History of Psychology

NATIVISM VS. EMPIRICISM

Nativist view- holds that Nativist view- holds that human beings enter human beings enter the world with an the world with an inborn store of inborn store of knowledge and knowledge and understanding of understanding of realityreality

Rene DescartesRene Descartes

Are human capability inborn or acquired through experience? Are human capability inborn or acquired through experience?

Empiricist View – holds that Empiricist View – holds that knowledge is acquired knowledge is acquired through experience and through experience and interactions with the interactions with the world.world.

John Locke -tabula rasa John Locke -tabula rasa “blank slate”“blank slate”

• Psychology has its roots in philosophy and physiology.

A. Traditionally, psychology is said to have began with man’s earliest speculation regarding human nature.

Since the dawn of recorded thought, man has Since the dawn of recorded thought, man has had a curiosity about his own behavior and its had a curiosity about his own behavior and its relationship to causal events. The earliest relationship to causal events. The earliest attempts were essentially attempts were essentially animisticanimistic – wherein – wherein the Gods or the spirits were attributed the the Gods or the spirits were attributed the power to direct or cause events and activities power to direct or cause events and activities of men.of men.

B. The Greek Influence

Democritus – believed that the human mind is composed of atoms which could circulate freely and which enabled it to penetrate the whole body. According to him atoms from our environment enter through our sense organs enabling us to perceive the world around us.

B. The Greek Influence

Plato – the mind or soul is distinct in its own right and is God-given. It enters the body with its reflected perfection of God and rules the body which it inhabits as knower, thinker and determiner of actions.

The soul is composed of three parts:1. head – exerts reason. It is called rational soul.

2. heart – responsible for our noble impulses. It is called emotional soul.

3. diaphragm or abdomen – seat of our own

passions. It is called irrational soul.

B. The Greek Influence

Aristotle – a student of Plato, distinguished three functions of the soul.

1. vegetative soul – concerned with basic maintenance of life.

2. appetitive soul – concerned with motives and desires.

3. rational soul– the governing function located in the heart.

The brain merely performs minor mechanical processes as a gland.

B. The Greek Influence

Galen – contributed his theory of the dependence of human temperament on physiological factors. Differences in behavior is attributed to the “humors” or vital juices of the body namely blood, phlegm, black bile and yellow bile.

He correspondingly named temperaments:1. sanguine – cheerful (blood)2. phlegmatic – sluggish, slow, unresponsive (phlegm)3. melancholic – sad (black bile)4. choleric – irascible, easily angered, hot-tempered

(yellow bile)

C. Medieval Period

St. Agustine – combined Platonic Psychology with Christian thinking. He introduced and use the method of introspection and manifested his interest in distinguishing several faculties of the soul as Will, Memory, Imagination and others, producing the first definite development of what later was called Faculty Psychology.

St. Thomas Aquinas – combined Aristotelian notions to the theologically imperative idea of immortality.

D. Pre-Modern Period

Rene Descartes – formulated a theory of mind-body interaction.

John Locke – in his “An Essay Concerning Human Understanding” introduced the idea as the unit into which all experiences may be analyzed.

D. Pre-Modern Period

George Berkeley – in his theory of knowledge (solipsistic philosophy) said that ideas become the only reality.

Solipsism - the theory that the only possible true knowledge is of self-existence.

David Hume – like Berkeley, wrestled with the problem between impression and

ideas, between images and direct sensations.

E. Scientific Psychology

18791879 – Wilhelm Wundt founded the first – Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, psychological laboratory in Leipzig, GermanyGermany

WundtWundt – Father of Scientific Psychology – Father of Scientific Psychology

1888 – Francis Galton develops correlations

1890 – William James published his Principles of Psychology

E. Scientific Psychology

E. Scientific Psychology

1892 - G. Stanley Hall established the American Psychological Association

1900 – Sigmund Freud “The Interpretation of Dreams”`

- Ivan Pavlov begun studying conditioning

1913 – John Watson “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It”

E. Scientific Psychology

1928 – Hans Berger discovers the method of recording EEG.

EEG (electroencephalogram) – recording of electrical brain waves made by placing disc-shaped electrodes on the surface of the skull.

E. Scientific Psychology

1938 – B. F. Skinner “The Behavior of Organisms”

1951 – Carl Rogers “Client-centered Therapy”

E. Scientific Psychology

1954 – Abraham Maslow “Motivation and Personality”

1967 – Neisser “Cognitive Psychology”

1981 – Roger Sperry wins Nobel Prize on his work on the SPLIT BRAIN.

1983 – Centennial celebration of the founding of G. Stanley Hall’s laboratory

Psychology in France

Phillippe Pinel and others began as early as the 19th century the enlightened psychological interpretation of insanity.

Anton Mesmer – developed hypnosis or “animal magnetism”

Seguin – made use of testing in the teaching of mentally retarded children.

Alfred Binet – Father of Intelligence Tests; started the first intelligence

tests

Psychology in England Charles Darwin – published origin of the species in

1859

Sir Francis Galton studied individual differences and evolved his ingenuous technique of measurement.

Karl Pearson and Spearman gave England a

leadership in the development of Statistical methods

Psychology in Germany

E. H. Weber’s work in 1830 on sensation and stimulation was modified by Fechner in 1860 into the Weber-Fechner Law.

Helmholtz developed the theory of color vision in 1852 and audition in 1863.

Classical Conditioning

• learning that results from the association of two stimuli (a neutral stimulus is paired with a stimulus that reflexively elicits that response.

• kind of learning in which a previously neutral stimulus (one that does not originally elicit a response) acquires the power to elicit the response

after the stimulus is repeatedly associated with another stimulus that ordinarily elicit

the response.

Ivan Pavlov’s Classical Conditioning

Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist is well known for his work in classical conditioning or stimulus substitution. Pavlov’s most renowned experiment involved meat, a dog and a bell. Initially, Pavlov was measuring the dog’s salivation in order to study digestion. This is when he stumbled upon classical conditioning.

Pavlov’s Experiment

Before conditioning, ringing the bell (neutral stimulus) caused no response to the dog. Placing food (unconditioned stimulus) in front of the dog initiated salivation (unconditioned response). During conditioning, the bell was rung a few seconds before the dog was presented with food. After conditioning, the ringing of the bell (conditioned stimulus) alone

produced salivation. This is classical conditioning.

Pavlov’s Experiment

Before Conditioning Unconditioned Stimulus

Ex. meat

bell

Neutral stimulus

bell

During the experiment

Bell meat

Unconditioned Response

salivates

no salivation

Unconditioned Stimulus

meat

salivates

After the experimentConditioned Stimulus

bell

Conditioned Response

salivates

B. F. Skinner’s Operant Conditioning

• learning that occurs when an organism learns to associate its behavior with the consequences or results of that behavior.

• kind of learning in which a person tends to

repeat a behavior that has been reinforced or to cease a behavior that has been punished.

Reinforcement – a stimulus experienced following a behavior, which increases the probability that the behavior will be repeated.

Punishment – a stimulus experienced following a behavior, which decreases the

probability that the behavior will be repeated.

Reinforcement can either be positive or negative.• Positive consists of giving a reward, such as food, gold

stars, money, or praise.• Negative reinforcement consists of taking away something

the individual does not like(known as an aversive event).

• Negative reinforcement is sometimes confused with punishment. However they are different.

Positive reinforcement- giving something one likes

- presenting a positive event

Negative reinforcement- taking away something one

does not like

- removing an aversive event

Punishment- giving something one does

not like or presenting an aversive event

- taking away something one likes or removing a positive event

• Whether a consequence is reinforcing or punishing depends on the person. What is reinforcing for one person may be punishing for another.