Chapter 1 - Psychology History

basic definition of psychology, famous fields and psychologists

psychology

the scientific study of behavior (observable actions) and mental processes (internal states inferred from behavior, unobservable) which spans many levels of analysis, from biological and social

5 factors that make study of psychology challenging

• human behavior is difficult to predict

• influences are rarely independent of each other

• there are individual differences among people

• people influence one another

• behavior is shaped by culture

structuralism

• wundt and eb titchner

• identify most basic elements of psych experience

• consciousness as the sum total of mental experience at any moment

• used introspection to study senses and perceptions “look inward” and report your subjective experience

• difficult to test however

functionalism

• william james and charles darwin

• understand the adaptive purposes of psychological characteristic such as thoughts, feelings, and behavior (evolutionary/enviormental psych)

• stream of conciousnes not a collection of basic elements

• bridge between structuralism and behaviorism

• difficult to test however

behaviorism

• watson and skinner

• uncover the general principals of learning that explains all behaviors

• mind can’t be measured objectively, only whats observable 

• little albert experiment 

cognitivism

• piaget and niesser

• focuses on the mental processes involved in different aspects of thinking/behavior

• influential in language, problem solving, concept formation, intelligence, memory and psychotherapy

psychoanalysis

• freud and jung

• internal psychological processes from early life experiences which we’re unaware of 

• understanding that much of our mental processing goes on outside of concious awareness