Intro to Psychology

History &

Approaches

Psychology….A short history and a long past.

• Stand Alone discipline for 120 years.

• Science of behavior and mental processes

Prescientific Psychology

Some ideas are inborn, innate

The mind is a blank slate, ideas grow from experience

Socrates (469-399 B.C.)

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)

Plato (428-348 B.C.) Locke (1632-1704)

How are ideas formed?

Psychological Science is Born

• Wilhelm Wundt– Late 1800’s– 1st Psychology Lab– Father of Modern Psychology

– Seeking to measure reflexes vs. conscious

awareness.

Early Schools of ThoughtStructuralism/Functionalism

• Structuralism– What is consciousness?

– Edward Titchener

– Introspection

• Functionalism– Why do we have consciousness?

– William James

– 1s psych textbook

A rose:

Red

Silky

Aromatic

SoftWhat are your immediate sensations?

What the heck do you see?

Wave Two: Gestalt

• Gestalt Psychology• Max Wertheimer (1880-

1943)• Examine a person’s whole

experience.• The whole is more than the

sum of its individual parts.• Gestalt Therapy

Wave Three: Psychoanalysis

• Freud (1856-1939)

• Psychoanalytic Theory

• CriticsUnscientific

Unverifiable theories

Wave Four: Behaviorism

• John Watson (1878-1958) (founder)

• B.F. Skinner (reinforcement)

• Limit studies to what can be observed

Modern Approaches/Perspectives

• Evolutionary

• Biological

• Cognitive

• Behavioral

• Psychoanalytical

• Humanistic Approach

• Cross-Cultural

Evolutionary Approach

• Focus: How nature selects traits that promote the perpetuation of one’s genes.

• Influenced by Charles Darwin

Psychoanalytical Approach• Focus: How behavior

springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

• Early Childhood

• Dreams

• Sigmund Freud

Biological Approach• Focus: How the

body and brain create emotion, memories, and sensory experiences.

• Brain structures, blood chemistry, neural communication.

• Roger Sperry, Michael Gazzaniga, Paul Broca

Cognitive Approach

• Focus: How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information.

• Jean Piaget, Elizabeth Loftus, Hermann Ebbinghaus

Behavioral Approach• Focus: Learning

based on how a behavior is rewarded or punished.

• John Watson, B.F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov

Humanistic Approach

• Focus: Emphasizes that we have great freedom in directing our future, a large capacity for growth, intrinsic worth, and self-actualization.

• Abraham Maslow

• Carl Rogers

Social-Cultural Approach• Focus: How

behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures.

• Albert Bandura, Phillip Zimbardo

Goals of Psychology

D e sc rib e d iffe re n tw a ys o rg a n ism s

b eh ave .

E xp la in theca u se s o fb e h av io r

P re d ic t h owo rg a n ism s w ill

b e ha ve in ce rta ins itu a tio n s.

C o n tro l a n o rg an ism 'sb e h av io r

P sych o lo g y is a S ys te m a tic , sc ie n tif ics tu dy o f be h av io rs

Where Do Psychologists Work?

• 49% Private Practice-Therapy Setting-Clinical Psychologist

• 28% Academic Setting- Research (Basic/Applied, Professor)

• 13% Variety –(Social Work, Group Home Coordinator)

• 6% Industrial/Organization Setting (Production Manager)

• 4% Secondary Schools-(School Psychologist/Counselor)