PSYCHOLOGYS HISTORY Module 1 LEARNING OBJECTIVES Describe how

PSYCHOLOGY’S HISTORY Module 1

LEARNING OBJECTIVES • Describe how psychology developed from its prescientific roots in early understandings of mind and body to the beginnings of modern science. • Describe some important milestones in psychology’s early development. • Describe how psychology continued to develop from the 1920’s through today.

PRESCIENTIFIC PSYCHOLOGY • India – Buddha pondered how sensations & perceptions combine to form ideas. • China – Confucius stressed the power of ideas & an educated mind. • Israel – Hebrew scholars linked mind & emotion to the body. • Think with their heart; feel with their bowels. • Greece • Socrates & Plato • Mind is separate from the body and continues after death. • Knowledge is innate – born within us • Aristotle • Disagreed that knowledge is innate – it grows from the experiences stored in our memories.

AFTER HUNDREDS OF YEARS…. . • France – Rene Descartes (2000 APPROXIMATELY) • Agreed with Socrates & Plato • Existence of innate ideas and mind’s being “entirely distinct from body” and able to survive death. • Fluid in brain’s cavity contained “animal spirits”. • These flowed through the nerves to the muscles, provoking movement. • Memories formed as experiences opened pores in the brain into which the animal spirits also flow. • Britain – Francis Bacon • • • More down-to-earth form Centered on experiment, experience, and common-sense judgement. Founder of Modern Science (one of them, anyways…) The mind hungers to perceive patterns in random events. “The human understanding, from its peculiar nature, easily supposes a greater degree of order and equality in things than it really finds. ” • Britain – John Locke • An Essay Concerning Human Understanding • The mind at birth is a tabula rasa – a blank slate. • Helped form empiricism – the idea that we know comes from experience, and that observation and experimentation enable scientific knowledge.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE IS BORN December 1879 – Psychology is “born”! • Germany – University of Leipzig • Wilhelm Wundt - seeking to measure “atoms of the mind” - the fastest & simplest mental processes. • Began the first psychological laboratory. • G. Stanley Hall • Student of Wundt • Established the first formal US laboratory @ Johns Hopkins.

BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY/ SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT • Structuralism • Functionalism • Behaviorism Later…. • Gestalt Psychology • Psychoanalysis

STRUCTURALISM • Uses introspection (looking inward) to reveal the structure of the human mind. • Introduced by Edward Bradford Titchener – student of Wundt • • • Method: Engage people in self-reflective introspection Training them to report elements of their experience as they used their senses. How did they feel? How did they relate to each other? • C. S. Lewis – “There is one thing, and only one in the whole universe which is ourselves. ” “We have, so to speak, inside information. ” • Problems with introspection: • Required smart, verbal people • Results varied from person to person & experience to experience.

FUNCTIONALISM • Explored how mental and behavioral processes function – how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish. • Influenced by William James and Charles Darwin. • • Considered the evolved functions of our thoughts and feelings. Why do our senses do what they do? Senses developed because it was adaptive – it contributed to our ancestors’ survival. Consciousness serves as a function. • Consider our pasts • Adjusts to our present • Plan for our future • Encouraged explorations of down-to-earth emotions, memories, willpower, habits, and moment-to-moment streams of consciousness. • James wrote the first psychology textbook, Principles of Psychology.

WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY • Mary Whiton Calkins • 1 st woman in James’ graduate seminar. • Scored higher than all the male students on her Ph. D. exams but Harvard would not award her a degree. • Harvard offered a degree from Radcliffe College but she refused. • 1 st female president of the APA in 1905. • Margaret Floy Washburn • 1 st to graduate from Harvard with Psychology Ph. D. • Wrote The Animal Mind. • Was still bared from joining the organization of experimental psychologist – group of psychologists that studied behavior and thinking using the experimental method.

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE DEVELOPS • Until the 1920’s, psychology was defined as “the science of mental life”. • 1920’s: Behaviorists emerge • John B. Watson & B. F. Skinner • Dismissed introspection • Redefined psychology as “the scientific study of observable behavior”. • Science is rooted in observation. • You can’t observe senses, feelings, or thoughts but you can observe behavior. • Behavior is influenced by learned associations through conditioning. • Freudian psychology • Emphasized the ways our unconscious though process and our emotional responses to childhood experiences affect our behavior. • 1960’s: Humanistic Psychology emerges • Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow • Found Freudian psychology and behaviorism to limiting. • Drew attention to ways that current environmental influences can nurture or limit our growth potential. • Drew importance of having our needs for love and acceptance satisfied. • Led to a cognitive revolution – brought back the ideas of how our mind processes and retains information.

LAST ONE • Cognitive Psychology – scientifically explores the way we perceive, process, and remember information. • Cognitive Neuroscience • An interdisciplinary study • Gives us new ways to understand ourselves and treat disorders. • Today’s definition of Psychology = The science of behavior and mental processes. • Behavior – anything an organism does • Mental – internal, subjective experiences we infer from behavior. • Senses, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, feelings Psychology - A way of asking and answering questions.