1. It’s the study of the human mind and behavior.
WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
It’s the study of the human mind and behavior.
PSYCHOLOGISTS SEEK TO UNDERSTAND AND EXPLAIN THOUGHT, EMOTION, and behavior.

2. MAIN PERSPECTIVES EVOLUTIONARY BEHAVIORAL BEHAVIORAL-GENETICS
COGNITIVE
HUMANISTIC
SOCIAL-CULTURAL
NEUROSCIENCE
PSYCHODYNAMICS

3. GREEK PHILOSOPHERS Aristotle
PLATOS AND SOCRATES–
Believed in innate ideas. Both suggest that brain in center of mental process and that body & mind were separate.
Aristotle
believed that the body & mind were unified and that the heart was the center of mental processes. Knowledge was not pre-existing, (Tabula Rosa / blank slate) but was acquired by observation.

4. AGE OF REASON – ENLIGHTMENT
DESCARTES
Believed in innate ideas and separation of mind & body. Described anatomy and functions of nerves and muscles. Explored physical/biological relationship between mind & body communications. Believed the mind can survive without the body.
JOHN LOCKE
Believed knowledge originates from experience. Science needs observation and experimentation.
FRANCIS BACON
Founder of Modern Science, believed humans are bias to selectively observe finding to support their hypothesis.

5. EARLY YEARS OF PSYCHOLOGY
WILHELM WUNDT
Establishes 1st psych laboratory in Leipzig, Germany
G STANLEY HALL
Establishes 1st formal psych laboratory in Johns Hopkins University
WILLIAM JAMES
Describes psychology as science of mental life. Introduces functionalism which focused on mental and behavioral processes and how they enabled people to adapt, survive, and flourish.

6. EARLY YEARS OF PSYCHOLOGY (con’t)
SIGMUND FREUD
Published Interpretation of Dreams and introduces psychoanalysis which suggests that thoughts and actions are attributed to unconscious motives and conflicts.
EDWARD TITCHNER
Introduces structuralism that used introspection to explore elemental structure of the mind
JOHN B. WATSON
Describes psychology as study of observable behavior. Dismisses introspection and develops behavioral perspective.

7. VOCAB TO KNOW
STRUCTURALISM - early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the structural elements of the human mind.
FUNCTIONALISM – school of psychology that focused on how our mental and behavioral processes function & how they enabled us to adapt, survive and flourish.
BEHAVIORALISM – view that psychology should be an objective science that studies behavior without reference to mental processes.

8. VOCAB (con’t)
HUMANISTIC – perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people and the individual’s potential for personal growth
COGNITIVE NEUROSCIENCE – study of brain activity linked with cognition (perception, thinking, memory and language)
NATURE V. NURTURE – long standing controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behavior