
loose alliance
• A new school of thought emerged - Humanism
– Led by Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) and Carl
Rogers (1902-1987)
– Emphasis on the unique qualities of humans: focused
on freedom and personal growth
3. Humanism
• Humanism: Rogers and Maslow
• Behavior is guided by one’s self image; how we
attempt to grow and develop in our environment.
• Stresses human potential
• Humanism stresses “free will”
– Goal of psychology is to understand subjective human
experience
– Each person has innate goodness and is able to make
free choices (contrasting this approach with Skinner and
Freud)
– Problems in our behaviors arise from an “incongruence”
(the perception of our self differs from reality or the
perceptions of others).
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?
4. Cognitive Psychology
• Albert Ellis and Aaron Beck
– Our thoughts influence our behaviors.
Irrational thinking may be the cause of
irrational behaviors.
– For example, Ellis’s uses an A-B-C model to
explain his approach.
– Activating Event >Belief system>Emotional
consequence
– In this model, our belief system (thinking) is
irrational
5. Biological (or Biopsychological)
Approach
• Heredity, medical problems, neurological
functions influence behaviors.
• Hormonal changes; brain anomalies;
neurochemical (neurotransmitter) imbalances;
etc., cause behavior problems.
• In most instances, drug therapy can correct/
minimize problems. For example, paxil and zoloft
affect the reuptake of serotonin, a
neurotransmitter which affects our mood among
other conditions.
Biological Approach (contd.)
– Biological perspective - behavior explained in
terms of physiological processes.
• Brain imaging devices now reveal that different
parts of our brains process information differently;
for example, diagnosed sociopaths may process
visual/emotional information in different parts of
their brains.
• James Olds (1956)
– Electrical stimulation of the brain evokes
emotional responses in animals.
• Roger Sperry (1981)
– Left and right brain specialization
6. Evolutionary Psychology: Behavioral Patterns in Terms of
Evolutionary Significance
• Central premise: natural selection occurs
for behavioral, as well as physical,
characteristics
• Buss, Daly, Wilson: 80’s and 90’s
• Studied natural selection of mating preferences,
jealousy, aggression, sexual behavior, language,
decision making, personality, and development
– Thought provoking perspective gaining in
influence, but not without criticism
– Some psychologists would suggest that the
concept of “spouse (or mate) poaching” is an
evolutionary behavior
Can Behaviors be “Bred”?
• In the 1950s, Russian Scientist, Dmitry Belyaev,
experimented with 30 male and 100 female
foxes. From the offspring, he selected the most
docile (those less inclined to attack humans
feeding and handling them). He made this
selection from every successive batch of off spring. 30 generations later, the bred foxes are
friendly and eager for human contact. They are
like very affectionate dogs. They are now so
docile, that to raise funds, the “new” foxes were
sold as house pets.
7. Socio-Cultural or
Cultural Diversity Approach
• This approach combined Social Psychology and
Cultural Psychology. This approach is based on the
idea that society and culture shape cognition. Social
customs, beliefs, values, and language are all part of
what shapes a person's identity and reality.
• Ethnocentrism – viewing one’s own group as
superior and as the standard for judging
• Historically: middle and upper class white males
studied middle and upper class white males
• 1980’s – increased interest in how cultural factors
and social groups influence behavior
Socio-cultural
How behaviors and thinking
Are affected by culture