BW

Psychology's History and Approaches - Module 1

Prescientific Psychology

  • Core questions: How does the mind work? How does the body relate to the mind? How much is innate versus learned from experience?
  • Socrates and Plato: mind is separable from the body; knowledge is innate.
  • Aristotle: knowledge grows from experiences stored in memories; not preexisting.
  • Descartes: mind-body interaction; nerves and reflexes; proposed animal spirits in brain but lacked modern understanding.
  • Francis Bacon: empiricism; the mind naturally seeks patterns and order, sometimes overinterpreting randomness.
  • John Locke: tabula rasa; at birth the mind is a blank slate; knowledge from experience.
  • Overall: these early ideas laid groundwork for psychology as a science grounded in observation and experience.

Psychology's First Laboratory

  • 1879: Wilhelm Wundt and colleagues established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig to measure mental processes ("atoms of the mind").
  • Method focus: reaction times for simple and conscious responses. Example from early work:
    • Reaction to a sound without awareness: rac{1}{10} s
    • Reaction after conscious awareness: rac{2}{10} = rac{1}{5} s
  • 1883: G. Stanley Hall established the first U.S. psychology laboratory at Johns Hopkins University.

Psychology's First Schools of Thought

  • Structuralism (Wundt and Titchener): used introspection to reveal the mind's structure (elements of experience).
  • Functionalism (William James): explored the function of mental processes and how they help organisms adapt, survive, and flourish; emphasized the stream of consciousness.
  • Early focus on inner experiences gave way to broader approaches; two later schools noted: Gestalt psychology and psychoanalysis.

Structuralism

  • Key idea: identify the mind's basic elements through introspection.
  • introspection: the process of looking inward to observe one's own psychological processes.
    -Limitation: unreliable; reports vary across individuals and situations; not easily verifiable.

Functionalism

  • Key idea: focus on what mental processes do and why; how they enable adaptation.
  • Emphasized downward-to-earth topics: emotions, memories, willpower, habits, and moment-to-moment conscious experience.
  • James argued that consciousness serves a function: helps us adapt to past, present, and future
  • James's legacy includes the influential textbook Principles of Psychology (1890).

Psychology's First Women and Pioneers

  • Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930): mentored by James; became a pioneering memory researcher and the first female president of the American Psychological Association (APA) in 1905, despite Harvard’s barriers.
  • Margaret Floy Washburn (1871–1939): first American woman to receive a psychology Ph.D.; wrote The Animal Mind (1908); served as APA president in 1921.
  • Harvard’s barriers and institutional barriers highlighted historical gender inequities; by 1997–2017, women increasingly held leadership roles in psychology.
  • Kenneth Clark became APA president in 1971 as a milestone for African Americans in psychology.

AP Exam Tip

  • Focus on psychology as a science grounded in research rather than common sense; test questions emphasize what findings mean rather than who discovered them.

Behaviorism

  • Early dominant view (Watson, Skinner) rejected introspection and defined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior.
  • Behaviorism argues that science is rooted in observation of behavior and its conditional learning in environments.
  • John B. Watson (and Rosalie Rayner): conducted the famous Little Albert experiment to show fear could be learned.
  • B. F. Skinner: emphasized consequences shaping behavior; explored operant conditioning (behavior modified by rewards/punishments).

Freudian (Psychoanalytic) Psychology

  • Sigmund Freud: focused on the unconscious mind and childhood experiences shaping behavior.
  • Psychoanalytic theory influenced views of personality and mental life beyond observable behavior.

Humanistic Psychology (Overview)

  • Emerged as a response to behaviorism and Freudian psychology.
  • Emphasizes human potential, growth, self-actualization, and subjective experience.

Key Figures and Concepts (Summary)

  • Wilhelm Wundt: established the first psychology laboratory (Leipzig, 1879).
  • Edward Bradford Titchener: structuralism; introspection; elements of mind.
  • William James: functionalism; mind as a function; adaptive purposes.
  • Mary Whiton Calkins: pioneering memory researcher; first female APA president.
  • Margaret Floy Washburn: first American woman with Ph.D. in psychology; APA president.
  • John B. Watson: founder of behaviorism; emphasized observable behavior.
  • Rosalie Rayner: collaborator with Watson; Little Albert study.
  • B. F. Skinner: behaviorism; studied consequences shaping behavior.
  • Sigmund Freud: psychoanalytic theory; unconscious mind.
  • Francis Bacon: empiricism; foundation for scientific approach.
  • John Locke: tabula rasa; experience shapes knowledge.
  • Socrates, Plato, Aristotle: early ideas about mind, body, and knowledge.

Quick Reference Terms

  • ext{empiricism}: knowledge comes from experience and observation.
  • ext{tabula rasa}: blank slate at birth.
  • ext{introspection}: looking inward to observe one’s own mental processes.
  • ext{structuralism}: school focusing on elements of consciousness.
  • ext{functionalism}: school focusing on mental processes’ functions.
  • ext{behaviorism}: psychology as the science of observable behavior.
  • ext{psychoanalytic psychology}: psychology of the unconscious mind and childhood.
  • ext{humanistic psychology}: focus on growth and self-actualization.