1. Unit 1: Psychology’s History and Approaches

2. How perspective has shaped psychology…
· Basic human functions have been questioned since the ancient civilizations.
Breathing
Hunger
Thinking?
Behavior?
· The organ originally thought to control our thinking, emotions, and body processes was the heart.

3. · Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato believed the mind was separate of the body, and the mind continues after death.
They also believed that intelligence was innate-born within us.
Aristotle, Plato’s student, later refuted these statements, saying knowledge was gained from experiences.

4. ·         There were no real advancements since the Greeks.
Until a man in the 17th century named Rene Descartes, used dissection of animals and theorized that messages were sent from our brains to our muscles to move.
Francis Bacon used experimentation and experience to draw conclusions on the brain’s functions
· 50 years later, John Locke came up with the concept of “tabula rosa”,

5. Think for a moment, how has perspective/basic human philosophy shaped our interpretation of psychology?

6. Psychological science is born…
In 1879, a Wilhelm Wundt designed 1st psychological experiment
He had subjects react to a loud sound by instinct, then have them react to the same sound when they are consciously aware they’re hearing it.
(“It takes longer to be aware”), thus psychology was said to be “born.”

7. Wundt went on to develop a school of psychological thought called structuralism, which had patients use introspection.

8. What are some strengths and weaknesses with using ‘introspection’ to study psychology? Explain.

9. In response, William James founded the psychological school of functionalism.
Functionalism stated that our mental and behavioral processes function to enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish.

10. From here, the field of psychology began to flourish.
Many fields and subfields of psychology were formed to cover the massive content areas and different focuses of this new science.

11. What are the differences between functionalism and structuralism?

12. 7 Psychological Approaches
There are seven approaches to psychology:
Biological-how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences; how genes combine with environment to influence individual differences, “genetic triggers”

13. Psychodynamic- how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

14. Behavioral­- how we learn observable responses

15. Cognitive- how we 1. encode, 2. process, 3. store, and 4
Cognitive- how we 1. encode, process, store, and retrieve information

16. Humanistic- how we meet our needs for love and acceptance and achieve self-fulfillment

17. Social-cultural- how behavior and thinking vary across social situations and cultures

18. Evolutionary-how the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes.

19. What are the strengths of having 7 approaches
What are the strengths of having 7 approaches? What are the weaknesses with using 7 approaches? Explain

20. Which 3 approaches do you believe are the most commonly practiced today? Explain