Human History Psychology Notes

Human History Psychology

Definition of Psychology

• Psychology is the scientific study of the human mind and its function, especially those affecting behavior in a given context.
  • Source: Oxford English Dictionary
• Human mind: Internal, subjective experience inferred from behavior
• Behavior: Any action that can be observed or recorded
• Main Question: Why are we the way we are?

Early Philosophy of the Mind

Plato

• Believed the brain was the seat of mental processes.
• Proposed that certain traits and ideas are innate (Nature).

Aristotle

• Believed that knowledge originates from sensory experiences (Nurture).

Emerging Schools of Thought

Structuralism

• Wilhelm Wundt (1879) - Leipzig, Germany
  • Focused on the structure of the mind.
  • Example: Studied how people perceive information and respond (e.g., pressing a telegraph key).
  • Findings:
    • Response to sound occurred within 1/10 of a second.
    • Awareness of awareness took longer.
  • Aimed to discover structural elements of the mind.
  • Employed introspection (looking inward) to train people to report elements of their experience while observing a rose, listening to a metronome, smelling a scent, or tasting a substance.

Functionalism

• William James
  • Focused on the evolved functions of thoughts and feelings.
  • Influenced by Charles Darwin.
  • Assumed thinking and smelling developed as adaptive mechanisms contributing to survival.
  • Consciousness helps us to know and remember our past, consider our circumstances, so we can plan for the future

Psychoanalysis

• Sigmund Freud
  • Father of psychoanalysis.
  • Emphasized the impact of unconscious thought processes and emotional responses to childhood experiences on behavior.
  • Methods: Introspection, free association, dream interpretation.
  • Motivations conscious by talk therapy
  • Treated women who suffered from “hysteria”, women with depression (WWI veterans)
  • Created a new space for scientist to explore → Modern technologies “Cognitive unconscious”
  • Influences our behaviors
  • Sparked revolution in psychology and terminology.
  • Fascinated by sleep

Behaviorism

• Ivan Pavlov
  • Classical conditioning (studied with dogs).
    • Dogs learned to expect food when they heard the bell
    • Unconditioned response - salivation
    • Conditioned stimulus - food
• John B. Watson
  • Classical conditioning; along with B. F. Skinner, he dismissed introspection.
  • Defined psychology as "the scientific study of observable behavior" without reference to mental processes.
  • Watson and Rayner conducted the "Little Albert" experiments (ethically questionable).
• B. F. Skinner
  • Operant conditioning.
  • Explains how consequences lead to changes in voluntary behavior.

Operant Learning (Instrumental)

• Reinforcement and punishment.
  • Negative: removal of something
  • Positive: response makes you more likely to repeat the behavior (hug after doing dishes).

Humanistic Psychology

• Emerged in the 1950s, rebelling against Freudian psychology and behaviorism.
• Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
  • Argued that behaviorism was too focused on learned behaviors (too mechanistic).
  • Emphasized the importance of environmental influences on our potential and having our needs for love and acceptance satisfied.

Cognitive Psychology

• Cognitive Revolution (1960s): A return to interest in mental processes.
• Cognitive psychology:
  • Uses self-report and behavioral experimentation, philosophy, and math to scientifically explore how information is perceived, processed, and remembered.
• Cognitive neuroscience:
  • Combines the science of the mind with the science of the brain, focusing on brain activity underlying mental activity.

Nature vs. Nurture

• Nature: To what extent are our traits already set in place at birth?
• Nurture: To what extent do our traits develop in response to our environment and experiences?
• Both nature and nurture play significant roles; nature often shows a bigger influence.
• Examples:
  • Documentary: 7 children, no history of mental illness, 3 out of these children become psychopaths
  • One started showing issues at 14 and other at 25

Historical Perspectives

• Nature
  • Plato: Character and intelligence are inherited; some ideas are inborn.
  • Descartes: Some ideas are innate.
  • Darwin: Some traits, behaviors, and instincts are part of the species; natural selection.
• Nurture
  • Aristotle: Content of the mind comes through senses.
  • Locke: Tabula Rasa = Blank slate.

Contemporary Questions

• How are humans alike (biology, evolutionary history) and diverse (different environments)?
• Are gender differences biologically predisposed or socially constructed?
• Is children’s grammar mostly innate or formed by experience?
• How are differences in intelligence and personality influenced by heredity and by environment?

Contemporary Psychology

Cross-Cultural and Gender Psychology

• WEIRD (Western, Educated, Industrialized, Rich, and Democratic) cultures.
• Shared biological heritage contributes to underlying universal processes.
• Socially defined gender and biologically defined sex contribute to a deeper understanding of similarities and differences within and across cultures.

Positive Psychology

• Martin Seligman and others explored human flourishing.
• Used scientific methods to investigate building a good life (engaging a person’s skills) and a meaningful life.
• Psychology needed guidance on the good life;
• Asks the question, what is the life we want over not being miserable and how do we build it.
• Optimistic people live between 6-8 years longer than pessimistic people.
• 10-20 exercises that reliably increase happiness over and above placebo

Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis

• Levels of analysis for behavior or mental processes.

Psychology’s Current Perspectives

Psychology’s Main Subfields

Basic Research

• "Pure" science focused on increasing general knowledge.
  • Biological psychologists: How biological processes influence mind and behavior
  • Developmental psychologists: Growth and development over the lifespan
  • Cognitive psychologist: Thought processes, including: attention, memory, decision-making, and problem-solving
  • Personality psychologists: Understand major psychological patterns and how those patterns are expressed in an individual's life
  • Social psychologists: Group behavior, social influences on individual behavior, conformity, and related topics

Applied Research

• Scientific study focused on generating practical solutions.
  • Industrial-organizational psychologists: Applies psychological research to enhance work performance
  • Counseling psychologist: a branch of psychology that assists people with problems in living (often related to school, work, marriage) and in achieving greater well-being
  • Clinical psychologists: Study, assessment, treatment, and diagnosis of mental illness and psychological disorder
  • Psychiatrists: Branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical treatments as well as psychological therapy
  • Community psychologist: How individuals relate to their communities and the reciprocal effect of communities on individuals
  • Forensic Psychology: applies psychological research in the legal and criminal justice system
  • How to tell?
    • Is it contributing to basic scientific knowledge or is it trying to solve a practical problem?

Degrees and Focus

• Counseling psychologists (5 years):
  • Help cope with challenges and crises to improve personal and social functioning
• Clinical psychologists (6 years):
  • Assist, treat mental, emotional, and behavior disorders
• Psychiatrist (7-8 years)

Perspectives and Key Areas

Timeline of Schools of Thought

Historical Context Leading to Psychology

Early Philosophical Roots

• Ancient Philosophers: Plato (Knowledge is Innate) & Aristotle (emphasized empirical observation; considered mind as a blank state).
• Mind-Body Debate:
  • Dualism (Descartes): Emphasized mind and body as separate entities wherein the mind influences the body through the Pineal Gland.
  • Monism: Regarded mind and body as aspects of the same reality.
• Empiricism (John Locke): Stated that knowledge comes from sensory experiences and emphasized observation and experimentation.

Scientific Psychology

• Influences the physiology via the studies of the nervous system and sensory organs and facilitates understanding of Neural Conduction and Reflexes.

Psychology as an Independent Discipline

• William Wundt: Considered the father of Experimental Psychology and was responsible for establishing the first experimental psychology lab at the University of Leipzig.
  • He aimed to identify the components of consciousness.
• Introspection: Systematic self-observation of one's own conscious experiences.
• Voluntarism: The mind's capacity to organize mental contents into higher-level thought processes.

Structuralism

• Edward Bradford Titchener: Student of Wilhelm Wundt who brought Structuralism to the United States.
  • He aimed to map the structure of the mind by identifying basic elements of consciousness.

Functionalism

• William James: Wrote "The Principles of Psychology" in 1890 and was focused on how mental processes help individuals adapt to their environments.
  • He also emphasized the purpose of consciousness and behavior.

Behaviorism

• John B. Watson: Advocated for the study of observable behavior.
• B.F. Skinner: Developed theories of Operant Conditioning.

Psychoanalysis

• Sigmund Freud: Explored the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior and introduced concepts like the id, ego, and the superego.

Humanistic Psychology

• Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow: Emphasized personal growth and self-actualization.

Cognitive Psychology

• In the 1950s-1960s Cognitive Revolution there emerged a renewed interest in the functioning of mental processes.
• Several studies emerged based on subjects like perception, memory, language, and problem-solving.

Contemporary Psychology

• Biopsychology: Examines the biological underpinnings of behavior.
• Cultural Psychology: Studies how cultural practices shape psychological processes.
• Positive Psychology: Focuses on strengths and virtues that enable individuals and communities to thrive.