Download 1.1 History and Perspective

1.1 History and Perspective
AP Psychology 1.1
What is psychology?
• Def. - Scientific study of behavior and mental
processes
• Behavior - any action or reaction that can be
directly observed
• Mental Processes (cognition) – internal
processes (thinking, feeling, desiring) that can
only be indirectly observed
Goals of psychology
• Describe a behavior by naming, classifying and
measuring them
• Explain why a behavior or mental process
occurred
• Predict the conditions under which a future
behavior or mental process is likely to occur
• Apply (Control) psychological knowledge to
promote desired goals and prevent unwanted
behaviors
Early Roots
• Long past but short history and a science.
• Hippocrates – dualism (mind/soul in brain, but
not physical)
• Plato – dualist, introspection, behaviors innate
(nature)
• Aristotle – monism (mind/soul results from
anatomy), behaviors from experience (nurture)
• Rene Descartes – dualism (“I think, therefore I
am”, nature
• John Locke – monism, nature (“Tabula Rasa”)
Early Approaches
“Wave 1”
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
*first psychology research laboratory
*first person to call himself a “psychologist”
*wrote a landmark text similar to your textbook
• studied “elements of consciousness” (sensation,
perception, emotion)
• Introspection – research method / subjects
report detailed descriptions of their own
conscious mental experiences
Early Approaches
“Wave 1”
• Edward Titchener (1867-1927)
• Structuralism
• Used introspection to identify the most basic
components, or structures, of conscious
experience
• Unreliable method – subjects reported
different introspective findings to same
stimulus
• Could not study children, animals, mental
disorders
Early Approaches
“Wave 1”
• William James (1842-1910)
• Functionalism
• Emphasized studying the purpose, or function,
of behavior and mental experiences
• Rejected introspection
• Used direct observation of human and
nonhuman animals
Early Approaches
“Wave 2”
•
•
•
•
Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)
Gestalt
How we construct our perceptual wholes
“the sum is whole of the parts”
Early Approaches
“Wave 3”
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
• Psychoanalysis
• Emphasized the role of the unconscious conflicts
in determining behavior and personality
• Internal conflicts between accepted norms of
behavior and unconscious sexual and aggressive
impulses
• Dreams, “slips of the tongue” (Freudian Slip),
memory block (repressed) – All provide glimpses
into unconscious
Early Approaches
“Wave Four”
•
•
•
•
•
John B Watson (1878-1958)
BF Skinner (1904-1990) OC
Ivan Pavlov (1849-1958) CC
Behaviorism
Psychology must be observable and
measurable
Early Approaches
“Wave Five”
• Eclectric
• View multiple perspectives
• Most are this today!
Modern Perspectives
• Behavioral (Learning) (from Behaviorism)
• Humanistic
• Psychodynamic (Psychoanalytic) (from
Psychoanalysis
• Biological (Biopsychology, Neuroscience,
Neurobiological)
• Cognitive
• Evolutionary (Darwinism)
• Sociocultural
• **Social Cognitive
Behavioral Perspective
• Focus on observable behaviors that can be
objectively measured (conscious and
unconscious mental processes are
unobservable
• Believe human behavior is learned and can be
controlled though the presence or absence of
rewards and punishments
Behavioral cont.
• Pavlov – experiments demonstrated that much
behavior among animals is learned rather than
instinctive (Classical Conditioning)
• Watson – applied Pavlov’s reasoning to humans /
believed humans could be socialized in any
direction through learning
• Skinner – organisms repeat responses that lead
to positive responses and do not repeat
behaviors that lead to neutral or negative
responses (reinforcement - Operant Conditioning)
John B Watson
• “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed,
and my own specified 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 a beggar and
thief…”
Humanistic Perspective
• Emphasizes the importance of self-esteem,
free will, and choice in human behavior
• Humans have the ability to self-actualize or
reach their full potential
• Evolved from work of Carl Rogers (1902-1987)
and Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)
Client-Centered Therapies
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Psychodynamic Perspective
• Evolved from Freud’s theories of unconscious
conflicts in determing behavior and
personality, but place less emphasis on sexual
instincts
• Repressed memories, dream interpretation,
analysis of transference (apply from childhood
to today), free association (comes to mind)
Free Association
Transference
Biological Perspective
• Physical basis of human and animal behavior
• Roles of various parts of brain / nerve cells
Cognitive Perspective
• Focus on the way humans gather, store, and
process sensory information
• One theory - (like a computer) informationprocessing model
• Language, thinking and reasoning
Sociocultural Perspective
• Focuses on how culture and social situations
effect the way people think, feel, and behave
Evolutionary Perspective
• Use the principle of evolution to explain the
psychological processes and phenomena
• Natural selection plays a key role in
determining human behavior
– Example…
• Natural selection explains…
• male preference for attractive, youthful spouses
• Female preference for mates who possess high social
status and financial resources
Social Cognitive Perspective
• how people process, store, and apply
information about other people and social
situations.
A Broad Discipline
• Psychology embraces a wide range of specialty
areas
Degrees
• ALL diagnose and treat mental disorders
• Psychologist (Ph.D.)
• Pyschistrist (M.D.)
• Licensed Professional Counselor (M.A. or M.S.)
Careers / Subfields
• Clinical – evaluation, diagnosis and treatment
of mental and behavioral disorders
• Counseling – help people adapt to change or
make changes in their lifestyle
• Developmental – study psychological
development throughout the life span
• Educational – use knowledge of how people
learn to help develop instructional methods
and materials
Clinical Psychologists
Counseling Psychologists
Careers / Subfields
• Engineering – do research on how people
function best with machines
• Forensic – applies the principles of psychology
to the legal profession (jury selection,
psychological profiling)
• Health – concentrate on biological,
psychological and social factors involved in
health and illness
Forensic Psychology
Careers / Subfields
• Industrial/Organizational – apply the
principles of psychology to the workplace
(employee motivation, job satisfaction,
personnel selection, leadership styles)
• Neuropsychologists – explore the relationship
between the brain/nervous systems and
behavior (aka biopsychologists, behavioral
geneticists, physiological psychologists,
behavioral neuroscientists)
Career / Subfields
• Psychometricians – focus on methods for
acquiring and analyzing psychological data
• Rehabilitation – help clients with mental
retardation, developmental disabilities, and
disabilities resulting from stroke or accidents
adapt to their situations
• School – assess and counsel students, consult
with educators and parents, and perform
behavioral intervention when necessary
School Psychologist
Careers / Subfields
• Social – focus on how a person’s mental life
and behavior is shaped by interactions with
other people
• Sports – help athletes refine their focus on
competition goals, increase motivation, and
deal with anxiety and fear of failure
Sports Psychology