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History of Psychology and its Various Schools of Thought

History of Psychology and its Various Schools of Thought. Ancient Greece. Socrates gives psychology i ntrospection : method where participant self-observes themselves and reports thoughts and feelings.

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History of Psychology and its Various Schools of Thought

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  1. History of Psychology and its Various Schools of Thought

  2. Ancient Greece • Socrates gives psychology introspection: method where participant self-observes themselves and reports thoughts and feelings. • Aristotle laid down the foundation of association: mentally linking thoughts/experiences with other thoughts/experiences • Ex. You associate a vacation with being happy, bacon and eggs with the morning.

  3. Middle Ages • AKA The “Dark” Ages (and you can see why…) • Various psych disorders were considered “demonic possession,” “witchcraft,” etc.

  4. Structuralism • 1879 first Psychology lab created in Germany, set up by Wilhelm Wundt • Had a background in physiology, study of the body. • Structuralist: psychologist who studies the basic elements/pieces of experiences • Two main pieces: • objective sensations (observation) • Subjective feelings (introspection)

  5. Functionalism • William James: taught first class in psychology at Harvard in 1875 • Often called “father of psychology” in U.S. • Wrote the discipline’s first textbook in 1890. • Functionalist: one who studies the functions/purposes of consciousness

  6. Behavioral Psych. • Behaviorism: focuses on behaviors and what specifically causes them. • Direct link between a stimulus and a response. • Ivan Pavlov’s dogs can be conditioned to respond to certain stimuli. • John Watson experimented on and applied these principles to humans • B.F. Skinner added the concept of reinforcements/ punishments.

  7. Gestalt Psychology • Focuses on our understanding of the world through recognizing patterns and groupings • Gestalt = German for “shape/form” • We learn through playing around with these gestalts • How do we learn our alphabet?

  8. Psychoanalytic • Sigmund Freud was more interested in the unconscious mind. • Psychoanalysis: Explores primal urges lurk underneath our willingness to follow societal norms • Focused mostly on the practices of dream interpretation and free association • Sometimes called “psychodynamic” because thoughts/behavior is being determined by dynamic unconscious processes.

  9. Biological Perspective • Biological Psych: Study the impact of chemical imbalances, effect of medications, and the “wiring” of the brain • Get all the cool toys like MRIs, fMRIs, CAT scans, etc. • Behavior can be determined by biological processes.

  10. Evolutionary Perspective • Starts with Darwin’s “Survival of the Fittest” idea • Biological and Psychological adaptations have developed in ways that make us more likely to survive and reproduce • Ex. When we are depressed about our lives, we tend to lack energy. If our energy levels went up instead, we may be more likely to carry out a suicide.

  11. Cognitive Perspective • Cognitive Psych: Focus on how the brain receives, stores, and retrieves information • Also focus on the learning process and language acquisition • Big in the 1950s with psychologists like Jean Piaget and Noam Chompsky

  12. Humanist Psych • In response to the stark behavioralists • Humanist Psych: Believed that human nature evolves and is self directed • Abraham Maslow developed his Hierarchy of Needs, which suggests which human needs must be met in a particular order

  13. Learning Perspective • Emphasizes the impact on how our experiences change our behavior • Ex. Experience your hand on a hot stove? Your behavior will change to avoid that again • Social learning theory states that we choose to imitate others and we choose who/what we imitate. • Ex. You choose to learn how to play the sousaphone because you chose to hang out with bandos.

  14. Socioculture Perspective • Emphasizes aspects about you (like race, sex, gender, socioeconomic status) and how others treat you because of these aspects • Ex. Black students tend to score lower than average when tested in a room with a white proctor (but score average when the test is given by a black proctor) • Ex. Women are often outnumbered by men 10:1 in college engineering programs. Do women choose not to go into engineering or are they being steered away from high level math/science classes in high school?

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