History of PsychologyThree Beginnings

• Psychiatric• Freud and psychoanalysis

• Testing• Galton, Binet and intelligence

testing• Academic• Wundt, James, Watson, Gestalt -

laboratory psychology

Psychiatric TraditionMajor Theorists

• Freud• Jung• Adler• Ego

Psychologists• Erickson• Horney• Sullivan

Psychiatric TraditionMajor Assumptions

• Can’t rely on what people say or do to indicate problems.• Much or most of mental life is

unconscious• Must understand people

comprehensively as a dynamic whole.• Can’t understand just a part of the

individual • Best approach is a clinical approach• More is learned by studying people

who are sick

• Galton• Spearman• Cattel• Eysenck• Binet

Testing TraditionMajor Theorists

Testing TraditionMajor Assumptions

• Psychology is primarily a product of biology.• emphasis on nature over nurture

and evolution• There are only a few ways that people

differ.• a small number of traits can explain

the difference between people• People’s traits can be understood

through simple tests.• paper and pencil tests are the way

people are studied

Academic TraditionMajor Theorists

• Wundt -Atomism

• James - Pragmatism

• Watson, Skinner - Behaviorism

• Lewin - Gestalt

Academic TraditionMajor Assumptions

• Psychology is best when the causes are understood.• The why is more

important than the how or when

• People’s thought and actions can be understood• By observing people we

can understand them• Systematic study produces

the fullest understanding.• Set up labs and

experiments

Three New Beginnings of Psychology

• Psychiatric Tradition • Humanistic Approach

• Trait Tradition• Development of the

Big 5 model of Personality (OCEAN)

• Academic Tradition• Cognitive Revolution

Research Methodology - Basic Philosophy of Science

• Our ideas can often be wrong

• We set out to demonstrate they are wrong

• When we can not prove them wrong we accept them for now

• We may well prove them wrong later

• What is accepted is influenced by what is popular

• What is accepted is shaped by political forces and has political impact

Ways of Doing Research

• Tension between Discovery and Explanation

• Case Study• Anna O.

• Naturalistic Observation• Jane Goodall’s research with Chimps

• Survey• Establishes generality and

Correlations• Experiment• Establishes Causation

Research Methods -Surveys and Establishing

Representativeness

• Representative Group of People• Random Sampling

• Ask Unbiased Questions• Establishes Correlation Among

Variables

Correlation is not Causation - How Do you Establish Causation

• Correlation -• When one variable changes the

other variable changes• Time Order -• Which comes first the chicken or the

egg• Elimination of all other possible

causes• random assignment

Does Violent Media Cause Violent Actions?

Violent ActionsExposure toViolent Media

Exposure toViolent Media Violent Actions

Exposure toViolent Media Violent Actions

SomethingElse

How Experiment try to Establish Causality

• Independent Variables -• Experimental group(s)• Control group(s)

• Dependent Variables -• Valid• Reliable

• Time Order is built in• Independent variable lead to dependent

variables• Eliminating other causes• random assignment