Where does Psychology Come From? A Brief History

Psychology is as old as history and as modern as today  Aristotle: Greek philosopher  Peri Psyches (About the Psyche)-nature of mind behavior  People are basically motivated to seek pleasure and avoid pain (modern view)

Psychology is as old as history and as modern as today  Democritus: behavior as body and a mind  Behavior influenced by external stimulation  First to raise issue of free will or choice

Psychology is as old as history and as modern as today  If we are influenced by external forces, can we be said to control our own behavior?  Question: where do the influences of others end and our “real selves” begin?

Structuralism  Willhelm Wundt: debut of modern psych  1897: established first psychological laboratory in Leipzig,Germany  Claimed that the mind was a natural event and could be studied scientifically (light, heat, flow of blood)

Structuralism  Define makeup of conscious experience, breaking it down into objective sensations (light and taste) and subjective feelings (emotional responses, will, mental images)  Believe that mind functions by creatively combining the elements of experience

Functionalism  Emphasizes the uses or functions of the MIND rather than the elements of experience  Deals with overt behavior as well as consciousness

Functionalism  William James ( ): Wrote first modern psychology textbook, The Principles of Psychology

Functionalism  Influenced by Darwin’s “survival of the fittest” theory  The “fittest” behavior patterns survive  Adaptive actions tend to be repeated and become habits

Behaviorism  John Watson ( ): Founder of behaviorism  Psychology must limit itself to observable, measurable events-to behavior

Behaviorism Examples:  Pressing a lever, turning left or right, eating and mating, heart rate, dilation of the pupils

Behaviorism  Psychology address the learning of measurable responses to environmental stimuli  Pavlov’s salivating dogs (conditioning not mental processes)

Behaviorism  B.F Skinner ( ):  Reinforcement: organisms learn to behave in certain ways because they have been reinforced for doing so

Gestalt Focused on perception and on how perception influences thinking and problem solving

Gestalt  Perceptions more than the sum of its parts  Wholes that give meaning to parts

Gestalt  Learning to solve problems, is accomplished by insight, not by mechanical repetition  “Aha moment” flash of insight

Psychoanalysis Emphasizes the importance of unconscious motives and conflicts as determinants of human behavior

Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud ( ):  Believed that unconscious thought, especially sexual and aggressive impulses, were more influential than conscious thought in determining human behavior.

Psychoanalysis  Thought mind was unconscious, consisting of conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes.  People motivated to gratify these impulses and urges

Psychoanalysis  Freud: gained his understanding of people through clinical interviews with patients  Gain insight into deep-seated conflicts and find socially acceptable ways of expressing wishes and gratifying needs

How Today’s Psychologists View Behavior

Perspectives  Biological  Cognitive  Humanistic-Existential  Psychodynamic  Learning  Socialcultural