History of Psychology

1
History of Psychology
2
Three issues in Psychology

• Mind and body
• Learning and the acquisition
• of knowledge
• 3. Cause and effect

3
Back in the day.

• Socrates
• Plato
• Aristotle

4
The Physiology of Psychology

• Gall (1808)
• The brain is uniquely important in mental
  processes.
• Different functions of the brain serve different
  mental functions.
• Mental function are stronger in some people than
  in others.
• Observation will show which parts of the brain
  serve which mental functions.
• Broca (1861)

5
Phrenology
6
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

• Established the Psychological
• Institute in 1879.
• First Psychological research
• laboratory.
• Believed that conscious experience
• should be investigated experimentally through
  introspection.
• Structuralist approach All mental experiences
  can be understood as a combination of simple
  building blocks.

7
Herman Ebbinghaus (1850-1909)

• German
• Studied the processes involved
• in memory and forgetting.
• Most forgetting occurs within
• the first few hours.
• Meaningful information easier
• to remember.
• Designed the learning curve
• and the forgetting curve.

8
(No Transcript)
9
William James (1842-1910)

• American
• Moved away from Philosophy
• and toward a discipline of Science.
• Functionalism Concerned with the
• mind as it functions.
• Perceptions and behaviour have
• functions that promote survival
• of the organism.
• Led to development of educational and
  organisational psychology.

10
Alfred Binet (1857-1911)

• Pioneered the modern
• intelligence tests of today.
• Saw intelligence as a range
• of mental functions.
• Lead to the development of
• the Intelligence Quotient (IQ).

11
John Watson (1878-1958)

• Behaviourist approach
• Studied overt, observable
• behaviour.
• Used scientific methods.
• Believed consciousness
• was irrelevant to
• Psychology.
• Led to cognitive behaviourism.

12
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

• Psychoanalysis.
• Behaviour deeply influenced
• by our unconscious thoughts,
• impulses and desires.
• Repressed memories.
• Theory of psychosexual
• development.
• Theory of personality focussed
• around the id, ego and superego.

13
Summary Table
Psychologist Dates Theory/ School Focus of research
Wundt
Ebbinghaus
James
Binet
Watson
Freud