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Psychology

• What is this thing we call psychology??
• Where did it come from???
• From Psychology, by David G. Myers

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Psychologys Roots

• Early controversy dealt with the relationship of
  the mind and body.
• Are we born with innate information vs. blank
  slate?
• Is the mind separate from the body?
• Buddha wondered how sensations/perceptions
  combine to form ideas
• Confucius concentrated on the power of ideas and
  becoming educated
• Socrates/Plato
• mind body separate
• knowledge built within
• Aristotle
• knowledge not preexisting but comes from
  experience
• Events recalled more vividly during emotional
  times
• Augustine (354-430 A.D.)
• Investigated his memory/mind how condition of
  body influences the mind (ie. If you dont feel
  well, this influences your mood)

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Psychologys Roots

• Rene Descartes (ra-na da.kart)(1595-1650
  French)
• Ideas are not innate
• Communicate by animal spirits flowing from
  brain through hollow nerves to body
• Francis Bacon (1561-1626 English)
• Mind wants to see patterns even in random events
• Selectively notices remembers events that
  confirm ones beliefs
• John Locks (1632-1704 English)
• Mind at birth is blank slate, white piece of
  paper
• Empiricism knowledge originates from experience

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Psychological Science is Born

• Wilhelm Wundt (German)
• First psychological laboratory
• Measured lag time between hearing noise/pressing
  key
• Edward Titchener (Wundts student)
• Introduced Structuralism
• Studied structure/elements of mind (similar to
  studying structure of matter and atoms)
• Introspection (looking inward) elements of
  experience
• Feel out of favor
• varied from person to person
• Recollections can be wrong (expert witness)

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Psychological Science

• William James (English)
• Focused on Functionalism Understand what the
  function is of our thoughts, feelings, and
  behaviors rather than the elements (like studying
  how car runs vs studying car parts)
• Principles of Psychology 1st textbook of new
  science of psychology
• Mary Calkins (1890)
• Admitted into Harvard grad school (all males
  dropped class)
• Finished Harvard Ph.D. but was denied her degree
• First female president of American Psychological
  Association (1905).

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Development of Psychological Science

• Developed from /Influenced by
• Philosophy
• Aristotle, Socrates, Plato (Greek)
• Biology
• Piaget (Swiss)
• Physiology
• Wundt (German)
• Pavlov (Russian)
• Medicine
• Freud (Austrian)

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Definition

• Until 1920s
• Science of mental life
• 1920s 1960s
• Psychology attempting to become credible science,
  like other sciences
• Focused on observable behavior
• 1960s on
• Science of both
• Behavior what we can observe and record
• Smiling, blinking, sweating, talking
• Mental Processes what we infer from behavior
• Sensations, thoughts, perceptions, dreams,
  beliefs, feelings

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Todays Psychology

• Stable traits vs. Changing traits
• Are we basically bad or good?
• Nature vs. Nuture
• Heredity vs. environment
• Grammar innate or taught (infants born with
  certain abilities but also learn from hearing
  others?)
• Why do siblings in same family differ?
• Gender differences innate or socially caused?

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Areas of Psychology

• Neuroscience
• How is chemical makeup linked with moods?
• Evolutionary
• How emotions thinking have influence survival
• Behavior genetics
• How is intelligence, personality traits
  genetically or environmentally based

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Areas of Psychology

• Psychodynamic
• How early experiences, childhood trauma
  influences traits and disorders
• Behavioral
• How experiences can teach one to fear how to
  alter behaviors
• Cognitive
• How we process, store, retrieve info
• Social-cultural
• How behavior/thinking varies across cultures

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Psychologys Subfields

• All attempt to describe and explain behavior and
  the mind underlying it
• Basic Research
• Strives to increase knowledge base
• Biological psychologists
• Development from womb to tomb
• Cognitive thinking, perception, problem solving
• Personality personality traits and
  characteristics
• Social how we view and affect one another
• Applied Research
• Studies practical problems
• Industrial/Organizational Psychologists study
  behavior in the workplace

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Psychologys Subfields

• Clinical Psychologists
• Administer and interpret psychological tests
• Provide psychotherapy
• Manage mental health programs
• Conduct research
• Psychiatrists
• Medical doctors licensed to prescribe drugs for
  psychological disorders
• Provide psychotherapy

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Learning Psychology Often Changes People

• May look at psychological disorders differently
• May look at womens issues differently
• May look at childrens development differently
• May look at themselves differently