1. Psychology’s History & Approaches (2%-4%)

2. Module 1
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Describe how psychology developed from its pre-scientific roots in early understandings of mind and body to the beginnings of modern science
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Describe some important milestones in psychology’s early development
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Describe how psychology continued to develop from the 1920s through today

3. Have you ever wondered….?
What makes people successful? Are some people just born smarter?
Why some people become depressed or anxious? What triggers bad moods- or good ones?
How society impacts our behavior? Why we do the things we do?
Psychology is a science that seeks to answer such questions about us all- how we THINK, FEEL, & ACT as we do

4. From Philosophy to Psychology
From Grog the Caveman to you, humans have always wondered about certain things….
How does our mind work? How does our body relate to our mind? How much of what we know comes built in? How much is acquired through experience?
Trephination: Stone Age humans carved holes in the skull to release evil spirits. (They realized that behavior was somehow associated w/ the head/brain!!!)

5. 1.1
Ancient Thinkers
India: Buddha pondered how sensations & perceptions combine to form ideas
China: Confucius stressed power of the mind & education
Israel: Hebrew scholars linked the mind & emotion to the body
Greece: Socrates & Plato concluded the mind is separable from the body & lives on & that knowledge is innate. Aristotle believed in observation & data… And disagreed w/ the other Greek guys… he thought knowledge came from experience.

6. British dudes & French guys
Britain: Francis Bacon helped develop modern science and noticed the brain’s tendency to seek patterns. John Locke believed that we all start with a “tabula rasa” (blank slate) (I think some of us still might have one!).
Empiricism: the view that knowledge originates in experience & science is observation & experiments
France: Rene Descartes agreed w/ Socrates & Plato. Figured out “nerves.”

7. Who’s Your Daddy? The Founder of Modern Psychology
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Who’s Your Daddy? The Founder of Modern Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt
Established the 1st psychology lab at University of Leipzig (Germany) in 1879
Measuring the “atoms of the mind”
Measured time lag between hearing a ball hit a platform and pressing a telegraph key
1/10 of second when asked to hit it when sound occurred
2/10 of second when asked to hit it when they were consciously aware of “hearing” the sound

9. Structuralism Wilhelm Wundt & Edward Bradford Titchener
Structuralism used self-reflection (introspection) to learn about the mind’s structure.
Introspection: (looking inward) having people report their immediate sensations, images, & feelings
Results vary from person to person
Requires smart, verbal people
We often do NOT know the
“why” of our thinking

10. Functionalism William James
Influenced by Charles Darwin, it explored how mental and behavioral processes function – how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, & flourish
Structuralism = understanding a car from looking at the disassembled parts (vs. looking at working car)
William James published 1st textbook – The Principles of Psychology (1890)

11. First Ladies of Psychology
Mary Whiton Calkins – in 1890, W. James admitted her to his graduate seminar. All the men dropped out, but James continued to teach her. She completed ALL requirements for Ph.D & outscored ALL the men on exam, but Harvard denied her the degree. Went on to do research on memory & 1st female APA president in 1905.
Margaret Floy Washburn – 1st to receive a Ph.D (Cornell University under Titchener). Wrote The Animal Mind (animal behavior) & became 2nd female APA president in 1921.
Women now claim 2/3 of all Ph.Ds in America
How do you think psychology might change as more & more women contribute their ideas to the field?

12. From Inside to Outside & Beyond
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From Inside to Outside & Beyond
Prior to 1920s – “The science of mental life”
Behaviorism & Psychoanalysis (1920s)
Behaviorism: “the scientific study of observable behavior” (B.F. Skinner & John Watson)
Freudian: “our unconscious thoughts & emotional responses to childhood affect behavior” (Sigmund Freud)
The Cognitive Revolution (1960s)
led the field back to its early interest in mental processes (aided by new technologies)
Humanism: “ways that current environmental influences can nurture or limit our growth potential” (A. Maslow & C. Rogers)

13. Psychology Today
Neuroscience Revolution: new technologies have created an interdisciplinary study of brain activity with cognitive processes
Psychology is the science of behavior & mental processes.