The History of Psych We can trace the roots of western Psych back to ancient Greece The Philosopher Socrates is our first written record of Introspective Psych Socrates suggested that we can learn a lot about ourselves by examining our thoughts and feelings Modern Psychologist call this type of learn introspection “Looking with in”

Plato one Socrates students carried on his ideas and passed them on to one of his students Aristotle Aristotle outlined the laws of Associationism which are still at the heart of learning theory He said that people use experiences in the past to relate to experiences in the present Aristototle also argued that human behavior was governed by certain rules

One his major laws is that people are motivated to seek pleasure and to avoid pain A final Greek who added to our understanding of Psych was Hypocrites Hypocrites was one of the first people to argue that mental (and physical) problems where caused by treatable illness and not given out as a punishment by the Gods

Modern Psych The Middle Ages where a very backwards time for Psych and most ailments where cause by demons and devils The Scientific Revolution however brought new life into the study of Psych Most historian point to 1879 however as the birth of modern Psych In 1879 Wilhelm Wundt established a laboratory in Germany to study Psych

Structuralism Wundt establish the Psych theory and school know as Structuralism Structuralist where concerned with discovering the basic elements of consciousness Wundt broke consciousness down in to two categories Objective Sensations and Subjective feelings

Structuralism Objective sensations Sight Sound Taste Touch Subjective Feelings Emotions Mental Imaging

Structuralist Wundt and the Structuralist believed the mind worked by combining these two elements Structuralist (very much like Socrates) relied exclusively on introspection Structuralist where concerned with discovering the elements or Structures of the Psychological process

Functionalism Structuralist where the predominate psych theory for almost a decade until a Psychologist named William James decided that consciousness could not be broken down as the structuralist believed James focused on the the relationship between experience and behavior James founded the Psych School of Functionalism

Functionalism Functionalist where concerned with how mental process helped organisms adapt to their environments Functionalist also stressed the application of their findings to everyday situations Functionalist focus on the purposes (functions) of behaviors and mental process

Functionalism Functionalist argue that successful behavior are adapted and if repeated often enough become habits These behaviors them can be preformed with little or no concentration on the act Unsuccessful behaviors are abandoned

Behaviorism The Behaviorism school of psych was started by John B. Watson Watson felt that it was impossible to study what was going on inside the mind of someone else and argued that for psych to become an accepted science it most limit its self to measurable events Or behaviors, thus the behaviorism school

Behaviorism Another important figure in the behaviorism school of psych was B.F. Skinner Skinner developed the concept of reinforcement in learning theory Skinner showed that animals who where rewarded for certain behaviors where more likely to repeat those behaviors

Gestalt Psychology The Gestalt school of psych was founded by two German psychologist (Wertheimer and Koffka) who where interested in the way in which context affected how people perceive events Gestalt means shape or form and is based on the idea that perception is more than the sum of their parts, perception gives meaning to the parts

Gestalt Psychology The Gestalt school rejects Structuralism which looks at experience as individual parts The Gestalt school reject Behaviorism’s focus on observable events and rejects its idea that learning is mechanical Instead the Gestalt school says that learning is involved active and purposeful and focus on insight learning

Psychoanalysis In the late 1800’s an Austrian psychologist named Sigmund Freud founded the school of Psychoanalysis Freud’s school focused on the role of the unconscious mind and how early childhood conflicts impact our daily life While Freud’s theories are debated his impact on modern psychology has been massive