Chapter 1: History and Approaches - Key Terms and People

Barrons

Introspection

Introspection

The process of examining one's own conscious mental experiences (thoughts, feelings and emotions)

Structuralism

Mind operates by combining subjective emotions and objective sensations (relies on introspection)

Functionalism

Emphasizes functions of consciousness and how it helps people adapt to their environment

Psychoanalytic Theory

Past experiences and unconcious desires influence behavior (Sigmund Freud)

Behaviorism

Idea that behaviors are learned through interaction with the environment

Humanist Perspective

Evaluating a individual as a whole, rather than a small part of the individual.

Psychoanalytic Perspective

7 different perspectives that psychologists used to look at human thought and behavior.

Biopsychology (or Neuroscience) Perspective

Explain human thought/behavior through biological processes, human cognition and reactions.

Evolutionary (or Darwinian) Perspective

Explain human thought/behavior in terms of natural selection

Behavioral Perspective

Explain human thought/behavior through conditioning/environmental conditions.

Cognitive Perpective

Explain human thought/behavior in how we interepret, process and remember environmental events.

Social-Cultural (or sociocultural) Perspective

Explain human thought/behavior through how it varies with others from different cultures or social interaction.

Wilhelm Wundt

• First psychology laboratory in Germany, 1879

• introspection and structuralism

William James

• published The Principles of Psychology (science’s first textbook)

• functionalism

Mary Whiton Calkins

Studied with William James and became the first female president of the APA (American Psychological Association)

Margaret Floy Washburn

First woman to earn a PhD in psychology

G. Stanley Hall

• Student of William James

• pioneered the study of child development

• First president overall of APA (American Psychological Association)

Max Wertheimer

• Gestalt Psychologist (examines a persons whole experience than just various experiences)

• Argued against the division of human thought and behavior

• Whole > Sum Parts

Sigmund Freud

• Psychoanalytic Psychologist (believes the unconscious mind determines how we think and behave)

• Criticized for being unscientific

• Belief in Childhood Experience

John B Watson

• Behavioral Psychologist (look at behavior caused by stimuli (environmental events) and responses (physical reactions)

• Studied experiments of Ivan Pavlov

  • Limited psychology to an observable phenomenon, not unobservable

    • ex. unconscious mind

Ivan Pavlov

• known for discovery of classical condioning through his experiment with dogs

B.F. Skinner

• Behavioral psychologist (look at behavior caused by stimuli (environmental events) and responses (physical reactions))

• expanded behaviorism to reinforcement (environmental stimuli can encourage and discourage responses)

Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

• Humanist Psychologists (belief that choices are guided by physiological, emotional or spiritual needs)

Charles Darwin

• evolutionary perspective (natural selection)

• explains persons tendency to be extroverted as a survival advanatage

Jean Piaget

• cognitive developmental theory (how our cognitions develop in stages as one matures)