Chapter 1: Roots of Psychology

 

  • Early Greeks -- Aristotle (325 BC)

    • Naturalistic, scientific approach to studying things that he was interested in like:

      1. Bodily movements

      2. Four bodily humours / fluids (blood, phlem, yellow bile, brown bile)

If you were ill in ancient Greece, a reason could be because you had "too much blood", so they were prescribed to have leeches solve that problem, by drawing more blood out from their body. Sometimes it worked, sometimes it didn’t…This  thinking obviously isn't right

  • Aristotle's contribution to psychology was taking a more discipline approach to studying bodily movement

 

(Long after Aristotle has died, Christianity came along:

Christianity & the decline of science

  • From early Christian Era & through the Middle Ages

  • Focused shifted to metaphysical concerns

  • Christian dualism emerged: the idea that there are two realms / spheres that are separate but do interact

    • Physical realm you can study it and see and experiment

      • "Your life ends at death and your either buried / cremated"

    • Spiritual realm you can't do the same questioning, and ultimately can't question God

      • "There is an afterlife once you leave the Earth" (in some; not all religion's)

 

Rene DesCartes (1596-1650):

  • French philosopher

    • "You cannot trust your senses to prove that something exists you have to study it"

      • Ex: we all have moments where we feel like we hear someone has called us but, to Rene's point, "our senses deceive us"

    • "Because u think and can generate thoughts in your mind, then that is proof enough for the fact that you exist on this Earth in society"

  • Cogito ergo sum: "I think therefore I am"

  • Also interested in bodily movements

  • Cartesian dualism:

    • Involuntary, reflexive movement --> physical realm

    • Voluntary,  deliberate movements --> spiritual realm

 

Wilhelm Wundt (1832 - 1920)

  • Created: University of Leipzig (the First Psychology Laboratory)

  • Big limitation: what he chose to study (PERCEPTION)

    • Sensation: the act of takin in that sensory information

    • Perception: when your brain takes the sensory information and makes sense of it

      • Ex: a Teacher draws a circle & a triangle on a two dimensional board

      • Due to how the shapes were positioned, you perceived that the circle was "on top" of the triangle (which obviously isn't possible because the drawing is on a 2D board, but our brain adopts that perception)

  • Used introspection

    • Subjective (the topic of being colorblind: what one person sees another might not)

    • Limits Subject pool (certain groups; non human animals are excluded -- asking dogs / babies what a color is)

    • Not good scientific approach

 

Birth of Modern Psychology:

  • Edward Titchener (1867 - 1927)

    • Student of Wundt

    • British

    • Brought new field to the US

    • First psychology laboratory in the US

      • Also used introspection

      • Studied conscious mental experiences

      • Structuralism

  • American exceptionalism: Americans THINK that they are better than others / other countries; idea of superiority

    • Psychology became more focused on Western thinkers (Psychology originated in Germany but since it came to the US though Edward, the US ultimately took over it "took credit" and portray characteristic of American exceptionalism)

  • The way to understand mental processes was the understand conscious experience as a whole, and break it down piece by piece and how a person had come to that thought, idea, or opinion

    • People didn't always agree with that approach and as time, different approaches came along, and on and on

    • Ongoing dispute about how people are supposed to go about therapies / treatments, because the world is evolving

      • How a therapists decides to treat you is very based on what specialty and perspective on psychology they have

  • William James (1842 - 1910)

    • "Father of American Psychology" (the first to teach a psychology course in the US) -- inspired by Darwin

    • Was exposed to many different ways of doing & learning things growing up

    • Functionalism:

      • Focused on function, not structure

      • Individualism

      • Stream of consciousness

    • His ultimate theory: "Physical changes that occur always serve an adaptive function"

      • Animals being born with new adaptations, serve an obvious function that would better help them survive in their environment… he theorizes that the same thing happens to humans (lots of behaviors that we do that serve a purpose)

        • Ex: talking with your hands… the function / purpose that it possibly serves? This is what William James would study ("Stream of Consciousness)

 

Psychological Perspective: Structuralism vs Functionalism

  • Led to "splintering" & birth of different perspectives

    • Impacts what is studied

    • Impacts how phenomena are explained

    • Still a large divide in psychology today

    • Most phycologists are eclectic, not bound to one perspective (examples below)

      • Behavioral Perspective: focus on certain organisms behaviors, and why

  • Psychoanalytic / Psychodynamic perspective:

    • Based on Freud's theories (the people who were sent to Freud weren't always in need of phycological help so the results aren't 100% correct: Example - someone trying to do research on behaviors of children, but they only base their research on children with autism, then ultimately, the behavioral results from that research would only reflect those of autistic children, so if applied to non autistic children then that would essentially be inaccurate) 

      • Psychology of the abnormal

      • Influenced by Darwin

      • Stressed sexual and aggressive urges

      • Three levels of consciousness

      • Psychosexual stages

    • Conscious Level: thoughts, perception

      • (being in a phycology class so your thinking about thoughts relating to that)

    • Preconscious Level: memories, shared knowledge

      • (teacher asks you what the square root of 100 is; you take memorized answers from a preconscious level to answer that question because you aren't immediately thinking about it)

    • Unconscious Level: fears, unacceptable sexual desires, violent motives, immoral urgers, irrational wishes, selfish needs, shameful experiences

  • (1) Cognitive perspective:

    • Rejection of strict behaviorism (based on John Locke: "Blank slate" which is what everyone is born as, and the environments is what shapes us and turns us into what we are

      • Humans as active participants in environment

      • Humans use cognitive processes to choose, shape, and interpret experiences

      • Impacts by advent of computers

        • Human memory is nothing like computer memory; our long term memory is limitless and we will always have storage

        • Theory of Multi-tasking emerged from the idea that humans function like computers

  • (2) Biological perspective:

    • Links behavior with biological factors (making a physical connection to your situation is comforting to some people)

      • Example: You have severe anxiety

      1. If you went to a behaviorist about anxiety, then they'd tell you that you've been conditioned to think that way due to outward environment

      2. If you went to a psychoanalysis they'd say its due to something in regards to your unresolved thoughts in your subconscious

      3. If u went to a biological perspective, they'd prescribe you with anxiety medication maybe because your brain isn't getting / producing enough serotonin.

    • Focuses on neurotransmitters, hormones, central nervous system, etc…

    • Has led to many breakthroughs in psychopharmacology

Cons:

 

  • (3) Evolutionary Perspective:

    • Influenced by Darwin's theory of evolution (species physical changes serve a valuable function / survival advantage)

      • The evolutionary perspective ultimately takes the same stance, but applies this thought to humans

        • Example:

          • Men tend to be attracted by physical beauty & women tend to be attracted to power

            • Men: physical beauty = health & fertility (symmetrical face; voluminous)

            • Women: power = more invested in each induvial child so they're more interested in protecting the children

          • Men get more upset about physical cheating & Women get more upset about emotional cheating

 

 

  • This makes sense because men and women have many different reproductive capabilities (men=thousands of offspring; role in offspring is very limited VS female=woman is fertile for about 30-40 years; process is much more involved because she wouldn't be able to have more than one child a year; 40 children at most in their lifetime being generous

  • From a physiological & evolutionary standpoint: Each child that men have is less & less valuable because

  • Examines species, not individuals

  • Focuses on identifying survival function of behavior

 

  • (4) Sociocultural Perspective:

    • Emerging area (relatively new)

      • Ex (1): What is considered delusional?

        • Some people don't want to "jinx" themselves

        • If a pitcher mentions that the pitcher is going "no hitter" you've now jinxed the pitcher

        • In other societies & cultures, this may be considered delusional and not socially accepted, and possibly considered to be a case of Schizophrenia

      • Ex (2): Dreams

        • getting a dream that you're swimming in a pool of fish, and it means that you're pregnant, and someone getting upset and hysterically crying about it, is culturally accepted in other countries / cultures, but maybe not socially ok in other countries.

    • This perspective examines how social & cultural factors influence behavior  (due to the fact that for far too long, psychology has emphasized Western cultural standards, and not diverse social & cultural factors)