Transcript THE EVOLUTION OF PSYCHOLOGY

PSYCHOLOGY
Chapter 1 Notes: An Overview
PSYCHOLOGY is the scientific study of
human behavior and mental processes.
The PSYCHE is Greek for "mind" or
"spirit" or "soul". PSYCHOLOGISTS
systematically study and attempt to
explain observable behavior as well as
unseen mental process that may influence
behavior.
THE EVOLUTION OF
PSYCHOLOGY
• Psychology is the science that studies
behavior and the cognitive and
physiological processes that underlie
behavior. It is also a profession that
applies the knowledge of human behavior
to practical problems.
Cognitive and physiological
processes
EARLY FOCUS:
STRUCTURALISM VERSUS
FUNCTIONALISM
• The first two major schools of thought,
STRUCTURALISM and FUNCTIONALISM
began the battle of many competing schools of
thought about what psychologists should study.
Wilhelm Wundt established the first lab in 1897
to explore the contents or structure of thought
through INTROSPECTION, the systematic selfobservation of one=s conscious experience.
EARLY FOCUS
• Wilhelm Wundt
• Contributions: 1st Psychology as a science
STRUCTURALISM VERSUS
FUNCTIONALISM
• William James, the architect of
FUNCTIONALISM disagreed with this approach
in his landmark book, Principles of Psychology in
1890, in which he asserted that consciousness
is a continuous stream of consciousness and
therefore should focus on the function or
purpose of consciousness. His views fostered
the development of the modern focus on applied
psychology and behaviorism.
EARLY FOCUS
• William James
• Contributions: Started the idea of
experimentation.
BEHAVIORAL CONTRIBUTIONS
• John Watson, an early radical behaviorist,
assumed behavior was wholly determined
by conditions of the environment and
searched for ENVIRONMENTAL rather
than internal CAUSES of behavior. Ivan
Pavlov contributed laws of CLASSICAL
CONDITIONING while B.F. Skinner
developed OPERANT CONDITIONING
theories of the learning process.
Behaviorism
• John Watson—Learning Behaviors/Traits
• Contributions: Little Albert Experiment
Behaviorism
• B.F. Skinner—Operant Conditioning
• Contributions: Skinner Box/Learning Tests
Behaviorism
• Ivan Pavlov—Classical Conditioning
• Contributions: Dog Saliva Experiment
BEHAVIORAL CONTRIBUTIONS
• THE BEHAVIORAL APPROACH to
psychology assumes that man is born a
"TABULA RASA", a blank slate and that
behavior is DETERMINED by what one
has LEARNED. Man's behavior is
SHAPED by the ENVIRONMENT and
one's behavior can be predicted from
one's learning history and environmental
determinants of behaviors such as
reinforcers.
Locke and Tabula Rasa
BEHAVIORAL CONTRIBUTIONS
• BEHAVIORISTS are not concerned with inner
mental processes. Behaviorists consider
OBSERVABLE, MEASURABLE BEHAVIOR to
be the only valid focus for scientific investigation.
A main objective is to understand how
environmental stimuli control particular
behaviors. Since environmental stimuli cause
behavior, Skinner argued that there is no free
will and that behavior can be investigated and
predicted in a cause-effect scientific manner by
investigating stimuli and responses.
BEHAVIORAL CONTRIBUTIONS
• SOCIAL LEARNING THEORISTS such as
Albert Bandura focused on the importance
of MODELING AND IMITATION in the
LEARNING PROCESS. They argued that
people may influence the environment just
as the environment may influence them.
Behaviorism
• Bandura
• Contributions: Observational Learning
PSYCHODYNAMIC/
PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES
• PSYCHOANALYSIS is Sigmund Freud's
PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY that emphasizes the
interplay of UNCONSCIOUS MENTAL PROCESSES in
determining behavior. As these inner drives, motives and
instinctual energies often clash, Freud's theory is also
known as a CONFLICT APPROACH. INTRAPSYCHIC
CONFLICTS between the three parts of Freud's model of
the mind, the ID, EGO AND SUPEREGO, create anxiety
and tension, "causing" the ego to act directly or indirectly
through DEFENSE MECHANISMS to reduce anxiety.
Sigmund Freud--Psychoanalysis
• Freud
• Contributions: limitless
PSYCHODYNAMIC/
PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES
• PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY is also
DETERMINISTIC. Personality is "determined"
not only by unconscious motives and drives but
also by EARLY CHILDHOOD EXPERIENCE
AND INBORN DRIVES which are largely
unconscious. Unconscious sexual drives were a
controversial focus of Freud’s theory. Many of
his own students disagreed with the focus and
developed their own schools of thought as to
what was the strongest motivator of human
behavior.
EARLY CHILDHOOD
EXPERIENCE
PSYCHODYNAMIC/
PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES
• NEO-FREUDIANS studied under Freud
and developed new ideas to extend the
focus of psychoanalytic theory. Alfred
Adler emphasized man's "striving for
superiority" and need to compensate for
perceived feelings of inferiority. He
suggested power dynamics such as
BIRTH ORDER often gives us feelings of
power or powerlessness in our family.
PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES
• Alfred Adler
PSYCHODYNAMIC/
PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES
• Erik Erikson proposed that development
occurred throughout an individual's lifespan in
response to eight PSYCHOSOCIAL CRISES.
Carl Jung proposed that the mind also contains
a COLLECTIVE UNCONSCIOUS, a set of
memories and capacities representative of the
experiences of earlier generations that are a
potent influence on human behavior.
PSYCHOANALYTIC APPROACHES
• Erik Erikson
• Contributions: Psycho-Social Theory
THE HUMANISTS
• THE HUMANISTIC SCHOOL OF
PSYCHOLOGY revolted against both the
behavioristic and psychoanalytic schools
in the 1950’s, charging that both schools
were pessimistic, deterministic and
dehumanizing. Humanistic psychology
emphasizes personal growth and the
achievement of human potential.
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
THE HUMANISTS
• Considered the "THIRD FORCE" in psychology,
the optimistic view of man emphasizes
HEALTHY HUMAN BEHAVIOR AND FREE
WILL. The motivating force is the unique "SELF"
that strives to "SELF-ACTUALIZE" it's inborn
potential. Humanists focus on the SELFCONCEPT, personal feelings, human dignity and
free choice. Personal growth and self-fulfillment
are natural strivings of our innate good nature,
the natural unfolding of our unique and precious
self.
Hierarchy of Needs
THE HUMANISTS
• CARL ROGERS emphasized the
importance of a positive SELF-CONCEPT
and founded CLIENT-CENTERED
THERAPY, a NON-DIRECTIVE,
PERSON-CENTERED relationship that
enabled the person to freely explore
values, feelings and goals in a climate of
acceptance and positive regard provided
by the therapist.
Humanism
• Carl Rogers
• Contributions: Unconditional Positive
Regard
THE HUMANISTS
• ABRAHAM MASLOW spent his lifetime as a
humanistic psychologist studying healthy
persons who had self-actualized their potential.
He identified the characteristics of persons who
had fulfilled their potential so that we could
understand the process of self-actualization.
Humanistic psychologists focused on mental
health, wellness, personal growth and selfdevelopment so prevalent in our self-help books
that flourish today.
Humanists
• Abraham Maslow
• Contribution: Hierarchy of Needs
Humanism
• Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs
COGNITIVE APPROACHES
• The GESTALT SCHOOL OF
PSYCHOLOGY focuses on principles of
PERCEPTION. This school of thought
emphasizes that all psychological
phenomenon must be studied as a whole
"GESTALT" rather than in parts. The
"GESTALT", the whole, or "pattern" is
more than the sum of its parts.
GESTALT
COGNITIVE APPROACHES
• Gestaltists believe we organize stimuli in
particular patterns that give them
"meaning." Principles such as the
relationship of the figure to the
background, FIGURE-GROUND
RELATIONSHIP, organize our perceptions
and give them "meaning".
COGNITIVE APPROACHES
• An example of a Visual Gestalt
COGNITIVE APPROACHES
• Fritz Perls developed Gestalt therapy. His
therapy focuses on integrating largely
disowned parts of the self into the "whole"
person. One might act out a projection to
find one's real feeling, "play" an
exaggerated role to discover one's full
emotion, "talk to" an empty chair that
represents an unacceptable part of self to
"reown" one's feelings or unacknowledged
desires.
COGNITIVE APPROACHES
• Fritz Perls
• Contributions: Holistic Approach to
Personality Theory
COGNITIVE APPROACHES
• Gestalt therapists encourage people to
focus on the "here-and-now", to develop
full awareness of their feelings and
emotions, to resolve past conflicts that are
draining their energy so that they can
actively control their lives and fully develop
their "whole" being and potential.
COGNITIVE APPROACHES
• COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY has experienced a
recent resurgence from the early approach to
the study of conscious thought. Today Cognitive
Psychology focuses on reasoning and mental
processing of information. This currently favored
approach to psychology studies processes of the
mind such as memory, attention, decisionmaking, imagery and problem solving. Cognitive
psychologists believe our thinking is the key
causal factor in behavior.
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
COGNITIVE APPROACHES
• It is not the event or environment that
disturbs us, but our thought or beliefs
about a situation that creates havoc in our
lives. NEGATIVE SELF-TALK,
IRRATIONAL BELIEFS, CATASTROPHIC
THINKING AND RIGID THINKING are the
real "causes" of our emotional turmoil, our
depressions and our disturbing thoughts.
RIGID THINKING
COGNITIVE APPROACHES
• COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGISTS are interested
in the way people think about things, the internal
mental events that influence how we behave.
They believe our behavior is a product of our
INTERPRETATION of environmental stimuli that
are influenced by our MEMORIES from the past
which lead us to form EXPECTANCIES of what
will happen now. Cognitive psychologists are
developing objective methods to study mental
processing and decision-making.
Cognitive
• Jean Piaget
• Contributions: Child Psychology Theory
BIOPSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVES
• Recently a renewed focus on the BIOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVE has arisen from the advances of
medical science and biochemistry. It has
become obvious that there are strong
relationships between the body, the mind and
human behavior. Advances in research on the
brain, nervous system, mental illness, genetics
and psychopharmacology have stimulated vast
research into the way our bodies affect our
minds and vice versa.
BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
BIOPSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVES
• Advocates of the Biopsychological
Perspective argue that much of human
behavior can be explained in terms of
bodily processes and structures, genetics
and biochemical processes. Numerous
advances have been made in areas such
as the treatment of mental illness through
the interchange of ideas of psychology
and biological sciences.
BIOPSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVES
• These are some of the major schools of
thought in the science of psychology. Each
school shares major assumptions and
approaches to research. Many
psychologists are ECLECTIC and develop
their own theories and methods of study
from a mixture of viewpoints and schools.
More than 50% of therapists consider
themselves to be ECLECTIC.
Sources
• Santa Fe Community College Online
• The Mind of the Sweetwood