Week 1
Introduction and History Chapter 1
Definitions of psychology
psyche: soul / logos: study
William James (1890): the science of mental life
Your textbook: The science of the mind, brain, and behavior
o Mind – mental states, thoughts & feelings & motives
o Brain - enables mind; mind =emergent property of brain
functions
o Behavior – any overt action
o Behavior and Brain –observable
o Mind (mental processes) – inferred
o How can one study the mind????
Scientific conversation surrounding that question led to
different schools of thought in psychology
Schools of thought
1. STRUCTURALISM
Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener – late 1800s - Germany.
Loved the elegance of Mendeleev’s periodic table.
Study the structure of consciousness and conscious experience; break
down conscious experience into its basic elements, like chemistry.
o Mind is sums of individual units (sensory part, emotional part,
smelling part, decision making part)
Relied on introspection. Introspection took years of practice to do well
–required one to describe the basic elements of experience in most
basic form
Primary areas - perception, sensation
Must attend to inner experience, not knowledge of the object, to avoid
stimulus error.
“metal” “can” “lime” “seltzer” NO NO NO!!!! - >Stimulus errors
Chocolate bar: Attend to experience as see it, unwrap it, Smell, taste
and feel it. Can say anything that reflects basic sensory properties of
your experience: ‘reflects light’ and ‘softens on the tongue’ ‘sweet’
etc. AVOID common stimulus-errors: “foil”, “paper”, “Hershey’s kiss”,
“chocolate”, etc. . NO NO NO All stimulus errors.
Perception is studied at very basic neural levels
,2. FUNCTIONALISM
William James – late 1800s –Harvard, U.S.
Big fan of Darwin’s exciting new idea. Argued that consciousness
should be studied for its function, not structure: what does it do, rather
than what is it made of. How is the psyche adaptive? How does it
create overt behavior? How does it adapt and passed along?
Mind consists of ever-changing continuous series of thoughts - Stream
of consciousness is the product of interacting and dynamic stimuli
coming from both inside our heads and outside in the world
Mind is much more complex than its elements and therefore cannot be
broken down
Primary areas - social, practical, everyday higher order experience.
Evolutionary psychology
Behavior and mental experience are guided by biological/ evolutionary
factors
Def: An approach to psychology concerned with the adaptive purpose,
or function, of mind and behavior
3. GESTALT
Max Wertheimer – early 1900s – Germany.
NO “Warm, light pressure around the mouth, slightly damp” NO
A conscious experience is indescribably different than the mere sum of
its parts. Anti-structuralist.
Primary area: perception.
Muller-Lyer illusion
o Optical illusion where people perceive the length of a line
differently depending on the presence of arrowheads or
arrowtails
Perception is studied at higher-order levels of meaning
4. PSYCHOANALYTIC
Sigmund Freud – 1900s -Vienna
Believed behavior was determined by unconscious drives and affected
heavily by childhood.
, Used dream analysis and free-association to uncover unconscious
desires and conflicts
Primary area: personality development & psychopathology.
5. BEHAVIORISM
John Watson, B.F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov - 1930s through 1950s.
Argued should study behavior as an end to itself, rather than as a
means for inferring mental processes or structures.
Behavior and mental experience are guided by environmental factors
Def: A psychological approach that emphasizes environmental
influences on observable behaviors.
“Tabula Rasa” people are born blank slates and become who they are
solely through their learning history
Primary area – learning.
Do pigeons have a complex conscious mind?
6. HUMANISTIC
Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers –1940s-1960s
Humans determine their own fate through free will, everyone can
develop to his or her full potential.
Conscious choices influence behavior.
Maslow famous for hierarchy of needs
Rogers famous for person- centered therapy - Focus on a person’s
present more than their past, and potential for personal growth.
Primary area: personality and therapy
7. COGNITIVE REVOLUTION
George Miller – Harvard Center for Cog Science (1957).
Brought back the mind from behaviorists and Freudians – thought
thinking should best be studied as information processing (computer)
Cognitive perspective still dominant.
Primary areas: memory, learning, language, cognitive psychology in
general
Unconscious processes
, 8. SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Kurt Lewin– need to understand both the individual and social
pressures/social context to fully predict behavior.
B = f(P,E)
Believed behavior in a group was different than what could be
expected from the individuals alone
Primary area: social, cultural
Schools of thought
These schools of thought still flavor modern day psychology, but most
psychologists take a largely interactionist perspective.
o Perception is studied at very basic neural levels (Structuralism)
as well as higher-order levels of meaning (Gestalt).
o Behavior and mental experience are guided by biological/
evolutionary factors (Functionalist) as well as environmental
factors (Behaviorism, Social, Cultural)
o Both unconscious processes and conscious choices (Cognitive,
Humanistic) influence behavior.
o All perspectives and levels of analysis contribute to the scientific
exploration of the mind
Research Methods Part 1 - How do we apply the scientific method to
questions of the mind? (Chapter 2)
The real heroes of psychology are the people we study, those that we learn
from
Descriptive research methods: case studies, observations, self-report
methods and interviews
Case study
Def: deep investigation of a single case (one participant, or one small
group); intensive examination of an atypical person or organization
Case studies used for rare phenomena, as well as for those that cannot
be ethically manipulated (e.g., brain injury, ‘feral’ children, cult
Introduction and History Chapter 1
Definitions of psychology
psyche: soul / logos: study
William James (1890): the science of mental life
Your textbook: The science of the mind, brain, and behavior
o Mind – mental states, thoughts & feelings & motives
o Brain - enables mind; mind =emergent property of brain
functions
o Behavior – any overt action
o Behavior and Brain –observable
o Mind (mental processes) – inferred
o How can one study the mind????
Scientific conversation surrounding that question led to
different schools of thought in psychology
Schools of thought
1. STRUCTURALISM
Wilhelm Wundt, Edward Titchener – late 1800s - Germany.
Loved the elegance of Mendeleev’s periodic table.
Study the structure of consciousness and conscious experience; break
down conscious experience into its basic elements, like chemistry.
o Mind is sums of individual units (sensory part, emotional part,
smelling part, decision making part)
Relied on introspection. Introspection took years of practice to do well
–required one to describe the basic elements of experience in most
basic form
Primary areas - perception, sensation
Must attend to inner experience, not knowledge of the object, to avoid
stimulus error.
“metal” “can” “lime” “seltzer” NO NO NO!!!! - >Stimulus errors
Chocolate bar: Attend to experience as see it, unwrap it, Smell, taste
and feel it. Can say anything that reflects basic sensory properties of
your experience: ‘reflects light’ and ‘softens on the tongue’ ‘sweet’
etc. AVOID common stimulus-errors: “foil”, “paper”, “Hershey’s kiss”,
“chocolate”, etc. . NO NO NO All stimulus errors.
Perception is studied at very basic neural levels
,2. FUNCTIONALISM
William James – late 1800s –Harvard, U.S.
Big fan of Darwin’s exciting new idea. Argued that consciousness
should be studied for its function, not structure: what does it do, rather
than what is it made of. How is the psyche adaptive? How does it
create overt behavior? How does it adapt and passed along?
Mind consists of ever-changing continuous series of thoughts - Stream
of consciousness is the product of interacting and dynamic stimuli
coming from both inside our heads and outside in the world
Mind is much more complex than its elements and therefore cannot be
broken down
Primary areas - social, practical, everyday higher order experience.
Evolutionary psychology
Behavior and mental experience are guided by biological/ evolutionary
factors
Def: An approach to psychology concerned with the adaptive purpose,
or function, of mind and behavior
3. GESTALT
Max Wertheimer – early 1900s – Germany.
NO “Warm, light pressure around the mouth, slightly damp” NO
A conscious experience is indescribably different than the mere sum of
its parts. Anti-structuralist.
Primary area: perception.
Muller-Lyer illusion
o Optical illusion where people perceive the length of a line
differently depending on the presence of arrowheads or
arrowtails
Perception is studied at higher-order levels of meaning
4. PSYCHOANALYTIC
Sigmund Freud – 1900s -Vienna
Believed behavior was determined by unconscious drives and affected
heavily by childhood.
, Used dream analysis and free-association to uncover unconscious
desires and conflicts
Primary area: personality development & psychopathology.
5. BEHAVIORISM
John Watson, B.F. Skinner, Ivan Pavlov - 1930s through 1950s.
Argued should study behavior as an end to itself, rather than as a
means for inferring mental processes or structures.
Behavior and mental experience are guided by environmental factors
Def: A psychological approach that emphasizes environmental
influences on observable behaviors.
“Tabula Rasa” people are born blank slates and become who they are
solely through their learning history
Primary area – learning.
Do pigeons have a complex conscious mind?
6. HUMANISTIC
Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers –1940s-1960s
Humans determine their own fate through free will, everyone can
develop to his or her full potential.
Conscious choices influence behavior.
Maslow famous for hierarchy of needs
Rogers famous for person- centered therapy - Focus on a person’s
present more than their past, and potential for personal growth.
Primary area: personality and therapy
7. COGNITIVE REVOLUTION
George Miller – Harvard Center for Cog Science (1957).
Brought back the mind from behaviorists and Freudians – thought
thinking should best be studied as information processing (computer)
Cognitive perspective still dominant.
Primary areas: memory, learning, language, cognitive psychology in
general
Unconscious processes
, 8. SOCIAL REVOLUTION
Kurt Lewin– need to understand both the individual and social
pressures/social context to fully predict behavior.
B = f(P,E)
Believed behavior in a group was different than what could be
expected from the individuals alone
Primary area: social, cultural
Schools of thought
These schools of thought still flavor modern day psychology, but most
psychologists take a largely interactionist perspective.
o Perception is studied at very basic neural levels (Structuralism)
as well as higher-order levels of meaning (Gestalt).
o Behavior and mental experience are guided by biological/
evolutionary factors (Functionalist) as well as environmental
factors (Behaviorism, Social, Cultural)
o Both unconscious processes and conscious choices (Cognitive,
Humanistic) influence behavior.
o All perspectives and levels of analysis contribute to the scientific
exploration of the mind
Research Methods Part 1 - How do we apply the scientific method to
questions of the mind? (Chapter 2)
The real heroes of psychology are the people we study, those that we learn
from
Descriptive research methods: case studies, observations, self-report
methods and interviews
Case study
Def: deep investigation of a single case (one participant, or one small
group); intensive examination of an atypical person or organization
Case studies used for rare phenomena, as well as for those that cannot
be ethically manipulated (e.g., brain injury, ‘feral’ children, cult
