Goals: History of Psychology – Students will 1. Explain the historical background of the field of psychology. 2. Describe the six main contemporary perspectives in psychology.

 Instructor will distribute A Brief History of Psychology written by BSU Professor Landrum.  Read the hand-out.  Highlight the important points that the instructor discusses in class. ◦ You are responsible for these portions of the reading.

 A general set of assumptions about the nature of certain phenomena. ◦ In psychology, each perspective has a different set of assumptions about the nature of human behavior and mental processes.  Human behavior is complex and a variety of perspectives gives a richer and fuller view of behavior that could be seen in one perspective alone.  The book discusses several perspectives, the following slides contains a new perspective added since the books publication.

 Biological ◦ Nervous system, glands and hormones, genetic factors ◦ Biological processes influence behavior and mental processes  Evolutionary ◦ Physical traits, social behavior ◦ Adaptive organisms survive and transmit their genes to future generations

 Humanistic ◦ Self-concept ◦ People make free and conscious choices based on their unique experiences  Psychoanalytic ◦ Unconscious processes, early childhood experiences ◦ Unconscious motives influence behavior  Learning ◦ Environmental influences, learning, observational learning ◦ Personal experience and reinforcement guide individual development

 Sociocultural ◦ Ethnicity, gender, culture, socioeconomic status ◦ Sociocultural, biological, and psychological factors create individual differences  Cognitive ◦ Interpretation of mental images, thinking, language ◦ Perceptions and thoughts influence behavior

 We will break into seven groups.  Each group will be assigned a perspective.  Each group will choose a chapter from the table of contents in the text book and the group will explain how their perspective would interest biologically oriented psychologists.  The group will share with the class and the class will determine which perspective to which you are referring.