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Unit 1: History & Approaches
AP Psychology Ms. Desgrosellier 9.13.2010
ROOTS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Dualism: the philosophy that the mind and the body are two different things that interact.
e.g. Physiologist Hippocrates thought the mind or soul resided in the brain, but was not composed of physical substance.
ROOTS OF PSYCHOLOGY
e.g. Philosopher Plato (~ 350 BC) also believed in dualism, and used self-examination of inner ideas and experiences to conclude that who we are and what we know are innate (inborn).
e.g. In ~ 1650, René Descartes studied monism and came up with the saying “I think, therefore I am.”
ROOTS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Monism: the mind and body are different aspects of the same thing.
e.g. The philosopher Aristotle believed that the mind/soul results from our anatomy and physiological processes, that reality is best studied by observation, and that who we are and what we know are acquired from experience.
ROOTS OF PSYCHOLOGY
e.g. Empirical philosopher John Locke believed that mind and body interact symmetrically, knowledge comes from observation, and what we know comes from experience since we are born without knowledge (tabula rasa “a blank slate”).
ROOTS OF PSYCHOLOGY
The debate about whether our behavior is inborn or learned through experience is called the nature-nurture controversy.
ROOTS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Nature = inborn = genetic
Nuture =experience = environmental
SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY
By the 1800s, psychology was beginning to emerge as a separate scientific discipline.
Charles Darwin applied the law of natural selection to human beings, forwarding the idea that human behavior and thinking are subject to scientific inquiry.
SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Physiologists Ernst Weber and Gustav Fechner showed how physical events are related to sensation and perception.
Hermann von Helmholtz measured the speed at which nerve impulses travel.
Structuralism Wilhelm Wundt set up the first
psychological laboratory in Germany in 1879.
He was measuring the difference between when people heard a sound occur versus when they consciously aware they had perceived the sound (one-tenth of a second difference).
Structuralism
G. Stanley Hall set up a psychology lab at Johns Hopkins University employing introspection, helped found the American Psychological Association, and became its first president.
Structuralism
Edward Titchener founded the field of Structuralism.
Used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind.
Structuralism
Margaret Floy Washburn was Titchener’s first graduate student and the first woman to complete her Ph. D. in psychology.
DO NOW:
What are the two roots of psychology?
In your own words, briefly summarize the nature-nurture controversy.
Functionalism
William James, the “father” of functionalism, was interested in the function or purpose of behavioral acts.
Other big names: James Cattell and John Dewey.
Functionalism The so-called School of
Functionalism studied mental testing, child development, and educational practices.
They wanted to apply psychological findings to practical situations and the function of mental operations in adapting to the environment.
Functionalism
Mary Whiton Calkins, who studied psychology under James at Harvard, was denied her Ph. D.
Became the first woman president of the American Psychological Association.
Other Famous Firsts
In 1920, Francis C. Sumner became the first African-American to receive a Ph. D. in Psychology.
Other Famous Firsts In 1933, Inez Beverly Prosser
became the first African-American woman to receive a Ph. D. in Psychology.
Prosser argued in her dissertation that "racial injustices and feelings of isolation have damaging effects on the psyche of Black children."
Other Famous Firsts
1953 – Carlos Albizu Miranda became one of the first Latinos to earn a Ph. D. in Psychology in the United States.
Other Famous Firsts
1962 - Martha Bernal: First Latina to earn a PhD in psychology, in clinical psychology from Indiana University Bloomington.
PRINCIPAL APPROACHES TO PSYCHOLOGY
Behavioral Approach behavioral approach:
focuses on measuring and recording observable behavior in relation to the environment.
Behaviorists think behavior results from learning.
Dominated psychology from the 1920s to the 1960s.
Behavioral Approach They analyze the ABCs of behavior:
A: Antecedent environmental conditions that precede a behavior
B: Behavior (the action to understand, predict, and/or control)
C: Consequences that follow the behavior (its effects on the environment)
Behavioral Approach Behaviorists reject the study of
consciousness/mental processes because they cannot be observed and verified or disproved.
Behavioral Approach Ivan Pavlov: Russian
physiologist who trained dogs to salivate in response to the sound of a tone, demonstrating stimulus-response learning.
John B. Watson: worked with classical conditioning, and is famous for the “Little Albert” experiment.
Behavioral Approach B. F. Skinner: worked mainly with
laboratory rats and pigeons, demonstrating that organisms tend to repeat responses that lead to positive consequences and not to repeat responses that lead to neutral or negative consequences.
E. L. Thorndike: a behaviorist whose research led to the scientific foundation of modern educational psychology.
Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic
Approach Sigmund Freud: “father” of the
psychoanalytic theory.
He focused on unconscious internal conflicts to explain mental disorders, personality, and motivation.
He thought the unconscious is the source of desires, thoughts, and memories below the surface of conscious awareness, and that early life experiences are important to personality development.
Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic
Approach Followers of Freud broke off and
formed a new branch of psychology, called the psychodynamic approach.
Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, and Karen Horney
They each took psychoanalysis and then changed a same part.
Humanistic Approach
Started in the middle of the 20th century by Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers.
They thought that the unique qualities of free will and potential for personal growth guide behavior and mental processes.
Humanistic Approach Humanists emphasize the
importance of people’s feelings and view human nature as naturally positive and growth seeking.
They use interview techniques and believe that people have the ability to solve their own problems.
DO NOW:
In your own words, describe ONE of the following fields of psychology and list on major theorist for each.
structuralism functionalism behaviorism psychoanalysis/psychodynamic
Biological ApproachAlso known as Neuroscience,
Behavioral Neuroscience, and Biopsychology.
Around the same time as Humanism began taking off, research on the physiological bases of behavior grew.
Biological Approach Technological advances allowed
biologists to examine how complex chemical and biological processes within the nervous and endocrine systems are related to behavior.
Many biological psychologists think that the mind is what the brain does.
Evolutionary Approach
An offshoot of the biological approach.
Based on Darwin’s Theory of Natural Selection.
Behavior patterns as adaptations naturally selected because they increase reproductive stress.
Cognitive Approach the study of consciousness, or
thinking and memory.
Cognition emphasizes the importance of the following to understand human behavior: receiving, storing, and
processing information. thinking and reasoning language
Cognitive Approach
Jean Piaget studied cognitive development in children, laying part of the foundation for preschool and primary educational approaches.
Sociocultural Approach
Started in the second half of the 20th century.
Studies social and environmental factors that influence cultural differences in behavior
It studies cultural differences in an attempt to understand, predict, and control behavior.
Eclectic Approach No single theoretical approach
explains all aspects of behavior, although all provide a framework for studying and understanding behavior.
Most modern psychologists adopt ideas from multiple perspectives.
eclectic: psychologists who use techniques and adopt ideas from a variety of approaches.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Scientific psychology developed in universities with research laboratories where basic research was conducted, and where experimental psychologists continue to ad knowledge to the field.
After WWII, many opportunities for applied psychologists developed outside of these institutions.
Job opportunities grew, and the field became more fragmented and specialized.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Examples:
clinical psychologists: evaluate and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders.
Counseling psychologists: help people adapt to change to make changes in their lifestyle.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Developmental psychologists: study psychological development throughout the lifespan.
Educational psychologists: focus on how effective teaching and learning take place.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Engineering psychologists: and human factors psychologists promote the development and application of psychology to improve technology, consumer products, energy systems, communication and information, transportation, decision making, work settings, and living environments.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Forensic psychologists: apply psychological principles to legal issues.
Health psychologists: concentrate on biological, psychological, and social factors involved in health and illness.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Industrial/Organizational psychologists: aim to improve productivity and the quality of work life by applying psychological principles and methods to the workplace.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Neuropsychologists: explore the relationships between brain/nervous systems and behavior. Neuropsychologists are also called biological psychologists of biopsychologists, behavioral geneticists, physiological psychologists, and behavioral neuroscientists.
DO NOW: In your own words, describe one of the
following fields of psychology and list on major theorist for each, if given in class or text.
Humanistic
Biological
Evolutionary
Cognitive
Sociocultural
Eclectic
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Personality psychologists: focus on aspects of the individual such as traits, attitudes, and goals.
Psychometricians: sometimes called psychometric psychologists or measurement psychologists, focus on methods for acquiring and analyzing psychological data.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Rehabilitation psychologists: help clients with mental retardation, developmental disabilities, and disabilities resulting from stroke or accidents adapt to their situations.
School psychologists: assess and counsel students, consult with educators and parents, and perform behavioral intervention when necessary.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Social psychologists: focus on how a person’s mental life and behavior are shaped by interactions with other people.
Sports psychologists: help athletes refine their focus on competition goals, increase motivation, and deal with anxiety and fear of failure.
PROFESSIONS & CAREERS
Psychiatrist: a practioner that specializes in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness.
Has earned a medical degree.
Can prescribe drugs.
EXAMPLES: Dr. Darling was hired by the TLC
Company to help them retain their employees without lowering the firm’s profits. After TLC removed cubicles and permitted employees to decorate their workroom as recommended by Dr. Darling, the absentee rate declined and no employees left for jobs elsewhere. Dr. Darling is most likely to be what kind of psychologist?
EXAMPLES: Answer:
Industrial/Organizational
EXAMPLES:
Professor Nash studies the degree to which genes and heredity influence our personality. She is working from the _________ perspective.
Answer: Evolutionary
EXAMPLES:
Dr. Catchings, who explores how Asian and North American definitions of attractiveness differ, is working from the _________ perspective.
Answer: sociocultural
EXAMPLES:Professor Hughes believes
that people are essentially good and that we are all striving for personal growth. She studies how free will guides behavior and mental processes. She is most likely what kind of psychologist?
EXAMPLES:
Answer: Humanistic
EXAMPLES:Dr. Richardson studies the way
the mind encodes, processes, stores, and retrieves information. He also specializes in language acquisition and memory. Which approach does Dr. Richardson most likely follow?
Answer: Cognitive
EXAMPLES:Professor Grays believes that
all behavior is learned from one’s environment. She studies how conditioning can be used to reinforce behavior in animals. She is most likely what kind of psychologist?
Answer: Behavioral
EXAMPLES:
Dr. House’s research centers on the relationship between changes in our thinking over the life span and changes in moral reasoning. Dr. House most likely uses which kind of approach?
Answer: Developmental
EXAMPLES:Professor Moran, who believes
that human emotions are best understood as being jointly determined by heredity, learning, and the individual’s social and cultural contexts, is evidently a proponent of which perspective?
Answer: Eclectic
EXAMPLES:
Dr. Foster believes that all behavior is a direct result of our physiology. She is most likely which kind of psychologist?
Answer: Biological
EXAMPLES: Professor Dia believes that
one’s subconscious is the root of all behavior. He studies how unconscious internal conflicts to explain mental disorders, personality, and motivation. Professor Dia is which kind of psychologist?
Answer: Psychoanalytic
