1. Defining Psychology
Psychology – the science of behavior and the mental process
behavior: anything an organism does
mental process: the internal subjective experiences we infer from behavior

2. Basic Research- aims to increase the scientific knowledge base
Ex- Social Psychologists study the conditions which make specific age groups conform.
Ex. Developmental Psychologists study why high school students have more difficulty with authoritarian parents than do elementary age students.

3. Types of Research Psychologists conduct
Applied research – aims to solve practical problems
Ex. Industrial / Organizational Psych.
Ex. Sports Psychology- Ex. Olympics
Ex Consumer Psychology
Hidden Motives (1:30-10:00)
Supermarket Psychology – YouTube
Supermarket Psychology: Specials, pricing,
Supermarket Psychology - Entrances, layout and shelving - YouTube

4. Political Psychology Political Psychologists are trained to
The Politics of Fear by John Dean
Ex- LBJ Daisy Commercial
Ex- Barrack Hussein Obama OR recent coverage trying to tie

5. Subfields (cont.)
Counseling Psychologist – graduate degrees in psychology – clients have less serious problems.
Clinical Psychologist – PhD in clinical psychology - study, assess, and treat people with psychological disorders
Psychiatrist – medical doctors who are licensed to prescribe drugs and treat causes of psychological disorders

6. What is Psychology?
The History Of Psychology

7. Philosophers and Psychology (pre-scientific)
Socrates was a teacher of Plato.
Both Socrates and Plato agreed that the mind and body are separate entities
Both believed that some ideas are inborn.
Socrates BC
Plato BC

8. Philosophers and Psychology (pre-scientific)
Aristotle was a student of Plato.
Although he was a student of Plato, many of Aristotle’s ideas set him apart from the philosophies of Plato and Socrates
Aristotle believed that the mind and body are connected and cannot be separated.
He also believed that the mind begins as a blank slate.
Aristotle BC

9. Western Thought
Francis Bacon and John Locke viewed the mind as a blank slate (“tabula rasa”). Our experiences write on the blank slate and shape who we are.
Bacon
Locke

10. Inborn or Blank Slate? The state of our Mind and Body?
Some ideas are inborn
Blank Slate
Socrates
Aristotle
Plato
Locke & Bacon
Mind & Body Separate
Mind & Body Connected
Socrates
Aristotle
Plato
Locke
Descartes “dualism”

11. Psychology is born.
Wilhelm Wundt – First psychological laboratory in Germany
Studied the time lag between hearing a ball hit a platform and pressing a telegraph key. He measured the reaction time, reaction to color/sound etc.

12. Wundt (cont.)
Wundt is known as the Father of Psychology – He moved Psychology out of a realm of philosophy to a realm of science.
Wundt and his students used introspection to study structuralism.
Introspection - record cognitive reactions to simple stimuli
Structuralism – the study of the most basic elements of the mind. Ex. Reaction time

13. William James
wrote psychology’s first textbook in (The Principles of Psychology)
Developed the theory of functionalism
Functionalism - school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes enable the organism to adapt, survive and flourish. Ex Fear can help us survive.

14. Functionalism vs. Structuralism
Functionalism studies the function of the mind rather than the structure of the mind.
James’ central question was how do our minds adapt to changing environment?

15. Functionalism James Structuralism Wundt How to remember… What is it?
How does it work?
Structuralism Wundt
What is it?

16. Max Wertheimer Introduced the Gestalt approach (1920)
Gestalt psychology – emphasize our tendency to integrate pieces of information into meaningful wholes.
The perception (whole experience) is often more than just a sum of the parts
“Gestalt” means whole
We perceive motion where there is nothing more than a sequence of individual sensory events.
Ex. motion picture - The viewer sees an effect of the whole event.
Ex. Flashing road sign during construction – our perception is that the arrows are moving

17. Examples of Seeing the Whole
OXXXXXX XOXXXXX XXOXXXX XXXOXXX XXXXOXX XXXXXOX XXXXXXO
Law of Closure - If parts are missing, we tend to add to it
Law of Similarity – we tend to group similar items together
Something
Principle of figure ground – perceiving one part as the foreground and the other as the background
Law of proximity – things that are closer together are seen as belonging together.
**************
Gestalt psychology contributed to the study of therapy and perception.

18. Evolutionary Perspective
Human thoughts and actions are examined in terms of natural selection.
Look for traits that are advantageous for survival. Certain traits are passed down from the parents to the next generation.
How would Donna’s situation be explained using the evolutionary perspective?
Donna’s behavior is not acceptable to society and may decrease her chance of survival

19. Sigmund Freud introduced the psychoanalytic theory
Freud believed that he discovered the unconscious mind. (a part of our mind in which we do not have conscious control over)
Sigmund Freud believed that the unconscious mind is repressed
Psychoanalysis – theory of personality and therapeutic technique that attributes our thoughts and actions to unconscious motives and conflicts

20. Psychoanalysis (cont.)
One can understand human thought and behavior through dream analysis, word association and psychoanalytic techniques
Freud is criticized for being unscientific and creating unverifiable theories.

21. John B. Watson Watson introduced the behavioral approach
Watson studied the experiments of Pavlov
Behaviorism – belief that psychology should be
1. an objective science
2. study behavior without reference to mental processes
(Today, psychologists agree with #1 but not #2)

22. Behaviorism (cont.)
Behaviorists believed that psychologists should only look at behavior and causes of behavior (one cannot observe sensation, feeling and thought)
Thus Watson, and other behaviorists reject ideas like structuralism and functionalism.
From the 1920’s to the 1960’s behaviorism is the dominant force in American psychology.

23. B.F. Skinner
Skinner was a behaviorist that contributed to the understanding and school of thought of behaviorism.
Skinner introduced the idea of reinforcement to the understanding of behavior.
Reinforcement is the environmental stimuli that either encourage or discourage certain responses.