The Old World’s Fascination with Abnormality: Trephining/Trepanning drilling holes into the brain to release “something” – evil spirits, etc Used to “cure” mental illness Evidence of trephining found all over the ancient world: Ancient Egypt Far and Middle East India Aztecs, Inca Brazilian tribes South Seas North and Equatorial Africa
1880’s-1950’s Age of the Lobotomy Age of the Lobotomy
Medieval thru Renaissance Emergence of science Emergence of humanism Thinking transitioned from god/spirit centered to human centered Grünewald’s The Temptation of St. Anthony Human qualities of temptation and evil
John Locke 1632-1704 Empiricism Knowledge based on sensations and reflection Tabula Rasa argues NURTURE over nature
Max Wertheimer 1842-1910 Gestalt Psychology (gestalt =German for a form or a whole) Emphasizes human tendency to integrate pieces of information to meaningful wholes
William James 1842-1943 Add to your notes his famous work: Principles of Psychology
Names and Famous Milestones to Know Galileo – method of inquiry (transition to human-centered) Broca – French, discovers left area of frontal lobe in charge of language (called Broca’s area) G Stanley Hall – adolescence Hermann Ebbinghaus – forgetting curve/memory Titchener – structuralism (introspection) Sigmund Freud – psychoanalysis Wertheimer and Koffka – Gestalists Galen – first biochemist in the field Ivan Pavlov – conditioning (dog drool) Watson - behaviorist
Approaches to Psychology: The Big 5 Behavioral Humanist Biological Psychodynamic Cognitive
Approaches to Psychology Why do people do that? Why do people behave that way? These are the 2 questions we are going to be answering per approach… keep them in mind!
BIOLOGICAL/NEUROBIOLOGICAL Brain, body, genetics Answer: People do it because their brain/body chemicals, or lack thereof, cause them to do it
GENETIC-BEHAVIORAL Within groups, what is nature and what is nurture Answer: People do it because their genetic predispositions cause them to do it
EVOLUTIONARY/SOCIOBIOLOGICAL Which behaviors evolved to get genes to the next generation Answer: People do it because their internal drive to survive/pass on their DNA makes them do it
SOCIOCULTURAL Which behaviors derive from group membership Answer: People do it because their culture/ethnic group/country/religion/peer group/family/society taught them that this is the way you do it
HUMANISTIC/HUMANISM Free will, human growth and potential Answer: People ALL have the ability to do it – everyone can choose to do it (agency in its pure form)
PSYCHOANALYTICAL/PSYCHODYNAMIC Behavior is driven by unconscious impulses (sex and aggression) Answer: People do IT (fight, have sex) because it is all they ever unconsciously think about doing
COGNITIVE Thinking – how the brain acquires, stores, processes, and retrieves information Answer: Anyone can do it if they THINK they can do it; whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right
DEVELOPMENTAL Predictable patterns of change throughout life Answer: People do it when their age/stage of development allows them to be able to do it
TRAIT Individual differences result from differences in patterns of stable characteristics (i.e. personality traits – introverted vs. extroverted) Answer: People do it because that is simply WHO they are
So what do we do with all this mess? We evaluate the three biggest issues in the field today – NATURE VS NURTURE STABILITY VS CHANGE RATIONAL VS IRRATIONAL
Oh it gets better… You can break down these fields into subfields depending on where your specialty/interests lie Industrial Personality School: test admin, severe cases Clinical: diagnose and treat severe disorders Counseling: less sever disorders, low level depression, phobias Research5 Sports Psychometric: test designers, statistics Forensic: CSI, military operations
Test Subjects