+

CHAPTER 1
Psychology: The Evolution of a Science
Lecture 1.1 – Psych 111
+
Definition

 Psychological science is the study

of mind and behaviour
 Aka “the study of human behavirour”

 MIND: Private mental activity and

experiences
 BEHAVIOUR: Observable actions
– all the things that people do.
+
Multicultural Roots

 6th century AD - Lin Xie

 Tested s vulnerability to distraction

 Ancient Egypt - Edwin Smith

Papyrus
 Includes early descriptions of the
brain and how it works
+
Multicultural Roots

 Judeo-Christian tradition - Dead Sea Scrolls

 Note the division of human nature into two temperaments

 India - an elaborate theory of ‘the self’ in the Vedanta

philosophical writings.

 Medieval Muslim physicians developed methods

aimed to treat patients suffering from “diseases of the
mind”
+
Plato & Aristotle

 Plato argued in favor of nativism

 Aristotle
argued for philosophical
empiricism
 A child’s mind is a tabula rasa

 Currently
exists as the “nature
nurture” debate
+
Descartes & Hobbes

 Rene Descartes (1596-1650) – the mind

and body are fundamentally different things

 Dualism – how do the mind and body

communicate with each other?
 The pineal gland

 Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679) argued that

minds and bodies aren’t different entities
 The mind is what the brain does

 Philosophical materialism
+
Realism and Idealism

 Philosophical Realism – Perception of the

physical world are produced entirely by
information from the sensory organs
 John Locke- Philosophical empiricism

 Philosophical Idealism – Perceptions of

the physical world are the brain’s
interpretation of information from the
sensory organs.
 Immanuel Kant – Philosophical nativism
+
Gall

 Franz Joseph Gall (1758-1828) thought that

brains and minds were linked by size.

 Phrenology – specific mental abilities and

characteristics are localized in specific regions of
the brain

 Size of bumps and indentations on the skull tell us

about the brain region under them.
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CHAPTER 1
Psychology: The Evolution of a Science
Lecture 1.2 – Psych 111
+ Hermann von Helmholtz

 Hermann von Helmholtz (1821–

1894): studied human reaction time;
estimated the length of nerve impulse
 Stimulus: sensory input from the
environment
 Reaction time: amount of time taken to
respond to a specific stimulus
+
The “father of experimental psychology”

 Wilhelm Wundt
 First psychology laboratory - University of
Leipzig in 1879
 Soul was irrelevant, must focus on physically
observable phenomena

 Psychology should focus on analyzing

consciousness
 Subjective experience of the world and the mind
+
Structuralism

 The analysis of the basic elements that

constitute the mind

 Structuralism was brought to the US by

Edward Titchener
 Laboratory at Cornell University

 Introspection – the subjective

observation of one’s own experience
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+
Functionalism

 William James believed that

structuralism distorted the true
nature of consciousness

 Functionalism – the study of the

purpose mental processes serve in
enabling people to adapt to their
environment

 Inspired by Charles Darwin and

natural selection
 Our mental abilities must exist the
way they are because they are
adaptive
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Functionalism

 Charles Darwin (1809–1882)

 Inspired James; wrote On the
Origin of Species by Means of
Natural Selection
 Natural selection: theory that
features of an organism that help
it survive and reproduce are
more likely than other features
to be passed on to subsequent
generations
+

STRUCTRALISM FUNCTIONALISM

How can we describe the What purpose does the

neck? neck serve?

Long Reaches food in

Muscular high places
Spotted Camouflaged
Tapered Designed for
Furry battling in males
+

STRUCTRALISM FUNCTIONALISM

How can we describe the What purpose does fear

experience of fear? serve?

Heart palpitations Tells us that danger is

Sweating present
Gets us out of life
Trembling
Fast breathing FEAR threatening situations
Promotes survival
+

Functionalism
+
Functionalism in North
America
 Stanley Hall (1844-1924)
 First Psychology Research Lab in North
America at John Hopkins (1881)
 Believed that child development mirrored the
evolutionary history of the human race

 James Mark Baldwin

 First Psychology Lab in Canada at University
of Toronto (1889)
 Focused on infant development
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CHAPTER 1
Psychology: The Evolution of a Science
Lecture 1.3 – Psych 111
+
Clinical Psychology

 Hysteria – temporary loss of cognitive or motor functions, usually as

the result of emotionally upsetting experiences
 Jean-Martin Charcot and Pierre Janet
 Hysteria could be altered through hypnosis
+

Clinical Psychology - Hysteria

+
Freud & Psychoanalytic Theory

 Hysteria stemmed from painful childhood

experiences not available to conscious
memory
 Suggested the existence of an unconscious
mind

 Psychoanalytic Theory - Emphasizes the

importance of unconscious mental processes
in shaping feelings, thoughts and behaviors

 Psychoanalysis – bringing unconscious

material into conscious awareness
 Aims to link childhood experiences, dreams and
fantasies
+
Psychoanalytic theory: The 5 stages of
psychosexual development
 Freud suggested that if the child experienced sexual frustration
during a psychosexual developmental stage, s/he would experience
anxiety that would persist into adulthood as neurosis.

1. Oral stage

2. Anal stage

3. Phallic stage

4. Latency stage

5. Genital stage
+
+
Humanistic Psychology

 Emphasizes the positive potential of human

beings

 Focuses on self-actualization

 Pioneered by Abraham Maslow and Carl

Rogers

 Humanistic therapists seek to help people

reach their full potential
+ Maslow’s hierarchy of needs
+
+
Behaviorism

 Challenged the idea that psychology

should focus on mental life
 Psychological science must be
objective not subjective

 Focuses on general principles of

learning underlying human and
animal behavior
+
Behaviorism - John
B. Watson (1878-
1958)

 Believed that the goal of scientific psychology should be to predict

and to control behavior in ways that benefit society

 Highly influenced by the work of Ivan Pavlov who focused on S-R

(stimulus – response learning)

 Like animals, when humans are presented with a stimulus (sensory

input) they elicit a response (an action or physiological change)
+
+
Behaviorism - B.F. Skinner

 Focused on learning

 Developed the concept of reinforcement

using the “Skinner Box”
 Organisms repeat behaviors that generate
pleasant results and avoid behaviors that
produce unpleasant results

 Believed that free will is an illusion