Download History of Psychology

History and Approaches to
Psychology
Ms. Kassandra Tsitsopoulos
A.P. Psychology
↓Root Words↓
Psyche: the soul
Ology: the study of
What is psychology?
The scientific study of
behavior & mental processes
•Science: making verifiable,
objective predictions
•Behavior: observable acts
•Mental Processes: storing,
recalling, using info/feelings
Frequently Asked Questions
• How is it different from other social
sciences?
–Focus on individual behavior
• Where did it come from?
–Philosophy (study of knowledge)
–Physiology (study of biological functions)
• Psychology is born (around) 1879
What psychology is NOT!
1. it’s not reading
your mind (no jedi
mind tricks here!)
2. You won’t learn
how to control
someone’s mind
either!
3. Ms. Tsitsopoulos is
NOT a therapist! Or a
psychologist! Or a
psychiatrist!
Historical Origins of Psychology
• Rene Descartes
• True knowledge comes through reasoning
• Heredity provides individuals with inborn
knowledge and abilities and we use this
to reason (we are born knowing stuff)
– We are to doubt everything – that’s the only
way we can be certain about anything
– I think, therefore I am (because we think,
we exist)
Historical Origins of Psychology
• John Locke
–Saw the mind as receptive and passive,
with its main goal as sensing and
perceiving
–Tabula rasa – we are born as a blank
slate, everything we know is learned
(today many psychologists disagree!!)
–This is in direct contrast to the
rationalist Descartes
The Father of Psychology
• Wilhelm Wundt
Opened 1st
Psychology lab (1879)
at the University of
Leipzig, Germany
 psychology
students from around
the world came to
study
The Father of Psychology
• Wilhelm Wundt
– 1st Psychology lab (1879)
–Focus on consciousness
• Find basic elements of conscious
processes
• Discover sensations and feelings are
connected
–Introspection
• Self-observation: ‘seeing’ mental
processes in immediate experience
The First Schools of Psychology
• Structuralism
– Lots of work on sensation & perception and breaking
those down into minute detail
– Three basic mental elements
• Images, feelings & sensations
– Edward Bradford Titchner (Wundt’s student)
1. Introduced introspection (looking inward)
- what were people’s immediate sensations, images,
and feelings when they did something
2. Wanted to understand the structural elements of
the mind
The First Schools of Psychology
• Functionalism
– How do we adapt?
• Applying Darwin’s theory of natural selection to mental
processes (what was the purpose of thinking?)
– William James (Father of American Psychology)
• Consciousness is personal/selective, continuous
(can’t be ‘cut up’ for analysis), and constantly changing
– Structuralism was foolish to search for common
elements to all minds
– The nose is structured to smell, but why do we need
The nose to smell?? What’s its function?
The Salt Metaphor
• Functionalism
• Structuralism
•
-
• Edward Bradford
Titchener
-it’s component parts
- Made out of sodium and
cholorine
William James
Uses
Preserve food
Makes food taste
better
Other Early Schools of Psychology
• Gestalt psychology
–Wholes vs. multiple individual elements
• You shouldn’t dissect an experience
into separate elements to discover
truths – instead, look at the ‘whole’
–Max Wertheimer
• Phi phenomenon
Autumn by Giuseppe Arcimboldo (1573)
How does this painting illustrate
Gestalt Psychology??
Mary Whiton Calkins
• Student of William James at
Harvard
• Her male classmates refused
to stay in any classes with her
and walked out!
• Harvard refused to give her a
degree when she was done!
• Became first female president
of the A.P.A in 1905
Margaret Floy Washburn
• First woman to
gain a Ph.D. in
psychology
• Studied animal
behavior
• President of the
A.P.A in 1921
Psychological Associations & Societies
The American Psychological Association (APA) was
founded in 1892 and is the largest organization of
psychology with 160,000 members world-wide, followed
by the British Psychological Society with 34,000 members.
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Psychology’s Subfields: Research
Other 11.5%
Experimental
14.1%
Biological
9.9%
Developmental
24.6%
Psychometrics
5.5%
Cognitive
8.0%
Social 21.6%
Personality
4.8%
Data: APA 1997
18
Psychology’s Subfields: Applied
Industrial
6%
Educational
9%
Other
3%
Counseling
15%
Clinical
67%
Data: APA 1997
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Psychology’s Subfields: Applied
Psychologist
Clinical
What she does
Studies, assesses, and treats people with
psychological disorders
Counseling
Helps people cope with academic,
vocational, and marital challenges.
Educational
Studies and helps individuals in school
and educational settings
Industrial/
Organizational
Studies and advises on behavior in the
workplace.
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Where do Psychologists work?
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
36% -Academic Institutions
22% - Clinical Settings (Private Practice)
17% - Hospitals and Clinics
12% - Business and Government
6% - Counseling and Guidance Centers
5% - School Systems
1% - Other
Clinical Psychology vs. Psychiatry
A clinical psychologist (Ph.D.) studies,
assesses, and treats troubled people with
therapy. (day to day issues)
Psychiatrists on the other hand are
medical professionals (M.D.) who use
treatments like drugs and therapy to treat
psychologically diseased patients. (severe
issues)
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Nature v. Nurture
• NATURE
• NURTURE
• we are born the
way we are
• Genetics and
hormones explain
behavior
• Biology
• we are raised a
certain way
• Environmental
factors explain
behavior
• Experience
Nature v. Nurture
Am I the way I am because I was
born that way or because of
my surroundings?
Can I ever be like
these people, or
does nature give me
limitations?
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Austrian physician, and his followers emphasized
the importance of the unconscious mind and its
effects on human behavior.
‘Modern’ Schools of Psychology
• Freud’s Psychodynamic (Psychoanalytic) Theory
– Conscious vs. unconscious conflicts
• Unconscious: motivations and memories of
which we are not aware especially sexual
drives from childhood
• Mental illness arises from being
overwhelmed by which of these is ‘in
control’
– Psychoanalysis as therapy:
tell me about your childhood….
Personality Theory
• Id: (devil) I want it now! Impulses desires
• Superego: (angel) represented your
morals and how society expected you to
behave
• Ego: (you!) caught in the middle, tries to
balance the needs of both the Id and the
Superego
Freud’s Methods
• FREE ASSOCIATION: a patient said everything
that came to mind without attempting to
produce logical or meaningful statements
• DREAM ANALYSIS: a patient would share the
content of their dreams, with the
understanding that dreams are messages from
the unconscious
• CASE STUDY: intense observations of one or
two patients at a time
Other Beliefs of Freud
• Oedipus Complex: Son resents father, loves mother
• Electra Complex: Daughter resents mother, loves father
• Freudian Slip: a mistake in speech that occurs due to the
interference of some unconscious wish, conflict, or train
of thought.
• Penis Envy: women secretly want to be men
• Sex and Mothers: everything is sexual, all problems can
be traced to childhood and is the fault of the mother
Reactions to Freud
• Many supporters followed him! Later they revised
his theory and are called “Neo-Freudians”
• Many hated him!! Spent their whole lives
discrediting him!
• Very controversial in the early 1900s especially his
views about sex
• Not very scientific, couldn’t prove that the
unconscious existed, wasn’t observable!
Free Association Activity
1. Time
2. Death
3. Red
4. Mother
5. Fear
6. Home
7. School
8. Friend
9. Love
10. Hate
Behaviorism
• ALL behavior is LEARNED
behavior!
• Focuses on our OBSERVABLE
behaviors.
• Psychology should be scientific!
Behavioral Perspective
• Focuses on our
OBSERVABLE
behaviors.
• Only cares about
the behaviors that
get in the way of
our living, and
attempts to change
them.
If you bit your fingernails
when you were nervous, a
behaviorist would not focus on
calming you down, but rather
focus on how to stop you from
biting your nails.
Behaviorism
• Pioneered by Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
• famous experiment where he rang a bell every time
he fed some dogs, the dogs would salivate with the
food. Eventually the dogs began salivating when
Pavlov rang the bell
• the dogs had been conditioned (trained/taught) to
associate the sound with the food
• CLASSICAL CONDITIONING = behavior as the
product of prior experience
Ivan Pavlov
(1849-1936)
Stimulus: something that causes you to react
Unconditioned = unlearned, natural
Conditioned = learned, trained, taught
Pavlov’s Experiment:
• Unconditioned Stimulus  Food
• Unconditioned Response  Salivation due
to food
• Conditioned Stimulus  Bell
• Conditioned Response  Salivation due to
the bell
John B. Watson (1878-1958)
• First to use the term
‘behaviorism’
• Famous experiment
with Little Albert
• Emotions like fear
could be
conditioned
Little Albert Experiment – 1920
John Watson and Rosalie Rayner
• A loud sound was paired
with fluffy objects/animals
• The loud noise would
startle Albert and make
him cry
• Soon, just the fluffy
objects/animals caused
crying
• Proving FEAR could be
LEARNED!
• Raised ethical issues!
B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Huge influence on
behaviorism
• Introduced the idea of
REINFORCEMENT, and
Operant Conditioning
• Famous experiments
with rats and pigeons
Skinner’s Legacy
Skinner argued that behaviors were shaped
by external influences instead of inner
thoughts and feelings.
Critics argued that Skinner dehumanized
people by neglecting their free will.
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Cognitive Perspective
• Cognitive = Thinking
• Focus on how we process, store, and use
information and how this information
influences our thinking, language, problem
solving, and creativity
• Behavior is influenced by a variety of mental
processes including perceptions, memories,
and expectations
• Jean Piaget (child psychologist)
Cognitive Perspective
• How do we see the
world?
• How did we learn to
act to sad or happy
events?
• Cognitive Therapist
attempt to change
the way you think.
Meet girl
Or get back on the
horse
Get Rejected
by girl
Did you learn to
be depressed
Humanistic Psychology
• Human nature is always evolving and selfdirected
• The environment and other outside forces
simply serve as a background to our own
internal growth
• Individual or self-directed choices influence our
behavior
• Reaching our full potential  SELF
ACTUALIZATION
• Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow “Hierarchy of
Needs”
Humanistic Perspective
• Focuses on positive growth
• Attempt to seek self-actualization
• Therapists use active listening and
unconditional positive regard.
 Mr. Rogers would
have made a great
Humanistic
Therapist!!!
Biological Perspective
• Focuses on the impact of biology on
our behavior
• Study how the brain, the nervous
system, hormones, and genetics
influence our behavior
• Usually referred to as
psychobiologists
Neuroscience/Biological Perspective
• Focus on how the physical body and
brain creates our emotions, memories
and sensory experiences.
If you could not remember the
names of your parents and went
to a psychologist who adheres to
the neuroscience perspective,
what might they say?
Socio-cultural Perspective
• Studying the influence of
cultural and ethnic similarities
and differences on behavior
and social functioning
Social-Cultural Perspective
Even in the
same high
school,
behaviors can
change in
accordance to
the various
subcultures.
Evolutionary Psychology
• Charles Darwin
• All behavior stems from survival of
the fittest
• Instinctual behavior
Evolutionary Perspective
• We behave the way we
do because we
inherited those
behaviors.
• Thus, those behaviors
must have helped
ensure our ancestors
survival.
• Mother nature
practicing selective
breeding
How could this behavior
ensured Homer’s
ancestors survival?
Existential Psychology
• Why are we here? Why do we exist?
• All humans are essentially alone
• We have to come to grips with death
because that’s what makes life worth living!