The Story of Psychology

1. The Story of Psychology Prologue

2. What’s in this Chapter? • Where did psychology come from anyway? • Schools of thought • Why do we need psychology? • applications of psychological knowledge • So what’s the big deal? • major issues

3. What is Psychology? Psychology The science of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, feelings)

4. 4 Broad Divisions of Psychology • Physical characteristics • Cognitive activities • Emotional states • Environmental factors

5. Psychological Research • Majority of research is performed on animals • Animals make useful subjects for the following reasons: • Longer periods of study • Shorter life spans • The “good subject” unaware of experiment • Cats often used for neurophysiology experiments • May be used unethically • Remarkable similarities in human processes • Explains hunger, thirst, reproduction,/ Provides info on vision, taste, hearing, and pain perception/Understanding of genetic vulnerability to drug dependence

6. General Purpose of Psychology • To acquire basic knowledge about behavior • To apply to specific situations • To apply to clinical situations • To apply to society at large

7. “All Hands on DECK” • Current Psychological Perspectives • Turn to page 11 in your textbook • Get your index cards out & make flash cards of theses terms THE most Important info for AP EXAM

8. Psychological Perspectives • Biological (neuroscience): • Study of the physiological mechanisms in the brain and nervous system that organize and control behavior • Interest in BEHAVIOR distinguishes from many other biological sciences • Focus may range from individual neurons, areas of the brain, or specific fxns like eating, emotion, or learning

9. Psychological Perspectives • Evolutionary (ethology): • The study of animal behavior in the natural environment rather than in a lab setting • Focuses on how the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of one’s genes • Influenced by Darwin and the emphasis on innate, adaptive, behavior patterns • European approach to studying behavior founded by animal researchers, Lorenz & Tinbergen

10. Psychological Perspectives • Behavior genetics: • How much our genes and our environment influence our individual difference • To what extent are personality traits, intelligence, sexual orientation, mental disorders, etc. attritbutable to our genes or environment? • Nature vs. Nurture field of study!!!!!! 

11. Psychological Perspectives • Psychodynamic (Sigmund Freud): • how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts • Both a method of treatment and a theory of the mind • Behavior reflects combinations of conscious and unconscious influences • Drives & urges within the unconscious component of the mind influence thought and behavior • Early childhood experiences shape unconscious motivations

12. Psychological Perspectives • Cognitive: • How knowledge is encoded, processed, stored, and retrieved…and used to guide behavior • Influences Include: • Piaget- studied intellectual development • Chomsky- studied language • Cybernetics- science of information processing

13. Psychological Perspectives • Social-cultural/cross-cultural: • How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures • Studies differences among people living in different cultural groups • How are people’s thoughts, feelings and behavior influenced by their culture? • What are common elements across culture? • Uses cross-cultural studies to find cultural universals and relativism

14. Psychological Perspectives • Humanistic: • View of behavior based on experience in treating patients • Humanistic Approach • Dev. By Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers • Behavior reflects innate needs: to be loved, to mate, etc. • Focus on conscious thinking and self-perception • More positive view than Freud’s • Self-awareness & free will are emphasized

15. Discussion • Describe the expressed emotion/behavior according to each of the current psychological perspectives: “ I am depressed.”

16. History of Psychology • Stone ages: mental illness was caused by evil spirits, practice known as Trephining was used to treat mental illnesses • Ancient World (4000BC-500AD): • Greeks & Romans believed evil spirits were the cause or the gods were punishing people • Hippocrates: Father of Modern Science believed mental illness had natural causes • Some traits were inherited; others by injury to the head

17. History of Psychology • The Middle Ages (500-1500 AD): Mental Illness was caused by: • Demonic possession • Witchcraft • Heresy Treatment included: • Imprisonment, torture, death • Blood letting, leaching • Scientific study was forbidden by the church

18. History of Psychology • Scientic Revolution (17th Century): • Attempts to find physical causes for psychological traits • Brought about search for natural causes of biological processes • The scientific method was born

19. Prescientific Psychology • Gave rise to questions such as: • Is the mind connected to the body or distinct? • Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate filled with experience? • Socrates & Plato: • viewed the mind as separate from the body and continuing after death

20. Prescientific Psychology • Rene Descartes (1596-1650): • Agreed with Socrates & Plato • Led to this conclusion with his study of animals and reflexes • However, thought “animal spirits” were in the brain fluid flowing through nerves…creating movement/reflexes • John Locke (1632-1704): • Wrote essay stating that the mind is a Tabula Rasa: “blank slate” • Rejected Descartes and helped form modern empiricism, which the idea that knowledge comes through experience thru senses & science based on observation and experimentation

21. Nature Vs. Nurture • Nativism: elementary idea that ideas are innate (nature) inborn, inherited, instinctive Thus, there is a debate between Nativism and Empiricism, which in psychology is the age long debate of NATURE Vs. NURTURE Hint: some blend together in the Behavior Genetics perspective Ex. Is intelligence determined by our genes or our experiences? personality?

22. Psychology as a Science • Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920): • Est. the 1st psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany • Applied lab techniques to study of the mind • Study of reaction time to hearing a ball hit a platform (sensory stimulation) and pressing a telegraph key • Wrote the 1st psychology textbook • Father of Psychology

23. Psychology as a Science • Edward Titchener: • Wundt’s student who brought the study of psychology to the United States • Due to his techniques of studying the mind, he is linked to Structuralism: the practice of using introspection (looking inward) to explore the elemental structure of the human mind • Charles Darwin: • -evolutionary theorist whose big idea was natural selection or the idea that nature selects those organisms best able to survive and reproduce in an environment

24. Psychology as a Science • William James: • Thought it was most beneficial to consider the evolved functions of thoughts and feelings • Philosophical basis in pragmatism- testing the truth by practical consequences • Associated with functionalism: school of psychology focused on how mental and behavioral processes function- how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish

25. Contemporary Psychology Subfields of Psychology: • Basic Research: pure science aimed to increase knowledge base 1. Biological psychologists explore the links between brain and mind 2. Developmental psychologists study the changing abilities from womb to tomb 3. Cognitive psychologists study how we perceive, think, and solve problems 4. Personality psychologists investigate our persistent traits 5. Social psychologists explore how we view and affect one another

26. Contemporary Psychology Subfields of Psychology: • Applied Research: scientific study aimed to solve practical problems 1. Industrial/organizational psychologists study and advise on behavior in the workplace 2. Clinical psychologistsstudy ,assess, and treat people with psychological disorders 3. Psychiatristsare medical doctors who also perform psychotherapy and are licensed to prescribe drugs with treatment; part of branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders

27. Areas of Specialization

28. Review • An important difference between humanistic and psychoanalytic approaches is that humanistic psychologists believe in the importance of: a. learning b. free will C. determinism d. biological instincts e. unconscious processes

29. Review 2. “I am primarily interested in thinking processes; I am a ____________ psychologist.” a. cognitive b. learning c. perception d. personality

30. Review 3. Freud believed that all thoughts and actions are determined by: a. the first year of life b. forces in the personality that are often unconscious c. needs for love and self-esteem d. the drive for self-actualization

31. Review 4. The largest area(s) of specialization among psychologists is: a. industrial and organizational b. experimental, physiological, & comparative c. social & personality d. clinical & counseling

32. Review 5. The term cognition refers to: a. predicting the future b. analysis and synthesis c. thinking or knowing d. introspection

33. Review 6. Barbara is applying classical conditioning principles to teach language skills to a child who is intellectually deficient (mentally retarded). As a psychologist, her point of view appears to be: a. Freudian b. Gestalt c. functionalist d. behaviorist

34. Review 7. Strict behaviorists were criticized for overlooking the role that _______ plays in our lives. a. reward b. thinking c. punishment d. stimuli

35. Review 8. A psychologist who is ‘eclectic’ can best be described as: a. rejecting determinism in favor of free will b. cognitive rather than behavioral c. drawing from many psychological approaches d. preferring pseudo-psychological approaches

36. Review 9. The study of mental processes such as thinking, perception, information processing, etc. is a key element in ________ psychology. a. humanistic b. cognitive c. behavioral d. biological

37. Review 10. Using encouraging words, assisting someone with an assignment, & nicely questioning someone’s negative attitude/behavior would be considered to be the ____________ of our classroom expectation to ‘build one another up?” a. examples b. theory c. description d. operational definition

38. Chapter 1: Thinking Critically with Psychological Science

39. What’s In This Chapter? • Is Psychology a “real” science? • Can Psychology really explain why people think, act and feel as they do? • How do we actually study the way people act, think and feel?

40. Research Methodology & Design Ways of Knowing We could use:  • Tenacity: Accepting ideas as valid simply because those ideas have been accepted for so long. • Pros • Cons

41. We could use:  • Intuition:Accepting ideas as valid because they "feel" right. • pros: • cons: • 1) Hindsight bias: the tendency to believe, after learning the outcome of something, that we "knew it all along". Ex: 9/11Terrorist Attacks • 2) Overconfidence: the tendency to overestimate the accuracy of our beliefs. “We think we know more than we actually do”!!!! Ex: Fear Factor tv. Show, student taking a test

42. Example of Hindsight Bias • Fact: Psychologists have found that separation strengthens romantic attraction “absence makes the heart grow fonder” • Crap: • Psychologists have found that separation weakens attraction “out of sight-out of mind”

43. Slovic and Fischhoff: • 1979 experiment, 2 groups given a purported Psychological finding • 1st group told information that made sense • 2nd group told opposite info that made sense • When both statements seem factual • We have a problem!

44. We could use: • Authority: Accepting ideas as valid because an authority figure says they are true. Ex. Weapons of Mass Destruction and Iraq • Pros: • Cons: • Rationalism: A process which uses existing ideas and the principles of logic to develop new valid ideas. • Pros: • Cons: Sometimes the existing ideas are invalid. Ex: global warming

45. We Could Use: • Empiricism Gaining knowledge by observing events.  • Pros: • Cons: Can we know what the person is thinking just by watching? We know what he is doing but we don’t know why he is doing it!

46. What we strive for is: • Science:A process that combines rationalism and empiricism. • Rationalism: uses existing ideas and the principles of logic to develop new valid ideas. • How we develop a theory. • Empiricism:Gaining knowledge by observing events.  • How we test the validity of the theory.

47. The Need for Psychological Science • Critical Thinking • thinking that does not blindly accept arguments and conclusions • examines assumptions • discerns hidden values • evaluates evidence • assesses conclusions The Amazing Randi—Skeptic

48. Theory • an explanation using an integrated set of principles that organizes and predicts observations • Ex: the $100.00 bill experiment and the phone booth experiment • Hypothesis • a testable prediction • often implied by a theory

50. Operational Definition • a statement of procedures (operations) used to define research variables • Example: • intelligence may be operationally defined as what an intelligence test measures Some theories of intelligence include artistic and musical abilities; others do not and cover spatial reasoning, verbal reasoning, sequencing, etc. • Example: • Classroom rule SHOW RESPECT: “follow a directive within 5 secs & yes yes ma’am”