PSYCHOLOGY:

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PSYCHOLOGY INTRODUCTION AND RESEARCH METHODS
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Ancient Greece

• Plato (and Socrates)-Introspection
• Know thyself
• We can learn about ourselves by examining our
  thoughts and feelings
• Aristotle-Peri Psyches
• About the mind
• Human behavior is subject to rules and laws
• People are motivated to seek pleasure and avoid
  pain

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The Middle Ages

• Most Europeans believed that problems like
  confusion were caused by demons (possession)
• The Water Float Test
• Based on the idea that pure metals sink and
  impure metals float during smelting
• People who floated were in league with the devil
• People who sunk were considered pure
• And the problem was??????

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The Birth of Modern Psych

• The Scientific Method

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Early Pioneers of Psychology

• Experimental psychology focused on the
• study of experience
• Structuralism focused on sensations and
  perceptual experiences (Wundt Titchener)
• Structuralism used the method of Systematic
  Introspection which required people to look
  inward and describe their own experiences.

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Pioneers in Psychology

• Behaviorism focuses on objective and measurable
  behaviors (Watson)
• Reinforcement
• Added to the behaviorist theory by adding the
  theory of reinforcement reward or punishment for
  actions (Skinner)

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Early Pioneers of Psychology

• Functionalism investigated functions of mental
  processes in adapting to the environment (James)
• Gestalt psychology emphasized perception the
  notion that the whole is more than the sum of the
  parts (Wertheimer)
• Psychoanalytic view emphasizes the unconscious
  mind (Freud)

circa 1885.
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More Pioneers

• Humanistic psychology emphasizes the inner-self
  and the importance of subjective feelings
  (Rogers, Maslow)
• Cognitive psychology focuses on mental function
  and reasoning (Piaget, Ellis)

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Pseudopsychologies

• Pseudopsychologies are unreliable approaches that
  do not use the scientific method
• Examples of pseudopsychologies include
• Astrology system that tries to relate
  personality to the movement of the stars
• Palmistry idea that reading a persons character
  from the lines on their palms
• Psychokinesis notion that humans can move
  objects through mental concentration
• Follicology notion that personality
  characteristics are related to hair color