Intro to Psychology History, Approaches, Research/Methods

Psychology….A short history and a long past. Stand Alone discipline for 120 years. Science of behavior and mental processes

Prescientific Psychology Some ideas are inborn, innate The mind is a blank slate, ideas grow from experience Socrates ( B.C.)Aristotle ( B.C.) Plato ( B.C.)Locke ( ) How are ideas formed?

Psychological Science is Born Wilhelm Wundt –Late 1800’s –1 st Psychology Lab –Father of Modern Psychology –Seeking to measure the “atoms of the mind”

Early Schools of Though Structuralism/Functionalism Structuralism –What is consciousness? –Edward Titchener –Structuralism –Introspection Functionalism –Why do we have consciousness? –William James –1s psych textbook A rose: Red Silky Aromatic Soft What are your immediate sensations?

What the heck do you see?

Wave Two: Gestalt Gestalt Psychology Max Wertheimer ( ) Examine a person’s whole experience. The whole is more than the sum of its individual parts. Gestalt Therapy

Wave Three: Psychoanalysis Freud ( ) Psychoanalytic Theory Critics Unscientific Unverifiable theories

Wave Four: Behaviorism John Watson ( ) (founder) B.F. Skinner (reinforcement) Limit studies to what can be observed

Modern Approaches/Perspectives Evolutionary Biological Cognitive Behavioral Psychoanalytical Humanistic Approach Cross-Cultural

Evolutionary Approach Focus: How nature selects traits that promote the perpetuation of one’s genes. Influenced by Charles Darwin

Biological Approach Focus: How the body and brain create emotion, memories, and sensory experiences. Brain structures, blood chemistry, neural communication. Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzaniga, Paul Broca

Cognitive Approach Focus: How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information. Jean Piaget, Elizabeth Loftus, Hermann Ebbinghaus

Behavioral Approach Focus: Learning based on how a behavior is rewarded or punished. John Watson, B.F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov

Psychoanalytical Approach Focus: How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts Early Childhood Dreams Sigmund Freud

Humanistic Approach Focus: Emphasizes that we have great freedom in directing our future, a large capacity for growth, intrinsic worth, and self- actualization. Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers

Social-Cultural Approach Focus: How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures. Albert Bandura, Phillip Zimbardo

Which Perspective?? Dr. A is interested in studying the different attitudes about the elderly among North American and Japanese adults. Dr. A has found that the Japanese show more respect and responsibility toward elderly parents, and wishes to understand the cultural norms that contribute to these attitudes.

Which Perspective?? Prof. B studies the attention process involved when people search for specified objects by measuring the amounts of blood flow to various portions of the brain while a participant engages in a letter detection task.

Which Perspective?? Dr. C tries to help a client stop smoking by understanding the unconscious reasons for the client’s need to smoke. Dr. C encourages the client to talk about his childhood conflicts with his parents.

Which Perspective?? Dr. Dre tries to help a client stop smoking by telling her to keep a careful record of the number of cigarettes smoked and the particular people or situations who are a part of her smoking behavior. She keeps these records as a way of uncovering the factors that reward her for smoking, so that she may later remove those rewards.

Which Perspective?? Prof. E studies the factors that help or hinder students in memorizing information from textbooks. The professor systematically varies task characteristics such as textbook difficulty in an effort to understand the underlying memory processes involved in reading a textbook.

Which Perspective?? Dr. F is working to help a seriously depressed man become a productive member of society again. She points out to her client his potential for personal growth and his obvious love for his family, and reminds him of his many successes in professional and personal activities.

Which Perspective?? Dr. E is interested in studying if a certain level of aggressiveness is more favorable in the perpetuation one’s genes.

Goals of Psychology

Where Do Psychologists Work? 49% Private Practice-Therapy Setting-Clinical Psychologist 28% Academic Setting- Research (Basic/Applied, Professor) 13% Variety –(Social Work, Group Home Coordinator) 6% Industrial/Organization Setting (Production Manager) 4% Secondary Schools-(School Psychologist/Counselor)

Experimental Design Hypothesis Identify (IV) (DV) Choose (Random Selection) Assign (Experimental and Control Group) Manipulate (treatment, no treatment, Placebo, Double-Blind Procedure) Measure (Compare different Conditions) Analyze (Statistical Procedures) and Conclusion