Chapter 1: History and Approaches

Wilhelm Wundt

set up the first psychological laboratory in an apartment near the university at Leipzig, Germany.

structuralism

the idea that the mind operates by combining subjective emotions and objective sensations

William James

examined how these structures Wundt identified function in our lives (James’s theory is called functionalism)

Mary Whiton Calkins

who studied with William James and went on to become president of the American Psychological Association.

Margaret Floy Washburn

was the first woman to earn a PhD in psychology.

G. Stanley Hall

pioneered the study of child development and was the first president of the American Psychological Association.

Gestalt Psychology

tried to examine a person’s total experience because the way we experience the world is more than just an accumulation of various perceptual experiences.

Sigmund Freud

believed that this hidden part of ourselves builds up over the years through repression

unconscious mind

a part of our mind over which we do not have conscious control that determines, in part, how we think and behave.

repression

the pushing down into the unconscious events and feelings that cause so much anxiety and tension that our conscious mind cannot deal with them.

John B. Watson

along with others wanted to establish behaviorism as the dominant paradigm of psychology.

B. F. Skinner

expanded the basic ideas of behaviorism to include the idea of reinforcement

reinforcement

environmental stimuli that either encourage or discourage certain responses

Multiple Perspective

Many psychologists describe themselves as eclectic—drawing from multiple perspectives.

Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers

believe that we choose most of our behaviors and these choices are guided by physiological, emotional, or spiritual needs.

unconscious mind

a part of our mind that we do not have conscious control over or access to—controls much of our thought and action.

Biopsychologists

explain human thought and behavior strictly in terms of biological processes.

Evolutionary psychologists

(also sometimes called sociobiologists) examine human thoughts and actions in terms of natural selection.

Behaviorists

explain human thought and behavior in terms of conditioning.

Cognitive psychologists

examine human thought and behavior in terms of how we interpret, process, and remember environmental events.

Social-cultural psychologists

look at how our thoughts and behaviors vary between cultures.