1. Introduction to Psychology
“The Journey of a thousand miles starts with one step.”
- Lao Tsu (6th century B.C.)

2. Psychology Define -- From the Greek, Psyche, meaning “mind”
-- “The study of mental processes and behavior.”
“I am an observer, I like to watch people. I am into psychology and people - how they act and such.” Dane Cook

3. Psychology Defined “The Science of human nature.” or
Studying why we do what we do.
Why we think what we think
Why we love her, and not her
How we communicate
How we reason and react

4. So…What’s the Point? What would you rather do…?
Be able to explain why something has happened?
Or…
Be able to predict what is going to happen?
Is This Possible?

5. The Founding Fathers Hippocrates (460-377 BC)
Perceived that mental illness and instability was not a plague from God, but a disease which needed to be treated like any other physical ailment.
Hippocratic Oath
:I will apply, for the benefit of the sick, all measures [that] are required, avoiding those twin traps of overtreatment and therapeutic nihilism.
I will remember that there is art to medicine as well as science, and that warmth, sympathy, and understanding may outweigh the surgeon's knife or the chemist's drug.
I will not be ashamed to say "I know not," nor will I fail to call in my colleagues when the skills of another are needed for a patient's recovery.

6. The Founding Fathers Plato (429-347 BC)
Believed that mentally ill people are not responsible for their actions. Also thought that these people should be separated from “normal” society.

7. The Founding Fathers Descartes (1515-1588)
Taught that the Mind and Body are connected. What effects one MUST effect the other.
“I think, therefore I am!”

8. The Founding Fathers Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
Method of studying the mind called “structuralism.”
Structuralism: tried to identify the basic parts of the conscious mind.
“You can chain me, you can torture me, you can even destroy this body, but you will never imprison my mind.”
- Mohandas Gandhi

9. The Founding Fathers William James (1842-1910)
Method of studying the mind called “Functionalism”
Functionalism: study of HOW the conscious mind works to help humans survive in their environment
“I’ve put my heart and soul into my work, and I’ve lost my mind in the process.”
- Vincent Van Gogh

10. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Began a complete revolution
In the understanding of how
the mind works.
Established the theory that
unconscious desires and
motives really control our active behaviors.
Pioneered the craft of psychotherapy.
Neurology is the study and treatment of disorders that deal with the nervous system.

11. Freud’s impact on European Society
Revolutionized ideas of how the human mind works
Established the theory that the unconscious motives control much of human behavior
Advanced fields of psychiatry and psychology
Freud helped create new theories of child rearing, education, and sociology.

12. The Founding Fathers
Max Wertheimer ( ) - Stated that “the whole is different from the sum of its parts.” Argued that your mind organizes individual experiences into a meaningful whole, or Gestalt. Basically, perception strives toward a complete form. Gestalt: German for “shape” or “form.” Wertheimer’s approach called “Gestalt Psychology.” “Faith is taking the first step, even when you don’t see the whole staircase” - Martin Luther King Jr.

13. The Founding Fathers Kenneth and Mamie Phipps Clark (1930’s and 40’s)
Focus was social psychology. Their study of “self-concepts” of African American children provided the scientific justification for the Supreme Court to end segregated school (Brown vs. The Board of Eduction:1954)
Kenneth was first African American President of the American Psychological Association. (1971)
“But suppose God is black? What if we go to Heaven and we, all our lives, have treated the Negro as an inferior, and God is there, and we look up and He is not white? What then is our response? “
- Robert Kennedy

14. The Founding Fath..ah..Mothers
Mary Whiton Calkins ( )
Complete all requirements for a PhD at Harvard in 1895
Denied the degree because Harvard did not grant degrees to women.
Offered a PhD from “sister-college” off Radcliffe. – refused it.
Became a professor at all female Wellesley College where she pioneered first research on Short-term memory.
First female president of the American Psychological Association. (1905)
“Men’s minds are raised to the level of the women with whom they associate.”
- Alexander Dumas

15. Warwick’s Own… William Herbert Sheldon Jr.
Developed theory of somatotype and constitutional psychology. (tried to link body type with intelligence and personality)
Born in Warwick in 1898 died in 1977