1. Introduction to Approaches in Psychology
Adapted from: Kevin Silber University of Derby

2. Problematic - No “scientific” way
Before Psychology
Philosophers asked questions about the mind:
Plato ( BC): Does perception accurately reflect reality?
Aristotle ( BC): Logic forms the laws of thought
Descartes ( ): “I think therefore I am”
Problematic - No “scientific” way
of studying problems
Scientific Method:
Predict what will happen
Systematically observe events
Do events support predictions

3. The beginnings of Psychology.
This is Marko Marulic ( )
Croatian humanist and poet, born in Split
He probably studied in Padua
First use thought to be around 1506
Title of work was “Psichiologia de ratione animae humanae”
No actual manuscript exists but the work is listed in a list of his works (Life of Marko Marulic from Split) by his contemporary and friend, Franjo Bozicevic

4. The beginnings of Psychology.
First Experimental Psych Lab (1879)
Focuses on the scientific study of the mind.
Wundt insists that Psychological methods be as rigorous as the methods of chemistry & physics.
Wilhelm Wundt
( )
Wundt’s students start labs
across USA ( )

5. Founding Fathers of Psychology
Focus of Experiments:
Wilhelm Wundt ( )
Physiologist & Perceptual Psychologist
Founder of Psychology as a Science
Focus on Introspection:
Edward Titchener ( )
Student of Wundt
Developed Y at Cornell
Introspection – was a lengthy process to be trained to introspect..
Focus on understanding Mental Processes
William James ( )
Philosopher & Psychologist
Formed Y at Harvard

6. Structuralism vs Functionalism
Structuralism (Wundt)
Analyze consciousness into basic elements and study how they are related using Introspection (self-observation of one’s own conscious experiences)
Functionalism (James)
Investigate the function, or purpose of consciousness rather than its structure.
Leaned toward applied work (natural surroundings)

7. Mental Processes cannot
Behaviorism
Scientific Psychology should focus on
observable behaviour.
Y = the study of observable behaviour
Mental Processes cannot
be studied directly
John Watson
( )
Response to introspection.
Stimulus
Response
Psychology
Black box theory OR
Ivan Pavlov

8. Psychology (1920s-1960s) Behaviourism: Science of Observable Behaviour
John B. Watson ( )
Behaviour without Reference to Thought
S-R Psychology
“Little Albert”
Watson –mental events (which cannot be observed) are outside the realm of psychology.
B. F. Skinner ( )
Behaviour modification
The Pigeon
The Skinner Box

9. Psychology (1960s onwards) Gestalt Psychology
“The whole is greater than
the sum of its parts.”
Phi Phenomenon (Max Wertheimer ( ))
Illusion of movement created by presenting visual stimuli in rapid succession.
Max Wertheimer was the primary founder of Gestalt Psychology. He studied with Stumpf and Külpe Began in 1912 with a description of apparent motion or phi phenomenon. The essence of the claim implicit in phi is that phenomenal experience cannot be broken into sensory components. The stimulus for phi movement does not exist in any direct sense in the physical world. From this beginning many aspects of perception were shown to be phenomenally real, but not physically present. Wertheimer also did important research in thinking and problem solving. His posthumously published Productive Thinking (1945) is still in press. Thinking is best done when the parts and wholes are seen in a coherent structure. He identified most teaching of thinking as "stupid" because it did not adhere to the intrinsic structure of the problems that were to be solved, but rather was taught as memorizing formulae that when applied correctly gave the right answer. He believed that if a student learned the intrinsic relations between parts and wholes, they would remember better and be able to generalize better. Wertheimer and all of the early Gestalt psychologists argued that psychological phenomena of perception and reasoning are based much more on the structure of the phenomena than on specific experience. What was perceived was directly a function of the structural relations in the stimulus. And in order to fully understand one must see the relationships that inhere in the phenomena.
WHY?
A reaction against Structuralism.
An attempt to focus attention back onto conscious experience (the mind)

10. Phi Phenomenon Do you see a ball moving back and forth at the top?
Would it surprise you if I said that the moving ball is really one ball presented first on the left and then one on the right? This is true even though it appears like a ball moving across the screen.

11. Kaniza Triangles
The images physically consist of 3 circles with pie shaped wedges removed and 3 angles formed from straight lines. When you look at the images, you will probably see one triangle on top of another. The top triangle typically appears lighter, although the background is physically uniform. The triangular forms and the apparent lightness of the top triangle in comparison with the bottom one are subjective.

12. Freud & Psychoanalysis
The idea of the UNCONSCIOUS
Thoughts, memories & desires exist below conscious awareness and exert an influence on our behaviour
Unconscious expressed in dreams & “slips of the tongue”
Sigmund Freud
( )
Psychoanalytic Theory attempts to explain personality, mental disorders & motivation in terms of unconscious determinants of behaviour

13. (Some) CURRENT Approaches to Psychology
Psychobiology and Neuroscience
Social Psychology
Cognitive Psychology
Developmental Psychology
Health Psychology
Learning and Conditioning

14. Psychobiology and Neuroscience
“the study of the brain and how it causes or relates to behaviour” (Wickens, 2000:3)
Brain and behaviour are linked
behaviour may shape brain activity
brain activity may shape behaviour
Biological psychologists use a number of techniques to study this relationship:
healthy human participants
brain damaged patients

15. Social Psychology
“ The scientific study of the effects of social and cognitive processes on the way individuals perceive, influence and relate to others” (Smith & Mackie, 2000)
Social Psychologists seek to develop theories to explain social behaviour using the same principles, laws and conventions that bind other scientific disciplines.
Emphasis on scientific theories to explain social behaviour
Theories provide general explanations for social behaviour

16. Cognitive Psychology
“How people perceive, learn, remember and think about information” (Sternberg, 1996)
Cognitive psychologists are interested in structures and functions of mind
Assumption - mind is a set of processes that rely on the brain
Assumption - mental processes are linked with observable behaviour
Takes a scientific perspective
Perform controlled experiments testing theories about inner mental processes. Observe the effects of these processes on outward measurable behaviour
Mind cannot be directly studied - but observable effects can be
Cognitive Psychology = the study of mental processes via measurable behaviour

17. Developmental Psychology
“Developmental psychologists study both the similarities and the differences among people as they develop and change over the course of their life” (Carlson et al., 2004)
Many developmental theories involve characterisations of the stages of development that children and adults go through (e.g. Piaget, Erikson).
Some theories concentrate on certain aspects of development (e.g. Kohlberg’s theory of moral development)
Many theories have been influential in shaping the way learning is organised in schools (e.g. Piaget, Vygotsky)
Developmental psychology also takes account of adulthood, old age and even death (e.g. McCrae, Salthouse, Kübler-Ross)

18. Health Psychology
“The aggregate of the specific educational, scientific and professional contributions of the discipline of psychology to the promotion and maintenance of health, the prevention of illness, and the identification of etiological and diagnostic correlates of health, illness and related dysfunction” (Matarazzo, 1980).
Biopsychosocial (mind–body) perspective
The view that health is determined by the interaction of biological mechanisms, psychological processes, and social influences

19. Learning and Conditioning
“Learning is an adaptive process in which the tendency to perform a particular behaviour is changed by experience. As conditions change, we learn new behaviours and eliminate old ones ( Carlson et al, 1997).
Habituation: Simplest form of Learning
Learning not to respond to unimportant events that occur repeatedly
Classical Conditioning: learning about the conditions that predict a significant event
Pavlov’s Dogs

20. In Summary…. Psychology is Empirical
Knowledge acquired through observation
Psychological conclusions based on research NOT tradition or common sense
Psychology develops in both a social & historical context
Behaviour is shaped by genes and environment (nature & nurture)
Psychology is theoretically diverse (different approaches)