History of Psychology and its Various Schools of Thought

Ancient Greece Socrates gives psychology introspection: method where participant self-observes themselves and reports thoughts and feelings. Aristotle laid down the foundation of association: mentally linking thoughts/experiences with other thoughts/experiences Ex. You associate a vacation with being happy, bacon and eggs with the morning.

Middle Ages AKA The “Dark” Ages (and you can see why…) Various psych disorders were considered “demonic possession,” “witchcraft,” etc.

Structuralism 1879 first Psychology lab created in Germany, set up by Wilhelm Wundt Had a background in physiology, study of the body. Structuralist: psychologist who studies the basic elements/pieces of experiences Two main pieces: objective sensations (observation) Subjective feelings (introspection)

Functionalism William James: taught first class in psychology at Harvard in 1875 Often called “father of psychology” in U.S. Wrote the discipline’s first textbook in 1890. Functionalist: one who studies the functions/purposes of consciousness

Behavioral Psych. Behaviorism: focuses on behaviors and what specifically causes them. Direct link between a stimulus and a response. Ivan Pavlov’s dogs can be conditioned to respond to certain stimuli. John Watson experimented on and applied these principles to humans B.F. Skinner added the concept of reinforcements/ punishments.

Gestalt Psychology Focuses on our understanding of the world through recognizing patterns and groupings Gestalt = German for “shape/form” We learn through playing around with these gestalts How do we learn our alphabet?

Psychoanalytic Sigmund Freud was more interested in the unconscious mind. Psychoanalysis: Explores primal urges lurk underneath our willingness to follow societal norms Focused mostly on the practices of dream interpretation and free association Sometimes called “psychodynamic” because thoughts/behavior is being determined by dynamic unconscious processes.

Biological Perspective Biological Psych: Study the impact of chemical imbalances, effect of medications, and the “wiring” of the brain Get all the cool toys like MRIs, fMRIs, CAT scans, etc. Behavior can be determined by biological processes.

Evolutionary Perspective Starts with Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest” idea Biological and Psychological adaptations have developed in ways that make us more likely to survive and reproduce Ex. When we are depressed about our lives, we tend to lack energy. If our energy levels went up instead, we may be more likely to carry out a suicide.

Cognitive Perspective Cognitive Psych: Focus on how the brain receives, stores, and retrieves information Also focus on the learning process and language acquisition Big in the 1950s with psychologists like Jean Piaget and Noam Chompsky

Humanist Psych In response to the stark behavioralists Humanist Psych: Believed that human nature evolves and is self directed Abraham Maslow developed his Hierarchy of Needs, which suggests which human needs must be met in a particular order

Learning Perspective Emphasizes the impact on how our experiences change our behavior Ex. Experience your hand on a hot stove? Your behavior will change to avoid that again Social learning theory states that we choose to imitate others and we choose who/what we imitate. Ex. You choose to learn how to play the sousaphone because you chose to hang out with bandos.

Socioculture Perspective Emphasizes aspects about you (like race, sex, gender, socioeconomic status) and how others treat you because of these aspects Ex. Black students tend to score lower than average when tested in a room with a white proctor (but score average when the test is given by a black proctor) Ex. Women are often outnumbered by men 10:1 in college engineering programs. Do women choose not to go into engineering or are they being steered away from high level math/science classes in high school?