1. History of Psychology and its Various Schools of Thought

2. Ancient Greece
Socrates gives psychology introspection: method where participant self-observes themselves and reports thoughts and feelings.
Aristotle laid down the foundation of association: mentally linking thoughts/experiences with other thoughts/experiences
Ex. You associate a vacation with being happy, bacon and eggs with the morning.

3. Middle Ages AKA The “Dark” Ages (and you can see why…)
Various psych disorders were considered “demonic possession,” “witchcraft,” etc.

4. Structuralism
1879 first Psychology lab created in Germany, set up by Wilhelm Wundt
Had a background in physiology, study of the body.
Structuralist: psychologist who studies the basic elements/pieces of experiences
Two main pieces:
objective sensations (observation)
Subjective feelings (introspection)

5. Functionalism
William James: taught first class in psychology at Harvard in 1875
Often called “father of psychology” in U.S.
Wrote the discipline’s first textbook in 1890.
Functionalist: one who studies the functions/purposes of consciousness

6. Behavioral Psych.
Behaviorism: focuses on behaviors and what specifically causes them.
Direct link between a stimulus and a response.
Ivan Pavlov’s dogs can be conditioned to respond to certain stimuli.
John Watson experimented on and applied these principles to humans
B.F. Skinner added the concept of reinforcements/ punishments.

7. Gestalt Psychology
Focuses on our understanding of the world through recognizing patterns and groupings
Gestalt = German for “shape/form”
We learn through playing around with these gestalts
How do we learn our alphabet?

8. Psychoanalytic
Sigmund Freud was more interested in the unconscious mind.
Psychoanalysis: Explores primal urges lurk underneath our willingness to follow societal norms
Focused mostly on the practices of dream interpretation and free association
Sometimes called “psychodynamic” because thoughts/behavior is being determined by dynamic unconscious processes.

9. Biological Perspective
Biological Psych: Study the impact of chemical imbalances, effect of medications, and the “wiring” of the brain Get all the cool toys like MRIs, fMRIs, CAT scans, etc. Behavior can be determined by biological processes.

10. Evolutionary Perspective
Starts with Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest” idea
Biological and Psychological adaptations have developed in ways that make us more likely to survive and reproduce
Ex. When we are depressed about our lives, we tend to lack energy. If our energy levels went up instead, we may be more likely to carry out a suicide.

11. Cognitive Perspective
Cognitive Psych: Focus on how the brain receives, stores, and retrieves information Also focus on the learning process and language acquisition Big in the 1950s with psychologists like Jean Piaget and Noam Chompsky

12. Humanist Psych
In response to the stark behavioralists Humanist Psych: Believed that human nature evolves and is self directed Abraham Maslow developed his Hierarchy of Needs, which suggests which human needs must be met in a particular order

13. Learning Perspective
Emphasizes the impact on how our experiences change our behavior
Ex. Experience your hand on a hot stove? Your behavior will change to avoid that again
Social learning theory states that we choose to imitate others and we choose who/what we imitate.
Ex. You choose to learn how to play the sousaphone because you chose to hang out with bandos.

14. Socioculture Perspective
Emphasizes aspects about you (like race, sex, gender, socioeconomic status) and how others treat you because of these aspects
Ex. Black students tend to score lower than average when tested in a room with a white proctor (but score average when the test is given by a black proctor)
Ex. Women are often outnumbered by men 10:1 in college engineering programs. Do women choose not to go into engineering or are they being steered away from high level math/science classes in high school?