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AP History of Psychology
AP History of Psychology
PSYCHOLOGY
From Aristotle to Austria to America
P E R H A P S T H E M O S T FA S C I N AT I N G
AND MYSTERIOUS UNIVERSE OF ALL
I S T H E O N E W I T H I N U S.
PSYCHOLOGY DEFINED
PLATO – GREEK
PHILOSOPHER
EPISTEMOLOGY
❖ What is knowledge?
❖ What is realism?
❖ What is idealism?
ALLEGORY OF THE CAVE
A R I S T O T L E 3 3 5 B. C.
FAT H E R O F P S YC H O L OG Y
Denied Innate ideas – Suggests
that the heart is the seat of mental
processes
ARISTOTLE – GREEK
PHILOSOPHER
MONISM VS. DUALISM
❖ Monism – A Greek idea that held that all things are linked and
inseparable, including the body and mind.
❖ Dualism – The body and the mind are separate. Rene Descartes, the
French philosopher, surmised that the body and the soul were separate
entities only somewhat dependent on each other.
❖ What is the nature of the soul? Descartes: “The sense perceptions and
physical passions of humans depends on the body, but awareness of them
is the job for the soul.”
1600
Monism- Brain and Nervous System
Dualism (Descartes)-
Body(Physical) Mind(Spiritual)
Pineal Gland
FRANCIS BACON
TABULA RASA
MY HEAD IS BIGGER SO I’M A BETTER
PE RSON T HAN YOU…
❖Wilhelm Wundt
❖ University of Leipzig, Germany
❖ Established first Psychology Laboratory in 1879.
❖ Defined psychology as the study of consciousness.
He used scientific methods to study fundamental
psychological processes, such as mental reaction times
in response to visual or auditory stimuli.
TITCHENER AND STRUCTURALISM
❖Edward B. Titchener
❖ A student of Wundt
❖ Structuralism, the first major school
of thought in psychology, maintains that
complex conscious experiences can be
broken down into elemental structures or
parts of sensations and feelings.
❖ Introspection
1 8 8 0 : A M E R I C A N P S YC H O L O G Y
❖William James
❖ Functionalism emphasized studying
the purpose behaviors and mental
experiences.
❖ Offered the first course in
Experimental Psychology at Harvard
University.
1883: FIRST AMERICAN PSYCHOLOGY
L A B O R A T O RY
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A TIMELINE OF
PSYCHOLOGY
1889: SIGMUND FREUD
❖ Theory of Psychoanalysis
❖ Skinner Box
ERIK ERIKSON - 1950
❖Psychological Motives
• Physiological Needs
• Self-actualization
❖Hierarchy of Needs
COGNITIVE REVOLUTION
❖ Human Vision
❖ Phantom Limbs
❖ Evolution of Language
❖ Mirror Neurons
❖ Theories of Autism
❖ Cognitive Neuroscience
WHICH SCHOOL
School/Approach?
Founder?
WHICH SCHOOL
School/Approach?
Founder?
WHICH SCHOOL
School/Approach?
Founder?
WHICH SCHOOL
School/Approach?
Founder?
WHICH SCHOOL
School/Approach?
Founder?
LESSON #2
CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY
A M E R I C A N P S YC H O L O G I C A L
ASSOCIATION
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RESEARCH
BASIC APPLIED
❖ Psychodynamic
❖ Behavioral
❖ Humanistic
❖ Socio-Cultural
❖ Biological
❖ Evolutionary
BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
The study of physical bases of human and animal behavior including the
nervous system, endocrine system, immune system, and genetics.
Evolutionary Psychologists
believe that all of the similarities
and dissimilarities among groups
of organisms are the result of the
branching process creating the
great “tree of life”.
P S YC H O DY N A M I C P E R S P E C T I V E
Emphasizes the importance of unconscious influences, early life experiences,
and interpersonal relationships to explain behavior or in treating people
with psychological problems
❖ Sigmund Freud
• Psychosexual development: psychological development in childhood
takes place in 6 psychosexual stages, and each stage represents the fixation of
libido (sexual drives or instincts)
• Unconscious mind: contains our eros and thanatos
• Psyche: the id, the ego and the super-ego
• Defense mechanisms: operate at an unconscious level to get rid of
unpleasant feelings or make good things feel better for the individual.
PSYCHODYNAMIC APPROACH
Erik Erikson
• Psychosocial Development: describes the impact of social
experience across the whole lifespan
Carl Jung
• Collective Unconscious: The part of the unconscious mind
that is derived from ancestral memory and experience and is
common to all humankind, as distinct from the individual's
unconscious
CARL JUNG
P S YC H O DY N A M I C P E R S P E C T I V E
❖ Other conclusions?
HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
Focuses on the motivation of people to grow psychologically, the influence of
interpersonal relationships on a person’s self-concept, and the importance of
choice and self-direction in striving to reach self-actualization
Humanistic theories
Carl Rogers
• Self actualization: our desire to achieve our highest potential as people
• each person operates from a unique frame of reference in terms of building their
self concept (one’s own beliefs about themselves)
• psychologically healthy people enjoy life to the fullest, hence, they are seen as fully
functioning people
• Fully functioning person= an individual who is continually moving toward self-
actualization. This type of person is open to life's experiences, has trust in himself, and
is able to express his feelings and act independently.
HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
Abraham Maslow
• individuals
have certain
needs that
must be met
in an
hierarchical
fashion from
the lowest to
highest.
HUMANISTIC PERSPECTIVE
The humanistic Perspective says that the self is composed of
concepts unique to ourselves. The self-concept includes three
components:
-Self worth (or self-esteem)
-Self-image
-Ideal self
SOCIAL-CULTURAL
PERSPECTIVE
Focuses on how cultural factors influence patterns of behavior
Culture=characteristics of a group of people, including attitudes, behaviors,
customs and values
Major Topics in Cross-Cultural Psychology
• Emotions
• Language acquisition
• Child development
• Personality
• Social behavior
• Family and social relationship
Social-cultural psychologists usually take one of two approaches
• etic approach-emphasizes similarities of cultures
• emic approach-emphasizes differences between cultures
IS VIOLENCE HISTORY?