founding psychologists
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Founding Psychologists
Chapter 1 Section 2
William Wundt
William Wundt
• Structuralist- interested in the basic elements of human experience
• Laboratory of Psychology- 1879 in Leipzig Germany
• Wanted to pursue the study of government in a systematic and scientific manner
• Established modern psychology as a separate formal field of study
William James
William James
• “Father of Psychology”• Taught the first class in psychology at Harvard
in 1875• Took him 12 years to write the first textbook
in Psychology• Theorized that thinking, feeling, learning, and
remembering have the major function of helping us survive as a species
William James
• Focused on functions or actions of the conscious mind and the goals or purpose of behavior
• Functionalists- study how animals and people adapt to their environments
Sir Francis Galton
Sir Francis Galton
• Wanted to understand how heredity influences a person’s abilities, character, and behavior
• Tracked eminent people and concluded genius or eminence is a hereditary trait
• Did not consider the possibility that the tendency of genius to run in distinguished families might be about the environmental and socioeconomic advantages
Sir Francis Galton
• Believed in “good” marriages• Raised the issue of heredity v. environment
which is a continued subject of debate and study in Psychology today.
Wolfgang Köhler
Wolfgang Köhler
• (1887-1967)• Argued that perception is more than the sum
of its parts- it involves the “whole pattern” (Gestalt in German)
• Studied how sensations are assembled into perceptual experiences
• Became the forerunner for cognitive approaches to the study of Psychology
Sigmund Freud
Sigmund Freud
• Studied the unconscious mind– There lied primitive biological urges that are in
conflict with the requirements of society and morality
– Thought this was responsible for many medically unexplained physical symptoms that troubled his patients
Sigmund Freud
• Used free association for indirectly studying the unconscious processes
• Had the role of psychoanalysts• Still remains contreversial
Ivan Pavlov
Ivan Pavlov
• (1849-1936)• Behavioral Psychologist• Pavlov’s Dog’s experiment• Stressed and interest in observable behavior
versus studying the thought process
John B. Watson
John B. Watson
• Worked with Ivan Pavlov• Believed psychology should concern itself only
with the observable facts of behavior and maintained that all behavior, even apparently instinctive behavior, is the result of conditioning and occurs because the appropriate stimulus is presented in the environment
B. F. Skinner
B. F. Skinner
• (1904-1990)• Introduced the concept of reinforcement to
behavioralism• Wrote a novel on a Utopian society where
behavioralism and reinforcements controlled society
Abraham Maslow
Abraham Maslow
• Humanistic Psychologist• Describes nature as evolving and self-directed• Does not see humans as being controlled by
events in the environment or by unconscious forces
• The environment and other outside forces simply serve as a background to our own internal growth
Carl Rogers
Carl Rogers
• Another humanist• See Abraham Maslow
Jean Piaget
Jean Piaget
• Cognitive Psychologist• Focus on how we process, store, retrieve, and
use information• How that information influences our thinking,
language, problem solving, and creativity• Believes behavior is influenced by a variety of
mental processes– Perceptions, memories, and expectations