1. The Old World’s Fascination with Abnormality: Trephining/Trepanning
drilling holes into the brain to release “something” – evil spirits, etc
Used to “cure” mental illness
Evidence of trephining found all over the ancient world:
Ancient Egypt
Far and Middle East
India
Aztecs, Inca
Brazilian tribes
South Seas
North and Equatorial Africa

2. 1880’s-1950’s
Age of the Lobotomy
Age of the Lobotomy

3. Medieval thru Renaissance
Emergence of science
Emergence of humanism
Thinking transitioned from god/spirit centered to human centered
Grünewald’s The Temptation of St. Anthony
Human qualities of temptation and evil

4. John Locke 1632-1704 Empiricism
Knowledge based on sensations and reflection
Tabula Rasa argues NURTURE over nature

5. Max Wertheimer
Gestalt Psychology (gestalt =German for a form or a whole)
Emphasizes human tendency to integrate pieces of information to meaningful wholes

6. William James 1842-1943 Add to your notes his famous work:
Principles of Psychology

7. Names and Famous Milestones to Know
Galileo – method of inquiry (transition to human-centered)
Broca – French, discovers left area of frontal lobe in charge of language (called Broca’s area)
G Stanley Hall – adolescence
Hermann Ebbinghaus – forgetting curve/memory
Titchener – structuralism (introspection)
Sigmund Freud – psychoanalysis
Wertheimer and Koffka – Gestalists
Galen – first biochemist in the field
Ivan Pavlov – conditioning (dog drool)
Watson - behaviorist

8. Approaches to Psychology: The Big 5
Behavioral
Humanist
Biological
Psychodynamic
Cognitive

9. Approaches to Psychology
Why do people do that?
Why do people behave that way?
These are the 2 questions we are going to be answering per approach… keep them in mind!

10. BIOLOGICAL/NEUROBIOLOGICAL
Brain, body, genetics
Answer: People do it because their brain/body chemicals, or lack thereof, cause them to do it

11. GENETIC-BEHAVIORAL Within groups, what is nature and what is nurture
Answer: People do it because their genetic predispositions cause them to do it

12. EVOLUTIONARY/SOCIOBIOLOGICAL
Which behaviors evolved to get genes to the next generation
Answer: People do it because their internal drive to survive/pass on their DNA makes them do it

13. SOCIOCULTURAL Which behaviors derive from group membership
Answer: People do it because their culture/ethnic group/country/religion/peer group/family/society taught them that this is the way you do it

14. HUMANISTIC/HUMANISM Free will, human growth and potential
Answer: People ALL have the ability to do it – everyone can choose to do it (agency in its pure form)

15. PSYCHOANALYTICAL/PSYCHODYNAMIC
Behavior is driven by unconscious impulses (sex and aggression)
Answer: People do IT (fight, have sex) because it is all they ever unconsciously think about doing

16. COGNITIVE
Thinking – how the brain acquires, stores, processes, and retrieves information
Answer: Anyone can do it if they THINK they can do it; whether you think you can or you can’t, you’re right

17. DEVELOPMENTAL Predictable patterns of change throughout life
Answer: People do it when their age/stage of development allows them to be able to do it

18. TRAIT
Individual differences result from differences in patterns of stable characteristics (i.e. personality traits – introverted vs. extroverted)
Answer: People do it because that is simply WHO they are

19. So what do we do with all this mess?
We evaluate the three biggest issues in the field today –
NATURE VS NURTURE
STABILITY VS CHANGE
RATIONAL VS IRRATIONAL

20. Oh it gets better…
You can break down these fields into subfields depending on where your specialty/interests lie
Industrial
Personality
School: test admin, severe cases
Clinical: diagnose and treat severe disorders
Counseling: less sever disorders, low level depression, phobias
Research5
Sports
Psychometric: test designers, statistics
Forensic: CSI, military operations

21. Test Subjects