Historical Approaches

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Historical Approaches

• Understanding Behaviors

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Life Before Psychology

• Philosophy believed in dualism
• a separation of the mind and body as
• two individual parts yet somehow linked.
• Mind controlled the body..but how???

René Descartes (1596-1650)
Problem - No scientific way of studying problems
Physiology asks similar questions about the mind.
Scientists applied the
in an attempt to explain behaviors. and the mind
body connection.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
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Phrenology The 1800s

• Phrenology- examine bumps to determine intellect
  and character traits
• Phrenology inspired scientist to study the role
  of the brain
• rather than the heart
• to explain human behavior.

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Psychology Is Born
First Experimental Psych Lab (1879)
Focuses on the scientific (systematic) s study of
the mind. WW insists that Psych methods be as
rigorous as the methods of chemistry physics.
Wundts students start labs across USA (1880-1900)
Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
University of Leipzig Harvard University Yale
University Columbia University Catholic
University Univ of Pennsylvania Cornell
University Stanford University
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Structuralism vs Functionalism
Structuralism focused on the mind
Analyze consciousness into basic elements and
study how they are related
Introspection - self-observation of ones own
thoughts and feelings
Wilhelm Wundt
Functionalism
Investigate the function, or purpose of
consciousness rather than its structure
How do people adapt to function in new
environments?
William James (1842-1910)
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Inheritable Traits

• Sir Frances Galton (1822-1911)
• Wanted to understand how heredity influences a
  persons ability
• Heredity includes all the traits and properties
  that are passed along from parents to children
• He thought the world would be a better place if
  we got rid of less desirable people
• Most fit were those with high intelligence
• Galton assumed wealthiest people were the most
  intelligent

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Gestalt Psychology
The whole is different than the sum of its
parts.
Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)
A reaction against Structuralism An attempt to
focus attention back onto conscious
experience (i.e., the mind)
WHY?
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Today's Approaches

• Psychoanalytical
• Behavioral
• Humanistic
• Cognitive
• Biological
• Sociocultural

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Freud Psychoanalysis
Proposes the idea of the UNCONSCIOUS
Thoughts, memories desires exist below
conscious awareness and exert an influence on
our behavior
Unconscious expressed in dreams slips of the
tongue
Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)
Psychoanalytic Theory attempts to
explain personality, mental disorders
motivation using the unconscious
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Freud and Free Association

• Patient said anything that came to mind
• Psychoanalyst is a psychologist that studies how
  the unconscious motives and conflicts determine
  human behavior, feelings and thoughts
• Dreams are an expression of the most primitive
  unconscious urges Freud used dream analysis
  which is free association applied to dreams
• Case study analyze the thoughts, feelings,
  beliefs, experiences, behaviors and problems of
  individual

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Behaviorism
Scientific Psychology should focus on observable
behavior.
Mental Processes cannot be studied directly
John Watson (1878-1958)
Stimulus Response Psychology
Ivan Pavlov
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Watson

• John Watson (1878-1958)
• Concern with only observable behaviors
• All behavior is result of conditioning and occurs
  because the appropriate stimulus is present in
  the environment

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Ivan Pavlov

• Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)
• Pavlov dogs Pavlov rang a tuning fork each time
  he gave dog meat. The dog would normally drool
  when he got the meat. After Pavlov repeated the
  procedure many times, the dogs would drool when
  it heard the ring of the tuning fork, even if no
  food appeared. It had been conditioned to
  associate the sound with the food.
• This is known as conditioning or the conditional
  reflex

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B.F.Skinner

• B. F. Skinner (1904-1990)
• Introduced concept of reinforcement
• Response to a behavior that increases likelihood
  that the behavior will be repeated (rewards)

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Behavioral/Clinical Perspective
Focus How we learn from observable responses. How
to best study, assess and treat troubled people.

• Sample Issues
• How do we learn to fear particular objects or
  situations?
• What is the most effective way to alter certain
  behaviors?
• What are the underlying causes of
• Anxiety Disorders
• Phobic Disorders
• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorders

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Humanistic

• Developed as a reaction to behavioral psychology
• 1960s Maslow, Rogers
• Humans not controlled by environment or
  unconscious forces
• Environment and the outside forces serve as a
  background to our own internal growth
• Each person is unique and has a self concept and
  potential to develop fully

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Cognitive Psychology
Cognition the mental processes involved in
acquiring, processing, storing retrieving
information
Cognitive Psychologists return to the study of
learning, memory, perception, language, developmen
t problem solving
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Cognitive Perspective
Focus How we process, store and retrieve
information.

• Sample Issues
• How do we use info in remembering and
  reasoning?
• How do our senses govern the nature of
  perception?
• (Is what you see really what you get?)
• How much do infants know when they are born?

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NEW Perspectives in Psychology
Psychobiological
Social-Cultural Psychology
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Biological Perspective
Focus How the body and brain create emotions,
memories, and sensory experiences. How physical
and chemical changes in our bodies influence our
behavior

• Sample Issues
• How do evolution and heredity influence
  behavior?
• How are messages transmitted within the body?
• How is blood chemistry linked with moods and
  motives?
• Use tools like MRI CT
• Recent discoveries between chemicals in brain
  (neurotransmitters)
• and human behavior
• EX autisitic children share a genetic defect
  in regulation
• neurotransmitter Serontin serontin plays a
  role in brain function

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Social-Cultural Perspective
Focus How behavior and thinking vary across
situations and cultures.

• Sample Issues
• How are we, as members of different races and
• nationalities, alike as members of one human
  family?
• How do we differ, as products of different
  social contexts?
• Why do people sometimes act differently in
  groups than
• when alone?

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• Is our ways of thinking, feeling and behaving
  dependent on the culture in which we belong?
• What is the impact of millions of immigrants who
  come to U.S. each year?
• How do genders and socioeconomics influence our
  behaviors, male-female, rich-poor?

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Psychology is Empirical
Knowledge acquired through observation
Psych conclusions based on research NOT tradition
or common sense
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Psych Is Theoretically Diverse
A system of interrelated ideas used to explain a
set of observations
Theory
Biological Psychology Perspective
Clinical Psychoanalytic Perspective
Dreams
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Psych Sociohistorical Context
Trends Issues In Society
Advances In Psychology
Psychology develops in both a social historical
context
Early Psychology Affected by physics physiology
Society Today Affected by psychological
testing (IQ, SAT, GRE)
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What Causes Behavior?
Behavior
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Behavior is Shaped by Culture
Personal Space
Value of Education
Punctuality
Social Norms
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Influence of Heredity Environment
Nature versus Nurture
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Perception Is Subjective