History of Psychology
Lectures Overview
❖ Introduction, 3 themes
❖ 17th C. - Descartes, Hobbes
❖ 17th - 18th C. - Association Ψ
❖ 18th - 19th C. - Kant, phrenology, psychophysiology
❖ 20th C. - Behaviourism, cognitive Ψ
❖ 20th C. - Freud, psychiatry
❖ Summary + practice exam
❖ Practice exam + Q&A
Exam Material
❖ Lectures (slides + notes)
➢ Focus on ideas and theories
❖ Chapters from blackboard
❖ Book (selected chapters)
➢ Book focuses on personal histories (but we don’t, so read selectively)
Learning Objectives
❖ Introduce the important historical conceptions of psychology from 1600 until beginning of cognitive
psychology.
❖ Understand that the scientific conception of psychology and psychological functioning changes through
time.
❖ Understand that societal developments influence people’s beliefs concerning what is “scientific”
❖ Introduce the basic concepts of philosophy, epistemology.
❖ Train memorization skills.
Exam
1. Examples are explanatory. Important for understanding concepts (exam material)
2. Summary and explanation of key points:
a. Overview for studying the book (exam material)
Repetitions: elucidate diff concepts / links
,Group Sessions
Miss one session = get a fail for the session → allowed to do retake assignment
Miss two session = Not allowed to retake the assignment → you fail the group sessions (do it again next year)
Course grade = 0.7 x exam + 0.3 x group sessions!
CONTENT STARTS HERE
,Lecture 1
3 themes that are important now have their origin in the past:
1. Cognition vs Emotion
2. Mind vs Body
3. Nature vs Nurture
a. Shaped by genetics or environment
Example 1: Cognition vs Emotion
Antonio Damasio (1994):
Decartes’ error:
Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.
Descartes (1596-1650)
“I think, therefore I am.”
Damasio: “I feel, therefore I am”
Case-study Phineas Gage 1848
❖ Aim: to investigate localization of function; how his brain damage resulted in a change of behaviour
❖ Participants: Phineas Gage
❖ Background: 25 year old railroad worker in 19th century
➢ Survived iron rod passing through his skull
➢ Entered below his left cheek and exited through the top of his skull on the frontal lobe
➢ JM Harlow nursed Gage to recovery, observed behaviour.
❖ Results: dramatic personality changes
➢ Little restraint, rude language, making grand plans for the future which he instantly replaced with
others. He was “no longer Gage”
❖ Conclusion: left prefrontal region damaged
➢ Frontal lobe controls personality
Example 2: The Mind - Body problem
John Anderson:
How can the human mind occur in the physical universe (2007)?
, Descartes (1596-1650):
Mind and body are separable
They constitute different substances
Heart of the debate:
What is the relationship between body and mind?
Different viewpoints:
1. Body and mind are separate. (dualism)
2. Body and mind consist of one whole. (monism)
Two extreme versions of the latter (monism) are:
1. Everything consists of matter (realism)
2. Mind is the basis of everything (idealism), e.g. Plato (approx 4270347 B.C.)
Nature vs Nurture
❖ Innate vs acquired
❖ Genes vs environment
❖ Instinct vs thought?
Example 3: Nature - Nurture debate
❖ Bell curve (normal distribution)
Heart of the debate:
1. How do we attain knowledge?
2. What causes differences between people?
Example: Plato
Knowledge is innate (the same for everybody)
rationalism (ratio = reason, the thought of process.)
All knowledge comes from experience.
Empiricism
Lectures Overview
❖ Introduction, 3 themes
❖ 17th C. - Descartes, Hobbes
❖ 17th - 18th C. - Association Ψ
❖ 18th - 19th C. - Kant, phrenology, psychophysiology
❖ 20th C. - Behaviourism, cognitive Ψ
❖ 20th C. - Freud, psychiatry
❖ Summary + practice exam
❖ Practice exam + Q&A
Exam Material
❖ Lectures (slides + notes)
➢ Focus on ideas and theories
❖ Chapters from blackboard
❖ Book (selected chapters)
➢ Book focuses on personal histories (but we don’t, so read selectively)
Learning Objectives
❖ Introduce the important historical conceptions of psychology from 1600 until beginning of cognitive
psychology.
❖ Understand that the scientific conception of psychology and psychological functioning changes through
time.
❖ Understand that societal developments influence people’s beliefs concerning what is “scientific”
❖ Introduce the basic concepts of philosophy, epistemology.
❖ Train memorization skills.
Exam
1. Examples are explanatory. Important for understanding concepts (exam material)
2. Summary and explanation of key points:
a. Overview for studying the book (exam material)
Repetitions: elucidate diff concepts / links
,Group Sessions
Miss one session = get a fail for the session → allowed to do retake assignment
Miss two session = Not allowed to retake the assignment → you fail the group sessions (do it again next year)
Course grade = 0.7 x exam + 0.3 x group sessions!
CONTENT STARTS HERE
,Lecture 1
3 themes that are important now have their origin in the past:
1. Cognition vs Emotion
2. Mind vs Body
3. Nature vs Nurture
a. Shaped by genetics or environment
Example 1: Cognition vs Emotion
Antonio Damasio (1994):
Decartes’ error:
Emotion, Reason, and the Human Brain.
Descartes (1596-1650)
“I think, therefore I am.”
Damasio: “I feel, therefore I am”
Case-study Phineas Gage 1848
❖ Aim: to investigate localization of function; how his brain damage resulted in a change of behaviour
❖ Participants: Phineas Gage
❖ Background: 25 year old railroad worker in 19th century
➢ Survived iron rod passing through his skull
➢ Entered below his left cheek and exited through the top of his skull on the frontal lobe
➢ JM Harlow nursed Gage to recovery, observed behaviour.
❖ Results: dramatic personality changes
➢ Little restraint, rude language, making grand plans for the future which he instantly replaced with
others. He was “no longer Gage”
❖ Conclusion: left prefrontal region damaged
➢ Frontal lobe controls personality
Example 2: The Mind - Body problem
John Anderson:
How can the human mind occur in the physical universe (2007)?
, Descartes (1596-1650):
Mind and body are separable
They constitute different substances
Heart of the debate:
What is the relationship between body and mind?
Different viewpoints:
1. Body and mind are separate. (dualism)
2. Body and mind consist of one whole. (monism)
Two extreme versions of the latter (monism) are:
1. Everything consists of matter (realism)
2. Mind is the basis of everything (idealism), e.g. Plato (approx 4270347 B.C.)
Nature vs Nurture
❖ Innate vs acquired
❖ Genes vs environment
❖ Instinct vs thought?
Example 3: Nature - Nurture debate
❖ Bell curve (normal distribution)
Heart of the debate:
1. How do we attain knowledge?
2. What causes differences between people?
Example: Plato
Knowledge is innate (the same for everybody)
rationalism (ratio = reason, the thought of process.)
All knowledge comes from experience.
Empiricism
