Psychological Science Notes

What is Psychology?

Psychology is the scientific study of the brain, behavior, and mental processes.

Scientific Study

Psychologists use research methods similar to other scientific fields.
Employing the scientific method, they formulate hypotheses (testable predictions) to design research studies.
Evidence is collected through observation to either confirm or reject hypotheses.
Empirical research is based on observation.

Brain

Psychologists study the brain and nervous system.
They aim to understand how these bodily systems relate to behaviors.

Behavior

Psychologists study observable actions and reactions of organisms in various situations.

Mental Processes

Psychologists also study what occurs inside the mind, categorized as mental processes.

Affect

Affect refers to emotion or subjective feeling states.
Examples include feeling happy, sad, or scared.
Affective states influence both behavior and thoughts.

Cognition

Cognition focuses on information processing.
This involves perception, storage of information, thinking, problem-solving, language use, and numerical abilities.
Affect and cognition are studied because they can't be directly observed, requiring subtle measurement techniques.

History of Psychology

Psychology is a relatively new science with a long history.
Early roots are found in philosophy and physiology, with people asking psychological questions for a long time.

Ancient Greece

Aristotle

Aristotle explored why people behave differently and have varied thinking and feeling patterns.
He attempted to understand personality traits, linking them to body characteristics.
For instance, muscular bodies indicated courage, while large heads suggested intelligence.
He believed the heart was the source of reason and emotion, while the brain cooled the body.

Hippocrates

Hippocrates, a physician, noticed behavioral and mental changes in patients with head injuries, recognizing the brain's importance.
He proposed that personality traits resulted from different bodily fluids, called humors.
These included blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm, each linked to a specific temperament.
For example, black bile was linked to a melancholy, introspective temperament.
While his theory was inaccurate, he correctly identified that chemical substances can alter behavior.
For instance, depression can be influenced by low levels of the neurotransmitter serotonin.

Europe

Leonardo da Vinci

Da Vinci, known for painting and inventing, also studied anatomy and physiology.
His drawings of the brain evolved over time, becoming more detailed and accurate.
He focused on ventricles, fluid-filled openings in the brain, and believed they were important for mental processes.
His work suggests an attempt to connect the nervous system with behavior, thoughts, and feelings.

Rene Descartes

Descartes explored how perceptions can be inaccurate.
He introduced mind-body dualism, suggesting the mind and body are separate.
He believed the mind (thoughts, reason) exists on a separate, immaterial plane, while the body exists in the physical world and can be deceived.
Descartes is famous for "I think, therefore I am," reflecting the idea of a pure, immaterial mind separate from the physical body.
Many today still see the mind and body as separate, though most psychologists recognize their interconnection.
He studied information flow from the external world through sensory systems to the brain, which then sends motor signals to muscles for responses.

Wilhelm Wundt

Wilhelm Wundt is credited as the first psychologist for establishing a psychological laboratory and attempting to use the scientific method to study psychology.
He aimed to study psychological questions using theories, hypotheses, and observational data collection.
Wundt used introspection, asking people to analyze their sensations, perceptions, thoughts, and feelings.
He aimed to break mental processes into component parts to uncover the basic structure of the human mind, calling this field of study structuralism.

William James

William James, a student of Wundt, translated Wundt's work into English and added his own ideas.
He published the first English language psychology textbook in 1890, bringing psychology to the United States.
Like Wundt, he used introspection but also incorporated biology, inspired by Charles Darwin's ideas on evolution.
James believed the human mind evolved to aid survival, focusing on why behaviors occur and how they help us thrive.
He called his approach functionalism, emphasizing the functions of the human mind rather than breaking it down.
He also introduced the concept of the stream of consciousness.

Sigmund Freud

Sigmund Freud, a neurologist, specialized in treating patients with physiological symptoms lacking a physical cause.
He proposed that psychological factors, like unconscious conflicts, caused these symptoms.
He invented talk therapy treatments to explore themes and patterns that might lead to unconscious conflicts.
His methods included case studies, hypnosis, free association, and dream interpretation.

Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt psychologists believed that the whole of perception is greater than the sum of its parts.
They argued that perception is subjective and influenced by past experiences and context.
Gestalt psychologists primarily studied vision and, to a lesser extent, human personality.
Due to World War II, many Gestalt psychologists immigrated to the United States.

Behaviorism

John Watson

John Watson argued that psychologists should only focus on directly observable phenomena.
He believed psychology should rename itself behaviorism and study only measurable behaviors.
Watson advocated studying stimulus and response relationships to explain behavior objectively.

BF Skinner

BF Skinner focused on stimulus and response relationships, emphasizing how consequences shape behavior.
He studied rewards (reinforcements) and punishments and how they change behavior.
Skinner believed mental processes could not be scientifically studied and focused on observable behavior.
Skinner viewed the mind as a black box with unknown internal processes.

Humanistic Psychology

Humanistic psychologists found Freud's ideas too negative and behaviorism too reductionistic.
They emphasized human thoughts and mental processes and the human potential for growth and good.
They believed humans want to improve and that psychology should help them develop healthily.

Carl Rogers

Carl Rogers practiced therapy and empathized with his patients.
He believed that the therapist and client had little power differential and should talk openly.

Abraham Maslow

Abraham Maslow studied motivation and developed the hierarchy of needs, which begins with basic needs and progresses to higher-order needs like relationships, self-esteem, and self-actualization.

Cognitive Psychology

Cognitive psychologists were inspired by the invention of the computer and began to think the human mind might be like a computer.
They compared the human mind to computers and decided to bring back the "black box of the mind."
They wanted to study mental processes, especially cognition.
Cognitive psychologists study memory, perception, thinking, intelligence, language use, and problem-solving abilities.
They use methods like eye-tracking measurements, reaction time, and computer simulations to study information processing.

Biological Psychology

Biological psychology assumes that behavior is determined by physiology, brain chemistry, and anatomy.
Biological psychologists aim to understand the connections between behavior and biology.
Techniques like magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) allow the study of the brain without invasive surgery.

Five Pillars of Psychology

The five pillars represent dominant themes or subfields within psychology.

Biological: Focuses on the interface between mind and body, biopsychology, neuroscience, sensation, and states of consciousness.
Cognitive: Focuses on Information processing, perception, thinking, intelligence, and memory.
Developmental: Focuses on how people grow and change, develop, and diminish across the lifespan, how people learn, and different stages of the lifespan.
Social and Personality, what the internal or external factors of personality are. Also delves into emotion and motivation.
Mental and Physical Health: Applications in day to day life, Therapies, treatments, stress tests and methodology to deal with it.