Unit 1 - Psychology's History and Approaches

Pages 1 - 71

unit questions:

1. to what extent do genes dictate our person-toperson differences in personality? to what extent do home and community environments shape us?
2. in what ways are we alike as members of the human family? how do we differ?
3. how often, and why, do we dream?
4. what do babies actually perceive and think?
5. are some people just born smarter? does sheer intelligence explain why some get richer, are more creative, or are more sensitive?
6. what triggers our bad and good moods? where is the line between a normal mood swing and a psychological disorder?
7. how do today’s electronic media influence how we think and how we relate?

Psychology’s History

Psychology’s Roots

Prescientific Psychology

• we have been asking questions about how our minds work all through human history

  Socrates and Plato concluded the mind is seperable from body and continues after the body dies and knowledge is innate

• Aristotle used data and principles from careful observations, saying knowledge grows from experiences and is not innate

• Rene Descartes agreed with Socrates and Plato that the mind is entirely distinct from body. He concluded that the fluid in the brain’s cavities contained “animal spirits” that flowed from the brains through nerves to muscles to make movement, and memories formed as experiences opened pores in the brain where the spirits flowed

  • He was right in that nerve paths are important and enable reflexes but not the animal spirits lmao

• Francis Bacon anticipated our mind’s hunger to perceive patterns in random events and foresaw that we notice and remember events that confirm our beliefs (confirmation bias)

• John Locke wrote an essay (An Essay Concerning Human Undersatnding) where he argued the mind at birth is a tabula rasa (blank slate) that experience writes

  • helped form modern empiricism - the view knowledge originates in experience and observation and experimentation enable scientific knowledge
  • empiricism does not talk about the influence genetics have on our behaviour

Psychological Science is Born

• William Wundt was trying to measure the fastest and simplest mental processes - “atoms of the mind”
• Wundt established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany
  • an experiment they conducted was measuring the reaction time between hearing a sound and seeing the action that caused the sound
• science of psychology became organized into different schools of thought: structuralism, functionalism, behaviourism and then Gestalt psychology and psychoanalysis

Thinking About the Mind’s Structure

• Edward Titchener introduced structuralism which uses introspection to reveal the structure of the human mind
• drawbacks were that it required smart, verbal peoople and proved unreliable as results varied from person to person and experience to experience + recent studies show people’s memories and self-reports frequently err
• because of this, structuralism waned

Thinking About the Mind’s Functions

• William James was under the influence of evolutionary theorist Charles Darwin and assumed thinking developed because it contributed to our ancestor’s survival (it was adaptive)
• as a functionalist he explored how mental and behavioural processes function (how they enable humans to adapt, survive and flourish)

female history:

• Mary Whiton Calkins was tutored by James (women werent allowed into Harvard) and Harvard denied her a degree from there and tried to give her a degree from the undergrad sister school for women Radcliffe College but she refused the unequal treatment. Psychology students lobbied Harvard to posthumously award Calkins the PhD she earned
  • she became a memory researchers the APA’s first female president, but she was not given the title of first female psychology PhD as Margaret Washburn got that and later wrote the book The Animal Mind and became the second female APA President
• Washburn was not allowed to join the organization of experimental psychologists because she was a woman even tho it was founded by her graduate advisor Titchener
  • experimental psychologists study behviour and thinking using the experimental method

Psychological Science Develops

• Until the 1920s, psychology was defined as “science of mental life”
• John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner dismissed introspection and redefined psychology as “the scientific study of observable behaviour”
  • they were behaviourists (behaviourism is the view that psychology (1) should be an objective science (2) that studies behaviour without reference to mental processes. Most agree with (1) but not (2) today)
  • they suggested our behaivour is influenced by associations through conditioning
• Freudian psychology was also a “major force”. It emphasized the ways our unconscious thought processes and emotional responses to childhood experiences affect our behaviour
• Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow were humanistic psychologists and they focused on emphasizing the growth potential of healthy people (how envronmental influences can nurture/limit our growth potential + importance of having our needs for love and acceptance met)
• cognitive psychology explores the ways we percieve, process, and remember information & cognitive neuroscience is an interdiscliplinary study of brain activity linked with perception, thinking, memory and language (cognition)
• today we define psychology as the science of behaviour and mental processes
  • behaviour is anything an organism does
  • mental processes are the intenral, subjective experiences we infer from behaviour

Psychology’s Big Issues and Approaches

Psychology’s Biggest Question

• nature-nurture issue (the controversy over the contributions genes and experience mkae to development of psychological traits and behaviours. today we see traits and behaviours coming from the interaction of nature and nurture)
• Plato said we have character and intelligence as we’re born and some knowledge is innate
• Aristotle said there is nothing in the mind that doesn’t come from the external world through the senses
• Locke rejected the notion of inborn ideas, suggesting the mind is a blank slate experience writes on
• Descartes disagreed and believed some ideas are innate
• Charles Darwin proposed the process of natural selection (survival of the fittest)
  • this explained animal structures (polar bears) and behaviours (expressions associated with lust and rage as in this example, facial expressions that are clear express ur intent to reproduce or fend off enemies so you can survive)
  • essentially this theory explained how nature and nurture are influential from an evolutionary standpoint???

Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis

• levels of analysis are the differing & complementary views (biological to psychological to social-cultural) for analyzing any given phenomenon
  • these levels of analysis form an integrated biopsychosocial approach that considers the influences of biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors
  • ex. yk in the case study with the woman who murdered her 5 children, we talk about her postpartum depression, and her unsupportive husband and family members all contributing to her attack
  • and in the mad hatter example, there was the mercury he inhaled which must have caused so much brain damage
  • basically these levels combine all of the influences to find the “why” of any behaviour/mental process
• TEXTBOOK EXAMPLE: VIEWS OF ANGER

• all of these views are important but each by itself does not reveal the whole picture

Psychology’s Subfields

• psychometrics is the branch of psychology devoted to studying teh masurement of our abilities, attitudes and traits

some psychologists conduct basic research which is pure science to increase what we know

• biological psychologists explore the links between brain and mind
• developmental psychologists study physical, cognitive, and social change from womb to tomb
• cognitive psychologists experiement with how we perceieve, think and solve problems
• educational psychologists study influences on teaching and learning
• personality psychologists investigate our persistent traits (individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking, feeling, acting)
• social psychologists explore how we view and affect one another
• applied research tackles practical problems
• I/O psychologistsuse concepts and methods in worksplace to help organizations and companies select and train employees, boost morale and productivity, design products, and implement systems
• human factors psychologists focus on interaction of people, machine and physical environments
• counseling psychologists help people cope with challenges and crises to improve personal and social functioning
• clinical psychologists assess and treat mental, emotional, and behaviour disorders. they also interpret tests, provide therapy and couseling and conduct basic and applied research
• psychiatrists provide psychotherapy (if they want) and prescribe drugs
• positive psychology explores positive emotions and asks if psych can contribute to a life that engages one’s skill and points beyond oneself
• community psychologists work to create social and physical environments that are healthy for all
  • ex. seeking to change bulliest, helping kids cope from transition from elementary to middle school, adapting school experience to early adolescent needs, preventing bullying by studying how the school and neighbourhood foster it
• psychology influences modern culture, but it cannot answer the ultimate questions about purpose and life

Careers in Psychology

Basic Research Subfields

• cognitive psychologists study thought processes and focus on topics like perception, language, attention, problem solving, memory, judgement and deicison making
• developmental psychologists conduct research on age-related beahvioural changes and apply knoweldge to education, childcare, policy and related settings
• education psychologists focus on the psychological processes involved in learning
• experimental psychologists investigate a variety of basic behavioural processes in humans and other animals
• psychometric and quantitative psychologists study the methods and techniques used to acquire psychological knowledge
• social psychologists talk about our intereactions with others and how our beleifs, feelings nad bheaviours are affected by and influence others

Applied Research Subfields

• forensic psychologists apply psychological principles to legal issues and conduct research on law and psychology, create public policies related to mental health and etc
• health psychologists are researchers who focus on psychology’s contribution to promoting health and preventing disease
• I/O psychologists study the relationship between people adn working environments
  • develop new ways to increase productivity adn promote job satisfactions
• neuropsychologists investigate the relationship between neurological processes and behaviour
  • assess diagnose or treat central nervous system disorders
• rehabilitation psychologists work with people who have lost optimal functioning after an accident, illness or other event
• school psychologists are involved in the assessment of and intervention for children in educational settings
• sport psychologists study the psychological factors that influence and are influenced by participation in sports and other physical activities

The Helping Professions

• clinical psychologists promote psychological health in individuals, groups, and organizations
• community psychologists move beyond focusing on specific individuals or families and deal with broad problems
• conseling psychologists help people adjust to life transitions or make lifestyle changes

\