Chapter 1

History & Approaches

 Overview

Overview:
What is psychology?
History/Philosophy
Schools of Thought
Summary

Warm up with Crash Course’s Introduction

 What is Psychology?

Psychology is the study of the brain, mental processes,

observable behavior, human and animal development, and
social interactions.
 History of Psychology

Psychology was once a part of philosophy.

Philosophers such as Rene Descartes, John Locke, and

Thomas Hobbes speculated on human nature.
Philosopher Ideas (simplified)

Rene Descartes Universe and world can be describe in

physical laws; but humans have a mind
and therefore cannot be explained fully by
physical laws.
John Locke Humans born blank slate, “tabula rasa.”
All skills and knowledge are learned.
Thomas Hobbes Consciousness or our awareness is a by-
product of the brain.
History of Psychology

Rene Descartes believed that the physical world follows a set

of observable laws or rules. He believed creatures are similar
to machines, in that they are governed by laws and behave in
predictable ways.

Descartes believe that humans are the exception to this rule

because they possess minds. He makes a distinction between
the body and the mind. The mind is not observable and is not
subject to the natural laws. He thought the mind and body
interact through the pineal gland.
History of Psychology

John Locke believed that even the mind is under the control
of rules or laws. Locke believed that the world could be
understood through empiricism – gathering knowledge and
understanding the world through observation and experience.

Locke thought that humans are born as a tabula rasa,

meaning a blank slate, and that everything we know must be
learned.
History of Psychology

Thomas Hobbes believed that everything could be understood

in terms of materialism. This is the belief that the only things
that exist are matter and energy. According to Hobbes, there
is no spirit or soul.

What we experience as consciousness is, in Hobbes’ view,

the by-product of the machinery of the brain.
Schools of Thought

One way to organize all the ideas in psychology is by

categorizing psychological theories and ideas into various
schools of thought.

Each school of thought has a certain way of describing some

aspect of behavior, mental process, or social interaction.
Schools of Thought/Subfields
Structuralism
Functionalism
Psychoanalysis**
Behavioral**
Cognitive**
Humanistic**
Biological/Biomedical/Biopsychology/Neuroscience**
Evolutionary psychology
Sociocultural
Biopsychosocial
 Structuralism
William Wundt & Structuralism

Wilhelm Wundt set up the first psychology lab in Leipzig,

Germany.

Wilhelm Wundt championed the school of thought in

psychology called Structuralism, “father of structuralism.”

Structuralism is an attempt to breakdown the ‘elements’ of

perception into smaller understandable units – similar to
how a chemist breaks down a compound into its elements.
The sensation of ‘red’ or ‘sharp’ or ‘hard’ is understood as
an ‘element’ of consciousness.
Structuralism
Trained subjects in introspection.

Introspection is the examination or observation of one’s own

mental and emotional processes.

He asked trained subjects to record their cognitive reactions

to simple stimuli.

Describe this ______, and tell me your sensation of it.

Structuralism
A trained subject in an experiment is presented with an
object, such as an apple.

The subject would report the physical characteristics of the

apple (e.g., color, length, density, smell, taste, etc.).

Subject told not to report name of object because that does

not describe sensory data of experience.
Structuralism

Describe this object without referring to its name.

Structuralism
Structuralism is not an active area of study in psychology
anymore.
 Functionalism & James

Functionalism & William James

James published The Principles of Psychology, psychology’s

first official textbook.

James championed the school of thought called

Functionalism.
 Functionalism
Functional psychology or Functionalism refers to a
psychological philosophy that considers mental life and
behaviour in terms of adaptation to the person's environment;
it was influenced by Darwin and evolutionary theory.

For example, an explanation for why a baby cries is that it

helps the baby survive.

It is not an active area of psychology anymore.

 Schools of Thought: Gestalt
Psychology

Max Wertheimer & Gestalt Psychology

Wertheimer argued against dividing human thought and

behavior into discrete subjects; that is, he did not like
structuralism.

Gestalt theorists argue and demonstrate that the “the whole is

something else than the sum of its parts.”
Gestalt Psychology

How many triangles are there?

 Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt psychology is not an active area of research anymore.

Some of the ideas of Gestalt psychology have been adopted
and reworked by cognitive psychology.
 Schools of Thought:
Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud & Psychoanalysis

Freud describes how the unconscious mind, dreams, and

other psychological mechanisms exert influence on behavior.

Psychoanalysis is a set of theories related to the study of

the unconscious mind and a set of therapeutic techniques to
help patients recover from psychological disorders.
 Psychoanalysis

A psychoanalyst believes that the unconscious mind – a part

of our mind we do not have access to – controls many of our
thoughts and behavior.

A psychoanalyst would look for impulses or memories

pushed into our unconscious and try to show how these
influence our behavior.
 Schools of Thought:
Behavioral
Ivan Pavlov & Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov studied digestion in dogs which led to an

unintentional discovery.

He noticed that dogs began to salivate when they heard him

or his assistant walking down the hall before entering the
room; dogs paired the sound footsteps with a delicious meal.
Behavioral
 Behavioral

John Watson & Behaviorism

Demonstrated that you could take a neutral stimulus, like a

rabbit, and condition someone, like a baby, to fear the rabbit
by sounding an abrasive noise at the same time the rabbit was
present.

The baby associated the terrible noise with the site of the
rabbit.
 Behavioral

B.F. Skinner & Operant Conditioning

He expands the basic ideas of behaviorism to include the idea

of reinforcement and punishment.
 Schools of Thought:
Humanistic Perspective
Key figures in the Humanistic perspective are Abraham
Maslow & Carl Rogers.

The humanistic perspective stresses individual choice and

freewill (in opposition to other schools of thought like
psychoanalysis and behaviorism that claim that behavior is
determined).

Humanistic psychologists assert that we choose most of our

behaviors and these choices are guided by physiological,
emotional, and spiritual needs.
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
Biopsychology

Biopsychologists explain behavior and human thought strictly

in terms of biological processes: hormones; genetics;
neurotransmitters; disease; brain lesions, etc..
 Evolutionary Psychology

Evolutionary psychologists examine human thoughts and

behaviors in terms of natural selection.

Some psychological traits might be advantageous for survival,

and these traits will be passed on.

Obesity example
 Cognitive Perspective

Cognitive psychologists examine behavior and thought in

terms of how we interpret, process, and remember information.

Jean Piaget’s theory of cognitive development focuses on how

our thinking develops as we develop from infants to adults.

A cognitive psychologist might explain a person’s tendency to

be extroverted in terms of how he or she interprets social
situations.
Sociocultural Psychology

Sociocultural psychologists look at how our thoughts and

behaviors vary from people living in other cultures. They
emphasize the influence culture has on the way we act and
think.

How much value does the culture place on being part of a

group versus being an individual?

What kind of behaviors are appropriate in some countries but

not in others?
Biopsychosocial Model

The biopsychosocial model acknowledges that human

thinking and behavior results from combinations of
biological, psychological, and social factors.

For example, anorexia may be explained as having

biological, psychological, and cultural causes.
Summary
Approach Cause of Behavior Method for Investigation

Biological Genes, hormones, physiology, brain, Brain scans, genetic

body analysis, investigating
physiology/biology
Cognitive Personal thoughts, thinking patterns, Investigating thoughts,
brain processes, neural networks patterns of thinking, and
making analogies with
computer models about the
brain
Humanistic Self-concept, self-esteem Talk-therapy

Psychoanalytic/ Unconscious mind, trauma Dream analysis, talk-therapy

dynamic
Behavioural S/R responses, Understanding previous
reinforcement/punishment reinforcement/punishment
history
Summary
Approach Cause of Behavior Method for Investigation

Sociocultural Differences in cultural background Cross-cultural studies

Evolutionary Natural selection Genetic analysis, species

comparisons
Structuralism --- Introspection studies

Functionalism Natural selection Species comparison

Gestalt Sensory/Perception processing ---

Psychology
Biopsychosocial Aims to understand behavior through
model multiple schools of thought
Schools of Thought

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