The Growth of Psychology Tobi Russell- Baker College 1

The Growth of Psychology Before the 5th century, nobody really thought about trying to understand human behavior Then Greek philosophers started trying to speculate how the mind works, where thoughts and feelings come from, and about how the mind might affect behavior 2

The Growth of Psychology Socrates (470-399 BC) believed we are born with knowledge and that our minds (souls) do not cease to exist when we die Dualism= The view that thoughts and feelings are separate from real objects and our bodies 3

The Growth of Psychology Plato (427-347 BC) was a student of Socrates, so he also believed that we access innate knowledge through reasoning He suggested that reason is responsible for balancing our desires and our spirit in order to reach our goals 4

The Growth of Psychology Aristotle (384-322 BC) was a student of Plato, but he came to different conclusions He believed that we acquire knowledge from observing the physical world and using logic and reasoning to make sense of what we observe 5

The Growth of Psychology There was a quiet period for 2,000 years before the end of the Dark Ages and the beginning of the scientific revolution Rene Descartes (1596-1650) believed that the mind is not observable, it controls the body and in turn the body provides information for the mind Another example of dualism 6

The Growth of Psychology John Locke (1632-1704) took a different view and like Aristotle decided that we gain knowledge through experience But in contrast to Socrates and Plato human mind at birth is a blank slate that contains no innate knowledge Unlike Descartes, he believed that the mind operates according to laws or rules 7

The Growth of Psychology Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) went even further and stated that soul and spirit are meaningless. He believed that thoughts and feelings are simply by-products of our brain He was similar to some of the behaviorists that would come later 8

The Growth of Psychology Charles Darwin (1809-1882) followed in Hobbes’ path that the mind is not observable but behavior is observable and therefore we can study behavior He also felt that behavior evolves and behavior that contributes to the survival of the species stays around while behavior that is detrimental disappears over time 9

The Growth of Psychology The late 1800s saw the scientific method begin to be applied Then psychology became a separate discipline from philosophy Three stages: The emergence of a science of the mind, the behaviorist decades and the cognitive revolution 10

The Growth of Psychology In the beginning of the 20th century, most psychology departments were located in philosophy departments But then things started to change with the new scientific field of psychology 11

The Growth of Psychology Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Bradford Titchener= Psychology was born in 1879 when Wundt founded the first lab in Germany Primarily interested in memory and selective attention. He used the word voluntarism to describe his view 12

The Growth of Psychology He believed that attention is actively controlled by intentions and motives which makes us different than other organisms One important contribution of the German lab was the fact that the students who carried the message to the United States. G. Stanley Hall established the first American lab, J.M. Cattell was the first American to be called a professor of psychology 13

The Growth of Psychology Edward Bradford Titchener broke down consciousness in three different areas: physical sensations, feelings, and images Titchener saw psychology as a way to identify elements and showing how they can be combined and integrated—an approach known as structuralism 14

The Growth of Psychology William James---one of the first people to challenge structuralism was an American He argued that Titchener’s “atoms of experience” do not exist; that we recognize when we see a banana because we have seen one before. We act out of habit. He developed the functionalist theory-how do we use our perceptions to adapt and function 15

The Growth of Psychology Sigmund Freud=He identified that people are motivated by their unconscious instincts and urges that are not available to our conscious mind He developed the technique of free association, in which a patient lies on the couch, recounts their dreams and says whatever comes to their mind 16

The Growth of Psychology John B. Watson= built on the view of Ivan Pavlov (dogs experiment) and the concept of conditioning. Watson came to believe that all mental experiences are nothing more than physiological changes in response to accumulated experiences in conditioning 17

The Growth of Psychology B.F. Skinner= He believed that psychologists should study only observable and measurable behavior. He added the concept of reinforcement Behaviorism continued well into the 1960s By the late 1960s, the cognitive revolution began 18

The Growth of Psychology Gestalt psychology= gestalt means whole or form. When applied to perception, it refers to our tendency to see patterns, to distinguish an object from its background, to complete a picture from a few cues Abraham Maslow developed humanistic psychology and described it as the “third force” beyond Freudian theory and behaviorism 19

The Growth of Psychology Humanistic psychologists emphasize human potential and the importance of love, belonging, self-esteem or self-expression, peak experiences (when one becomes so involved in something that self-consciousness fades) and self-actualization (the spontaneity and creativity that result from focusing on problems outside oneself and looking beyond boundaries 20

The Growth of Psychology Humanistic psychologists focus on health and self-improvement instead of mental illness Cognitive psychology is the study of our mental processes in the broadest sense: thinking, feeling, learning and remembering. They are interested in how people acquire information. They believe that cognitive processes can and should be studied scientifically 21

The Growth of Psychology In the 21st century, we have moved into new areas including evolutionary psychology which is concerned with how behaviors and mental processes originated, their adaptive value and what purpose do they continue to serve Positive psychology is the study of subjective feelings of happiness and well- being 22

The Growth of Psychology Positivists argue that psychologists have learned a lot about diagnoses and mental illness but little about mental wellness. They want the field of psychology to focus just as much on mental wellness as it does on mental illness 23

Research Methods Naturalistic observation=study humans or animals in their natural setting Case studies= detailed description of a single individual or a few individuals Surveys= carefully selected group of people are asked questions in an interview or a questionnaire 24

Research Methods Correlational methods= research based on the relationship between two or more variables. Does not explain cause and effect, but rather the relationship (i.e. when one goes up, the other goes down) Experimental measures= investigator deliberately manipulates events and measures the effects of those manipulations on subsequent behavior 25

Research Methods Independent variable= the variable that is manipulated to test its effects on the other variables Dependent variable= the variable that is measured to see how it is changed by manipulations in the independent variable Experimental group= the group subjected to a change to the independent variable 26

Research Methods Control group= the group not subjected to a change so they can be compared to the experimental group Multimethod research Sampling (Random or representative) Experimenter bias 27

Ethics Participants must be informed of the nature of research in clearly understandable language Risks, possible adverse effects and limitations on confidentiality must be spelled out in advance Informed consent must be documented If participation is for course credit, alternatives must be provided Participants cannot be deceived about aspects that would affect whether or not they participate 28