PSYCH 105 - History of Psychology

lectures from Dr. Arturo Perez

What is psychology?

the scientific study of mind and behaviour

What are mind and behaviour?

Mind - private events that happen inside a person, not seen by others

Body - public events (things said and done), potentially observed by others

What is an issue with the historical roots of psyhology?

Many accomplishments are attributed to white men, opportunities for women and POC were limited, and credit for their contributions were given to other white men

What are Dualism and Materialism?

Dualism - mind and body are fundamentally separate and different things

Materialism - all mental phenomena are reducible to physical phenomena

Who was Rene Descartes?

• 1596-1650

• philosopher who argued for dualism

• believed physical body was a container for nonphysical thing called the mind

Who was Thomas Hobbes?

• 1588-1679

• philosopher who argued for philosophical materialism (against Descartes)

• argued the mind is what the brain does

What are Realism and Idealism?

Realism - perception of the physical world produced entirely by sensory organ information

Idealism - perceptions of the physical world are brain’s best interpretation of the information that enters through our sensory apparatus

• extreme idealism suggests that we could separate a brain from the body, put it in a jar, stimulate it and achieve same result

Who was John Locke?

• 1632-1704

• English philosopher that argued there is a real world

• suggested perceptions of the world are like photographs - absolutely and exactly correct

Who was Immanuel Kant?

• 1724-1804

• suggested Locke’s theory (realism) was too simplistic

• theorized beings must be born with some basic knowledge of the world that allows them to acquire additional knowledge of the world

What are Empiricism and Nativism?

Empiricism - all knowledge is acquired through experience

Nativism - some knowledge is innate rather than acquired

What is the modern view in terms of empiricism/nativism?

Most modern psychologists embrace some version of nativism, research suggests that at least some of what we know is hardwired into our brains

What is presentism?

Uncritical adherence to present-day attitudes; celebrating attitudes and statements that go squarely against what we believe in now

• Eg. embracing Kant’s philosophies//contributions knowing he had sexist/racist views

Who was Hermann Helmholtz?

• 1821-1894

• studied human reaction time (time between onset of stimulus and response)

• estimated length of nerve impulse

What is Structuralism?

Approach that attempted to isolate and analyze mind’s basic elements

• did not last

Who was Wilhelm Wundt?

• 1832-1920

• opened first psychological laboratory at University of Leipzig

• believed psychology’s primary goal should be the understand

• taught world’s first psychology course and published world’s first psychology textbook

  • advisor to 184 PhD students

Who was Edward Titchener?

• 1867-1927

• pioneered introspection (systematic self-observation)

• analysis of subjective experience by trained observers; basic dimensions of sensation

  • studied under Wundt; focused on identifying basic elements of the mind

What is functionalism?

Approach that emphasized the adaptive significance of mental processes

• inspired by Darwin and natural selection

Who was William James?

• 1842-1910

• predicted late 1800s would be the era where psychology became a science, and wanted to live long enough to meet the structuralists

• developed functionalist approach with other psychologists (John Dewey, James Angell, etc.)

  • inspired by Darwin and natural selection

Who was Charles Darwin?

• 1809-1882

• Natural selection - process by which specific attributes that promote an organism’s survival are reproduction become more prevalent in the population over time

What is hysteria?

Loss of function (Eg. vision or limb function) that has no obvious physical origin

• influenced Freud

• misogynistic term → comes from word for womb

Who was Jean-Martin Charcot?

• 1825-1893

• studied hysteric patients through hypnosis with Pierre Janet

Who was Pierre Janet?

• 1859-1947

• studied hysteric patients through hypnosis with jean-Martin Charcot

Who was Sigmund Freud?

• 1856-1939

• believed hysteria was caused by painful unconscious experiences

• pioneered psychoanalysis and psychoanalytic theory (experimental psychologists didn’t care much for this)

• suggested existence of an unconscious - psychological processes that are inaccessible to us take place here

• considered one of the most influential thinkers of the 20th century

Who was Carl Jung?

• 1875-1961

• part of Freud’s psychoanalytic movement

Who was Alfred Adler?

• 1870-1937

• part of Freud’s psychoanalytic movement

What is behaviourism?

The approach to psychology that restricts scientific inquiry to observable behaviour

Who was Ivan Pavlov?

• 1849-1936

• studied physiology of digestion

• founded classical conditioning

What is classical conditioning?

Using a stimulus (object or event that elicits a response) to program a response (action or physiological change elicited) to an unrelated stimulus

Who was John B. Watson?

• 1878-1958

• influenced by Pavlov

• goal to predict and control behaviour through studying observable behaviour

• argued behaviourism should be study of relationship between stimulus and response