Introduction

to Psychology
/
PSY 101

Presented By:
GROUP 1
 STRUCTIORALISM
 FUNCTIONALISM
 BEHAVIORISM
STRUCTIORALISM
 Wilhelm
Wundt (1832-
1920)
 German physiologist who was
trained in medicine.
 Specialized in the scientific study
of human consciousness.
 Established the first psychological
laboratory at the University of
Leipzig in Germany in 1879.
 Invented his own laboratory
equipment.
Subject Matter of Psychology:
• Wundt defined psychology as the study of the
structure of conscious experience.
• The goal was to find the 'atoms' of conscious
experience, and from there to build a knowledge of
how the atoms combine to create our experience.
• Wundt hoped to thus emulate the success of the
natural sciences
Methods of Psychology:
• As psychology was defined as the study of experience, and as an
outside observer cannot gather information on subjective
experience.
• Wundt turned to introspection (experimental self- observation)
as the tool for gathering data.

Introspection

• Researchers were trained with specific criteria for becoming

skilled introspects.
Conclusion:
• Structuralism was the study of the most basic elements,
that make up our conscious mental processes.
• Elements of the Mind:
Sensations - are relatively meaningless bits of
information that result when the brain processes electrical
signals that come from the sense organs.
Perceptions- are meaningful sensory experiences
that results after the brain combines hundreds of
sensations.
FUNCTIONALISM
William James
(1842-1910)
 American pragmatist and Psychologist.
 Went to Germany and met Wundt and Helmholtz.
 Brought Functionalism in the US.
 First American psychologist.
 Father of American Psychology.
 Wrote the first general text book on psychology, The Principles of
Psychology (1890).
 He moved from psychology to philosophy.
 He took a strong individualistic perspective rooted in individual
experience.
 He argued forcibly against the structuralism position that conscious can
be broken into constituent parts.
 Coining the phrase 'stream of consciousness', James proposed that
mental life is a unity that flows and changes.
 “Consciousness is a continuum”.
 In Principles of Psychology he presented illuminating ideas concerning
consciousness, attention, memory, habits, and emotions.
 Emotions are caused by physiological changes.
Subject Matter of Psychology:
• Psychology is the study of mental activity (e.g.
perception, memory, imagination, feeling, judgment).
• Mental activity is to be evaluated in terms of how it
serves the organism in adapting to its environment.
• Focuses on the functions of the mind.
• Study of how a mental process operates.
• Study of how the mental process functions in the
evolution of the species, what adaptive property it
provides that would cause it to be selected through
evolution.
Methods of Psychology:
• Mental acts can be studied through introspection, the
use of instruments to record and measure.
• Objective manifestations of mind, through the study of
its creations and products.
• And through the study of anatomy and physiology.
Conclusion:
• Functionalism was the study of the function rather than
the structure of consciousness, was interested in how
the minds adapt to our changing environment .
• Attention, Memory, and Emotion
Behaviorism
 John Broadus
Watson
(1878-1958)
 An American psychologist who
established the psychological
school of behaviorism.
 Promoted a change in
psychology through his
address Psychology as the
Behaviorist Views.
 Burrhus Frederic
Skinner
(1904-1990)
 Was an American psychologist,
behaviorist, author, inventor, and social
philosopher.

 He considered free will an illusion and

human action dependent on
consequences of previous actions.

 He developed behavior analysis, the

philosophy of that science he called
radical behaviorism.

 To strengthen behavior, Skinner used

operant conditioning, and he considered
the rate of response to be the most
effective measure of response strength.
 Ivan Petrovich
Pavlov
(1849-1936)
 Was a Russian physiologist
known primarily for his work in
classical conditioning.
History and Origins
• Behaviorism emerged as a reaction to mentalism, a subjective
approach to research used by psychologists in the latter half of the
nineteenth century. In mentalism, the mind is studied by analogy
and by examining one’s own thoughts and feelings—a process
called introspection. Mentalist observations were considered too
subjective by the behaviorists, as they differed significantly among
individual researchers, often leading to contradictory and
irreproducible findings.
• There are two main types of behaviorism: methodological
behaviorism, which was heavily influenced by John B. Watson’s
work, and radical behaviorism, which was pioneered by
psychologist BF Skinner.
What is Behaviorism?
• Behaviorism is the theory that human or animal psychology can be
objectively studied through observable actions (behaviors). This
field of study came about as a reaction to nineteenth-century
psychology, which used self-examination of one’s thoughts and
feelings to examine human and animal psychology.
• This theory implies that the learner responds to environmental
stimuli without his/her mental state being a factor in the learner’s
behavior.
• Individuals learn to behave through conditioning.
• Two types of conditioning:
- Operant
- Classical
Key Takeaways: Behaviorism
• Behaviorism is the theory that human or animal psychology
can be objectively studied through observable actions
(behaviors), rather than thoughts and feelings that cannot be
observed.
• Behaviorism’s influential figures include the psychologists
John B. Watson and BF Skinner, who are associated with
classical conditioning and operant conditioning, respectively.
Classical Conditioning
vs.
Operant Conditioning
• Behaviorists believe that humans learn behaviors through
conditioning, which associates a stimulus in the environment,
such as a sound, to a response, such as what a human does
when they hear that sound. Key studies in behaviorism
demonstrate the difference between two types of
conditioning: classical conditioning, which is associated with
psychologists like Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson, and
operant conditioning, associated with BF Skinner.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
- Learner is able to make a connection with the consequences
associated with his/her behavior through positive and negative
reinforcement and punishment.
• Positive reinforcement - offering a rewarding factor to
increase a response.
Ex. Words of encouragement or physical rewards.
• Negative reinforcement - relinquishing a negative factor to
increase a response.
Ex. A teen cleans his room after being nagged by his
mom.
• Punishment - decreases the chances of a negative behavior
happening again
Ex. A child is spanked by his/her parent after behaving
inappropriately.
OPERANT CONDITIONING
• In operant conditioning, an animal or human learns a
behavior by associating it with consequences. This can be
done through positive or negative reinforcement, or
punishment.
• Operant conditioning is still seen in classrooms today, though
behaviorism is no longer the dominant way of thinking in
psychology.
CLASSICAL CONDITIONING
• Natural reflex that occurs in response to a stimulus.
• Techniques of classical conditioning are used today in
treatment of phobias and anxiety .
• In classical conditioning, an animal or human learns to
associate two stimuli with each other. This type of
conditioning involves involuntary responses, such as
biological responses or emotional ones.
In Addition:
• Behaviorism can still be seen in the modern-day classroom,
where operant conditioning is used to reinforce behaviors.
For example, a teacher may give a prize to students who
perform well on a test, or punish a student who misbehaves
by giving him or her a detention.
• Though behaviorism was once the dominant trend in
psychology in the mid-twentieth century, it has since lost
traction to cognitive psychology, which compares the mind to
an information processing system, like a computer.