History of Psychology

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History of Psychology
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Lecture Overview

• What is Psychology?
• History of Psychology
• Early views of Mental Disorder
• Origins of Psychological Science
• Psychological Science Today
• Levels of analysis

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What is Psychology?

• Psychology is the study of the
• Mind -- mental activity such as thoughts,
  feelings, and subjective experiences
• Brain an organ in the skull that produces
  mental activity and behavior
• Behavior any observable action or response

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History of Psychology

• Interest in understanding human behavior and
  mental processes has existed for centuries
• Written documents date back 25 Centuries to Greek
  Philosophers Socrates, Aristotle, Plato
• In Asia, evidence of interest in exploring
  consciousness and in controlling it with
  meditation and yoga
• In Africa, personality and mental disorder
  explained based on traditional spiritual beliefs

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History of Psychology

• Over time, our understanding of behavior and
  mental processes has evolved
• Current understanding of behavior and mental
  processes is derived from the science of
  psychology
• What were the earliest conceptions of disordered
  mental processes (i.e., mental illness)?
• How did psychology as a science evolve?

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Early Views of Mental Disorder

• Earliest conceptions of mental disorder
  displeasure of the gods or demonic possession
• E.g., Ancient Babylonians insanity resulted
  from possession by the demon Idta

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Early Views of Mental Disorder

• Treatment developed out of conception of mental
  disorders
• Flogging
• Starvation
• Drinking unpalatable brews
• Trephining

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Trephining
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Trephining
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Early Views of Mental Disorder

• Other forms of treatment
• Sleeping in the temple of the deity of healing
• Artistic endeavors
• Bathing in hot springs
• Exercise
• Those who were not cured, however, were chased
  from the temples and/or stoned

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Early Views of Mental Disorder

• Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.)
• Earliest proponent of somatogensis
• Mental disorder resulted from disturbances of the
  body NOT demonic possession
• Stress can also damage the mind and body

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Early Views of Mental Disorder

• Hippocrates
• Normal Functioning depended on delicate balance
  of four humors or body fluids
• Mental Disorder resulted from an imbalance of
  these humors
• Blood changeable mood
• Black Bile -- melancholia
• Yellow Bile (choler) irritable anxious
• Phlegm sluggish or dull

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Early Views of Mental Disorder

• Treatment
• Looked for natural remedies
• E.G., For melancholia
• Tranquility
• Sobriety
• Care in choosing food and drink
• Abstinence from sexual activity

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History of Psychology

• Galen (1st Century AD) autopsy of apes ? lead
  to his belief in the role of the brain in mental
  function
• 3rd Century AD -- Return to demonology mentally
  ill as witches (?) Church had responsibility for
  care of mentally ill
• 1700s -- move toward Psychogenesis mental
  disorders attributed to psychic malfunctions
• 1850s -- Return to Somatogenesis with
  publication of Kraeplins classification system

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Three major historical debates/theories
  influenced development of psychology as a science
• Nature vs Nurture
• Mind vs Body
• Theory of Evolution

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Nature vs Nurture Debate
• Ongoing debate since the time of the Greeks about
  causes of psychological characteristics
• Psychological characteristics ? thinking feeling,
  experiencing and behavior

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Nurture ? psychological characteristics are
  acquired through learning, experience, or culture
• John Locke ?
• Tabula Rasa the mind is a blank slate which is
  written upon through experience
• View that psychological characteristics are
  entirely determined by experience
• i.e., ENVIRONMENT IS KEY!

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Nature ? psychological characteristics are
  biologically determined or innate that is, we
  are born with it
• i.e., ITS ALL ABOUT OUR GENES

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Schizophrenia as an example
• Higher rates of concordance for schizophrenia
  between identical than between fraternal twins ?
  nature
• Schizoprehnogenic mother ? nurture
• Rates higher when identical twins share a
  placenta than when they each have their own
  placenta ? nurture

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Intelligence
• Highly heritable but also influenced by
• Education, nutrition, enrichment of environment
• Nature ? may limit potential to a certain range
  BUT Nurture can influence where individual can
  fall within that range
• Current thinking ? all behavior is some
  combination of Nature and Nurture

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Origins of Psychological Science
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Implications of the Nature/Nurture Debate

• Thinking, feeling, experiencing, behavior have
  multiple causes
• Biology is NOT destiny

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Origins of Psychological Science

• The Mind vs Body Debate
• Earliest conceptions were driven by religious
  doctrine
• The divine and immortal soul is what separated
  humans from animals
• It controlled the mind and behavior
• Thus, the mind was seen as distinct from the body

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Origins of Psychological Science

• DaVinci (1500 AD)
• Believed that all sensory experience (i.e.,
  vision, touch, smell) was located in a single
  area of the brain which he believed to be the
  home of thought and judgment
• He based his beliefs on autopsies he conducted on
  people
• His method and views were seen as offensive to
  the church because they violated the presumed
  sanctity of the human body

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Origins of Psychological Science

• DesCartes(1600 AD)
• The first to promote the concept of dualism ? the
  mind and the body were separate BUT related
  entities
• The mind influenced the body
• The body also influences the mind (considered his
  most radical view)
• Some mental functions, such as memory and
  imagination, were the result of bodily functions
• Volitional behavior, which was divine, was
  controlled by the rational mind, and therefore
  was independent of the body

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Current advances in biological and medical
  research now suggest that the mind is a function
  of the brain
• Examples
• Terry Schiavo
• Specific brain regions have specific functions
• Impact of imbalance of one neurotransmitter on
  ability to think and reason
• Current conception the mind is what the brain
  does!

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Origins of Psychological Science

• The relation between the mind, brain, and
  behavior is bidirectional

Brain
Behavior
Mind
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Origins of Psychological Science

• The Theory of Natural Selection
• Species evolve through a process known as natural
  selection
• Characteristics that were adaptive in specific
  environments had a selective advantage
• In Darwins words favourable variations would
  tend to be preserved and unfavourable ones to be
  destroyed. The result of this would be the
  formation of a new species.

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Genetic variation produces variations in traits
  or characteristics.
• Traits that increased the likelihood of survival
  of the species were preserved and passed along to
  the next generation
• These are known as adaptations
• Maladaptive traits (i.e., decreased the
  likelihood of survival) become extinct, because
  the animal did not survive or did not procreate.

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Sir Francis Galton (Darwins cousin) some of the
  traits that evolved were psychological in nature

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Origins of Psychological Science

• SO
• The brain has evolved over millions of years to
  solve adaptive problems such as how does one
  survive during periods of famine or deprivation
• Then
• How does this survival mechanism, that evolved
  millions of years ago, affect us in modern
  society?

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Survival Mechanisms Famine

• Taste-specific satiety become satiated more
  quickly when exposed to a single flavor than to a
  variety of flavors
• Adaptive because ? we see out a variety of foods
  to ensure we meet our nutritional needs
• E.g., We eat more at buffets that at regular
  restaurants
• Current Implications high rate of obesity

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Survival Mechanisms Learning

• Specific area of the brain that recognizes reward
• This area of the brain lights up when a
  behavior is followed by a biologically relevant
  consequence
• i.e., consequence that increases our likelihood
  of survival
• Leads to repetition of the behavior
• Current Implications ? brain mechanisms that set
  us up for addiction or obesity

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Survival Mechanisms Sex

• Gender differences in tendency toward promiscuity
  develops from need to ensure survival of
  offspring
• Males ? more sexual partners means greater number
  of offspring survive
• Females ? better sexual partners means greater
  likelihood of offspring survival
• Remember Biology is NOT destiny

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Implications of Evolutionary Theory

• Pioneering research in animals could be used to
  explain human behavior
• Pavlovs dogs implications for human learning
• Helmholtz research on nerve impulses in frogs
  could be used to understand nerve impulses in
  humans
• Animal models of addiction, ADHD and other mental
  disorders allow us to determine brain areas
  involved in these disorders and novel compounds
  for treatment

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Wundt and Structuralism
• Structuralism conscious experience can be
  broken down into its most basic components or
  elements
• Introspection the process of reporting on ones
  own mental experiences of a stimulus
• Identified major areas of interest to
  psychologists

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Origins of Psychological Science

• James and Functionalism
• Argued that structuralism was too narrow
• Functionalism Influenced by Darwinian Theory
  i.e., that the mind evolved to serve adaptive
  functions
• These adaptive functions should be evident in
  behavior and in daily life thus interested in
  studying the functions of the mind

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Freud and Psychoanalysis
• Freud was a physician
• Had patients with neurological symptoms that had
  no physical explanation
• Freud believed that much of mental activity
  occurred outside of the individuals conscious
  awareness ? first to be interested in the
  Unconscious mind
• Mental disorder unconscious mental forces in
  conflict

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Origins of Psychological Science

• Gestalt Theory
• We perceive information as uniform and whole not
  as separate elements
• The whole is greater than the sum of its elements

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Origins of Psychology as a Science
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Origins of Psychological Science

• Watson, Skinner, Behaviorism Studying the
  mind is unscientific
• Observable behavior, not the mind, should be the
  focus of scientific inquiry
• All behavior is a function of environmental
  influences

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How do we Understand Behavior?

• 7 Levels of Analysis
• Genetic
• Neurochemical
• Brain Systems
• Behavioral
• Perceptual/Cognitive
• Individual
• Social/Cultural

• 7 Disciplines
• Biological
• Developmental
• Behavioral
• Cognitive
• Trait
• Clinical
• Sociocultural

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Understanding Behavior using a Levels of
Analysis Approach

• Depression
• Genetics
• Neurochemistry
• Developmental
• Perceptual/Cognitive

• Academic Performance
• Genetics
• Behavioral
• Developmental
• Perceptual/cognitive
• Social/Cultural