The History of Psychology

1. The History of Psychology Mod 1

2. Stinger • Why do you think people study psychology? • How do you personally conceptualize human nature? • Are people naturally good or evil? • Are people born with certain innate senses and skills or are people born as a blank slate on which experiences are written? • Are people the way they are because of their genetic makeup or because of their experiences? 3. What makes psychology different from physical sciences?

3. Prescientific Psychology • How long have people been thinking and writing about the questions that psychologists face today? • Ancient writings • Buddha: sensations, perceptions, ideas • Confuscius: power of ideas • Hebrews: mind, body, and emotion link

4. The Greeks • Socrates (via Plato) • Socratic dialogue • Concept formation • Separation between mind and body • Some innate knowledge • Aristotle • Data • Soul and body not separate • Knowledge comes from experience • Theory of memory

5. The Dark Ages? • St. Augustine • Investigation of the self and mind • Updating of Socratic and Platonic notions • Concept of a natural order • Mind/body connections • Importance of experiences in shaping the condition of the soul • St. Thomas Aquinas • Updating of Aristotle • Natural Law • Drive toward the good or godliness

6. The Renaissance and Enlightenment • Renee DesCartes • Innate ideas distinct from the body • How can body and mind communicate? • Dissected animals • Animal spirits • Discovery of nerves that conduct electricity to muscle • Francis Bacon • Experiment, Experience, and Common Sense • Failings of the human mind • Strong desire for patterns leads to misconceptions • Selective memory and confirmation bias • John Locke • Blank Slate • Experience forges understanding, personality, etc. • Empiricism: the view that knowledge originates with experience and that science should focus on observation and experimentation • Equality at Birth

7. Stop and Review • With which philosophers do you agree and with which do you disagree? Why? • Has our discussion changed your answers to our previous warm-up questions? Why or why not? • Why are so many of these names recognizable? • Why was philosophy indistinguishable from hard science in the beginnings of scientific discovery? Has that persisted? What has changed, if anything? • Is empirical observation a valid method for answering the questions posed by psychologists? Why or why not?

8. Psychological Science is born • What event defines the birth of psychology as we know it today? • William Wundt • First experiment: time lag between hearing a ball hit a platform and pressing a telegraph key vs. time lag for later tasks • Trying to measure atoms of the mind • Development schools of psychology • Structuralism • Functionalism • Gestalt • Behaviorism • Psychoanalysis

9. Structuralism • Focus on the mind’s structure • Edward Bradford Tichener • Introspection regarding reactions to stimuli • “Speak inside information” • Methodological problems • Analyzed material is less predictive (Wilson et al 1989) • “Self-contemplation is a curse” (Roethke 1975) • Recollections often err, especially as to motivation (Myers 2002)

10. Functionalism • Description of what the brain DOES • William James • Influenced by Charles Darwin • Thinking is adaptive and led to survival • Testing truth by practical consequence (ie believing in free will causes people to take action) • Investigated mundane daily brain functions • Mentored women • Mary Clakins: renowned memory researcher • Margaret Floy Washburn The Animal Mind • Principles of Psychology

11. Exit Ticket • Do you think that it is better to examine the structure of the thoughts or their functions? Why? • What is so hard about studying the thought process and motivation for human behavior?

12. Homework • Read Pages 7-13 • Write five discussions questions that you wish to address in class discussion about those pages • Expect a brief quiz on the pages at the beginning of class • Expect to turn in your discussion questions prior to the start of the quiz.