Psychologys Roots Big Ideas and Critical Thinking Tools
Psychology’s Roots, Big Ideas, and Critical Thinking Tools Chapter 1
Psychology’s Roots § Psychological Science Is Born § Contemporary Psychology
Four Big Ideas in Psychology § Big Idea 1: Critical Thinking is Smart Thinking § Big Idea 2: Behavior is a Biopsychosocial Event § Big Idea 3: We Operate With a Two-Track Mind (Dual Processing) § Big Idea 4: Psychology Explores Human Strengths as Well as Challenges
Why Do Psychology? § The Limits of Intuition and Common Sense § The Scientific Attitude
Psychology’s Roots Aristotle (384 -322 B. C. E. ) One of the first thinkers to ask serious questions about learning and memory, motivation and emotion, perception and personality.
Psychology’s early pioneers came from many disciplines • Wilhelm Wundt – German philosopher & physiologist • Charles Darwin – English naturalist • Ivan Pavlov – Russian physiologist • Sigmund Freud – Austrian physician • Jean Piaget – Swiss biologist • William James – American philosopher
Waves of Psychology • The science of psychology has gone through about 5 different waves since it started. • Waves are different ways of thinking over time.
Psychological Science is Born The first psychology experiments • Leipzig, Germany 1879 • Wilhelm Wundt and his students attempt to study the “atoms of the mind” • Experiment: How long for subjects to press a button after a ball drops.
William James • William James was an American philosopher, and wrote the highly influential Principles of Psychology in 1890
A Man’s World? William James’ student, Mary Calkins, became the first female president of the APA Animal behaviorist Margaret Floyd Washburn was the first female psychology Ph. D (from Cornell) and the second female APA president
Wave Two: Gestalt Psychology • Led by Max Wertheimer, these guys focused not on how we feel, but on how we experience the world. • The whole of an experience can be more than the sum of its parts. This may seem like one picture, but it can be perceived as 2 different faces. Can you find them?
What do you see?
Wave Three: Psychoanalysis • This wave of thinking started with Sigmund Freud (in the early 1900’s). • In a nutshell, during this time period people believed that most of your feelings come from a hidden place in your mind called the unconscious. • We protect ourselves from our real feeling by using defense mechanisms.
Freudian Psychology • Sigmund Freud was an Austrian physician • Emphasized the importance of unconscious sexual conflicts and the mind’s defenses against its own wishes and impulses
Wave Four: Behaviorism • During this time period (early to mid 1900 s), people started to ignore how you feel inside. • All that mattered was how you acted. • If you could change your behavior, who cares how you feel. • Very popular during the conservative 1950’s when social appearance mattered more than self expression.
Behaviorist Experiment: Little Albert • John B. Watson and Rosalie Rayner showed fear could be learned, in experiments with the baby known as “Little Albert”
Wave Five: Eclectic • We are now in wave five…. which is about variety. • Psychologists pick and choose what theories to use depending on the situation and the client.
Wave Five is made up of about 7 different perspectives. In other words, psychologists today, pick and choose from about 7 schools of thought to help you with your problems. Thus we have: THE SEVEN SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Biopsychology (Neuroscience) Perspective • All of your feelings and behaviors have an organic root. • In other words, they come from your brain, body chemistry, neurotransmitters, etc… Let us imagine for a second that your dog died (sad but it will happen). You become depressed. You stop eating and sleeping. What would a psychologist from this school say is going on and how might they help you?
Evolutionary Perspective • Focuses on Darwinism. • We behave the way we do because we inherited those behaviors. • Thus, those behaviors must have helped ensure our ancestors survival. How could this behavior ensured Homer’s ancestors survival?
Psychoanalytic Perspective • Focuses on the unconscious mind. • We repress many of our true feelings and are not aware of them. • In order to get better, we must bring forward the true feelings we have in our unconscious. If a man has intimacy issues and cannot form relationships with others. What do you think someone from this school may think? Perhaps they may delve into the man’s unconscious and discover that he was bullied when he was younger. The bullying may have caused fear in getting close to others.
Behavioral Perspective Pretend that you fail psychology class. • You become depressed. In turn, you begin to binge and gain weight. Focuses on observable behaviors while putting feelings to the side. • We behave in ways What do you think a because we have been behaviorist may do? conditioned to do so. They would probably ignore • To change behaviors, the fact that you are we have to recondition depressed and just focus on your overeating. the client. Maybe make you run a mile every time you eat over 2000 calories.
Humanist Perspective • Peaked in the late 60’s and 70’s…. so it focused on spirituality and free will. • We have to strive to be the best we can be “self-actualization”. • Happiness is defined by the distance between our “selfconcept” and “ideal self”.
Cognitive Perspective • Focuses on how we think (or encode information) • How do we see the world? • How did we learn to act to sad or happy events? • Cognitive Therapist attempt to change the way you think. You meet a girl… Hopes are high!!! She rejects you…don’t even get digits. How do you react to the rejection? Some learned to get back Some learned to give up and on the horse live a lonely life of solitude. And try again.
Social-Cultural Perspective • Says that much of your behavior and your feelings are dictated by the culture you live in. • Some cultures kiss each other when greeting, some just bow. • Does your culture place value on individual or the group?
Psychology’s Three Big Debates • Nature Versus Nurture • Stability Versus Change • Continuity Versus Discontinuity
The Definition of “Psychology” • For early pioneers, psychology was defined as “the science of mental life” • This has evolved over the years as new perspectives were developed Behaviorism Cognitive Revolution! Freudian Psychology Humanistic Psychology “Science of mental life” time Cognitive Neuroscience
Psychology Today • Today, we define psychology as the science of behavior and mental processes • Behavior: the study of an animal’s observable actions” • Mental processes: Internal states and events such as thoughts, feelings, and beliefs. • Note: Even mental processes are related to behavior: we infer feelings and thoughts from what someone says and does.
Psychology’s Subfields Psychologist Biological Developmental Cognitive Personality Industrial. Organizational What they do Explore the links between brain and mind. Study changing abilities from womb to tomb. Study how we perceive, think, and solve problems. Investigate our persistent traits. Study and advise on behavior in the workplace.
Psychology’s Subfields (cont’d) Psychologist What they do Counseling Help people cope personal and career challenges by recognizing their strengths and resources. Clinical Assess and treat mental, emotional, and behavior disorders Social Explore how we view and affect one another Crash Course
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