1.1 Introduction to Psychology-Notes&Flashcards

Pre-scientific psychology

?How are ideas formed?

• Hebrews, Aristotle, and Augustine believed mind and body are connected \n - Aristotle and John Locke say that minds are a “blank slate” and we are completely impersonal by the world.
• Socrates, Pluto, and desecrates believed mind and body are distinct

-Socrates and Plateau say ideas are inborn, we innately have ideas

Dorothea Dix

• The first advocate for those suffering with mental illness
• Insisting they get help and not torture.
• Created the first mental asylum during Civil War because people with mental illness were classified as crazy

Structuralism

• ==William Wundt (father psychology)==
• -established the first Laboratory in Germany in 1879
• The goal of Wundt and structuralism was to study how the mind was organized and related to one another, and to study consciousness. He used introspection: mindset

Functionalism

• ==William James (first American psychologist)==
• - He was interested in how consciousness help people adapt to their environment. \n -He thought Wundt’s theories were incorrect. \n -He wanted to look at thought through questions not just self-reported thinking.

Gestalt psychology

• was founded to revolt against against Wundt’s ideas
• Max wertheimer is the founder of Gestalt psychology \n -he believed conciousness was best understood by looking at the whole experience, rather than just looking at the parts.

"the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”

Psychoanalysis (psychodynamic)

• ==Sigmund Freud- first psychoanalysis/first to focus on abnormal behavior.==
• He believed that behavior and mental processes were directed by unconscious forces. \n -Problems arise from unsolved conflict and the unconscious mind.
• He used free association and dream analysis to look into the unconscious mind.
• His ideas still are controversial and yet to have had a great influence on psychology.

Behaviorism

• Very popular from the 1920’s to 1960’s.
• The theories of behaviorism disagreed with others in the psychology field
• Believed that psychology should only study what could be observed/measured (J. B. Watson) \n -insisted that's solely external factors shape behaviors.( B. F. Skinner)
• thoughts and hidden parts of the mind aren't relevant because we are a "Blank Slate" in their opinion

Contemporary Psychology

Psychology today-the scientific study of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (enter thoughts). controversy over nature (DNA) v. S. Nature (how we were raised).