prologue: the story of psychology a short history, but a long past
TRANSCRIPT
Ancient Greeks
Is the mind separate from the brain?
Are ideas inborn or is the mind a blank slate filled by experience?
What is the source of love?
How do we experience pain?
Ancient Greeks
Aristotle derived ideas from observations
Said that knowledge is not preexisting
Developed ideas about personality, memory, motivation, and emotion
Prescientific Psychology
Scientific RevolutionThe influence of NewtonThe influence of Locke
EmpiricismKnowledge comes from experience via the senses
Science flourishes through observation and experiment
Psychology’s Roots
Psychological Science Develops Wundt--German philosopher and
physiologist James--American philosopher Pavlov--Russian physiologist Freud--Austrian physician Piaget--Swiss biologist
Foundations of Modern Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Liepzig (c. 1879)
Foundations of Modern Psychology
Structuralism Studied immediate
experience Used introspection
(looking in) to explore the elemental structure of the human mind
Founded Wundt’s student E.B Titchener
Foundations of Modern Psychology
Functionalism Focused on the
function of mental processes
Founded by William James in 1898
Heavily influenced by Charles Darwin
Foundations of Modern Psychology
Gestalt Founded by Wolfgang Kholer and others
in 1910 Argued that the analysis of the mind
could not be broken into its component parts
The whole is greater than the sum of its partsThe mind seeks to synthesize informationThe mind is an active agent, not a passive
receptacle
Foundations of Modern Psychology
Early Behaviorism Founded by American
John Watson in 1913 Shifted attention
from mental activity to observable behavior
Behavior can be shaped by manipulating and changing the environment
Watson on Behaviorism
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take anyone at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select; doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant. And yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, tendencies, abilities, and race of his ancestors”
- 1925
Foundations of Modern Psychology
Psychoanalysis Developed outside the
university setting Founded by Sigmund
Freud in 1895 Freud concluded that
unconscious mental forces direct our behavior
Utilized free-association and hypnosis