2. Today we will discuss..  What is psychology? Why is psychology a science?  How did psychology develop out of the fields of philosophy and the natural sciences?  What are difficulties in objectively studying psychology?  Why was the Psychoanalytic perspective a major shift from prior psychological thinking?  In what way was the Behavioral perspective a response to existing psychological theories?  In what way were the Cognitive, Biological, and Humanist perspectives a response to existing psychological theories?

3. What is Psychology?  Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes.  Goal of psychology is to answer questions about people - how and why do we think, feel, and act the way we do?

4. Why is it a science?  It is a science because these answers are systematically researched.  The scientific method!

6. Early Psychology - Trepanning

7. Philosophical Influences  Ancient Greek philosophers  Buddha  Hebrew scholars  What is consciousness?  Is there free choice?

8. Nature v. Nurture  Descartes – believed that many human ideas were innate to people  John Locke - the mind is a blank slate  Growth of empiricism – backbone of the natural sciences

9. Psychiatric Treatment  Bedlam Bethlehem Hospital in London - treatment was often to restrain people.

10. Wilhelm Wundt 1879

11. How do we study the “mind?”  Introspection – “looking inward”  an individual records his/her own perceptions and thoughts  What are the limitations of this method?

12. The Development of Psychoanalysis (~1900)  Believed the cause of “hysteria” was not the body but the mind.  Theory of personality that asserts the unconscious mind is the cause of human behavior  Why would this be revolutionary?  What are problems with this perspective?

13. Development of Behaviorist Perspective (1920s)

14. Making psychology more “objective”  Up to the 1920s Psychology was a field almost entirely focused on the mind.  Problems up to this point?  Behaviorists believed that psychological phenomenon could only be studied if it was publicly observable.  Stimulus  Response

15. Response to Behaviorism  Problems with Behaviorism?  Invention of computers in the 1950s provides a model for thinking about the mind = information processing  Leads to the development of the COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE – which focuses on how the mind influences behavior

16. Building off medical developments  BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE – developed in the last half of the 20 th century as it became increasingly possible to study the nervous system.  Its focus is on understanding how physical processes influence behavior.

17. Reaction to Psychoanalysis and Behaviorism  What’s similar about psychoanalysis and behaviorism?  HUMANIST PERSPECTIVE developed in the 1960s on the belief that people have free will and are inherently good.

18. Video  Crash Course Psychology: Intro to Psychlogy Crash Course Psychology: Intro to Psychlogy