1. The History and Scope of Psychology
Module 1
Adapted from David Myers’ Exploring Psychology: ninth Edition in Modules PowerPoint slides

2. Where does psychology come from?
What do you expect to learn/what questions do you want answered?
Curiosity
Aristotle (384—322 B.C.E.) Greek naturalist and philosopher -- gave the history’s first fully integrated, systematic account of psychology
Snow ball
To be human is to be curious about ourselves and the world around us

3. The birth of contemporary psychology
Wundt, 1879, a philosopher and a physiologist, Germany, University of Leipzig, conducting experiments to study the “atoms of the mind” --- the birth of contemporary psychology
How long is the history of psychology?
Preview Question 1: What are some important milestones in the development of the science of psychology?
Aristotle gave the history’s first fully integrated, systematic account of psychology
First recorded psychological experiment was conducted by an egyptian king – Psamtick, wanted to proove the long-held belief that the egyptians were the most ancient race on earth. He posed the hypothesis that if children had no pooprtunity to learn a language from the people around them, they would spontaneously speak the primal, inborn language of humankind, that is, the natural language of its most ancient people, which psamtick presumed to be Egyptian. To test his hypothesis, psamtick kidnapped two infants fo a lower-class mothere and ordered a herdsman in a remote area to raise them. The children were properly fed and cared for, but were never spoken to or heard anyone speak a word.
Wundt ( )

4. Origins of Psychological Science
Wundt, a German philosopher and a physiologist
Ivan Pavlov, a Russian physiologist
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician
William James, an American philosopher
At the same time, psychology was originating in many disciplines and countries.

5. Psychological Science is Born
James ( )
William James ( )
American philosopher,
founding father of American Psychology,
wrote an important 1890 psychology textbook.
Mary Calkins, James’s student, became the APA’s first female president.
Margaret Floy Washburn
At the same time, psychology was originating in many disciplines and countries.

6. Psychological Science develops
Sigmund Freud ( )
an Austrian physician
the importance of the unconscious mind and its effects on human behavior.
Structuralists (Wundt, Titchener), functionalists (James), and Freud focused on inner sensations and feelings. Used introspection and retrospection.
“the science of Mental life.”
Freud ( )

7. Psychological Science Develops
Behaviorists
Watson ( )
Skinner ( )
Watson and later Skinner emphasized the study of overt behavior as the subject matter of scientific psychology.
Redefine psychology as “the scientific study of observable behavior.”

8. Psychological Science Develops
Humanistic Psychology
Maslow ( )
Rogers ( )
Maslow and Rogers emphasized current environmental influences on our growth potential and our need for love and acceptance.

9. Psychological Science Develops
In the 1960s, cognitive psychology recapture psychology’s initial interest in mental processes.
We define psychology today as the scientific study of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (inner thoughts and feelings).
“the science of behavior and mental process”

10. Contemporary Psychology
Psychology’s Biggest Question
Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis
Psychology’s Subfields
CLOSE-UP: Tips for Studying Psychology
Preview Question 2: What is psychology’s historic big issue?

11. Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Focus
Sample Questions
Neuroscience
How the body and brain enables emotions?
How are messages transmitted in the body? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives?
Evolutionary
How the natural selection of traits promoted the survival of genes?
How does evolution influence behavior tendencies?
Behavior genetics
How much our genes and our environments influence our individual differences?
To what extent are psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and vulnerability to depression attributable to our genes? To our environment?

12. Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Focus
Sample Questions
Psychodynamic
How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts?
How can someone’s personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes and childhood traumas?
Behavioral
How we learn observable responses?
How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the most effective way to alter our behavior, say to lose weight or quit smoking?

13. Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Focus
Sample Questions
Cognitive
How we encode, process, store and retrieve information?
How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Problem solving?
Social-cultural
How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures?
How are we — as Africans, Asians, Australians or North Americans – alike as members of human family? As products of different environmental contexts, how do we differ?

14. Let’s play: “What’s my perspective?”
“Obsessive-compulsive disorder is a problem in the orbital cortex.”
“Compulsions start as habits and are rewarded by the anxiety relief they bring.”
“No, it’s a sign of unresolved childhood issues.”
“OCD comes from our natural instinct to control our environment.”
“No, OCD is an inherited condition.”
“OCD thinking and behavior is a reaction to our fast-paced, out-of-control lifestyles.”
Automatic animation.
Instructor: This would be “The Seven Psychologists and the client with OCD.”
Ask the students if they can identify the perspective used in making the comments.
I have created a different example than the “anger” one found in the book.
I have color-coded the statements so students can call out suggestions by color, “the orange one is…”
The answers: Orange: Neuroscience, Magenta: Psychodynamic, Blue: Behavior Genetics, Black: Behaviorist, Brown: Evolutionary, Gray: Social-Cultural, Green: Cognitive.
“No, OCD is a matter of mental habits and errors that can be corrected.”

15. Different perspectives on a single issue: Six Blind Men and an Elephant
No animation.
Instructor: This slide illustrates the results of taking only one perspective on an issue.
The image refers to the “Six Blind Men and the Elephant,” a poem by John Saxe ( ) based on an ancient Indian folktale. The parable illustrates how people with limited perspective can be mistaken if they feel they have the whole picture, seeing the elephant as a rope, wall, tree trunk, fan, spear, and snake.
Image (c) Jason Hunt naturalchild.org/jason

16. The Big Issue in Psychology: N-N
The Nature- Nurture Question:
To what extent are our traits already set in place at birth (our “Nature”)?
And to what extent do our traits develop in response to our environment/ experience (our “Nurture”)?
Click to reveal text.

17. Nature Nurture Plato: Characters, intelligence, and some Ideas inborn.
Aristotle:
All knowledge comes through the senses.
Descartes: Some ideas are innate.
Nature
Nurture
vs.
Charles Darwin: Some traits become part of our nature through natural selection: they help us survive long enough to pass the traits to the next generation.
John Locke:
The mind is a blank slate (blank chalkboard or screen) “written on” by experience.
Click to reveal five bubbles of different perspectives.

18. We have differences that are shaped by our environmen.
We share a common origin that gives us an inborn human nature in common.
We have differences that are shaped by our environmen.
Nature +
Nurture
Click to reveal the new nature and nurture bubbles.
This interplay of nature and nurture may be more complex in humans than any other species.
Another way of looking at this, suggested in the text: Behaviors can be seen as “pushed” (constrained, really) by biology, and “pulled” (influenced) by the environment.

19. The Roles of Nature and Nurture:
No animation.
“Nurture works on what Nature endows.”

20. Biology Plus Environment..
are part of psychology’s three
“biopsychosocial” levels of analysis.
The outer level, Environment: social Influences, culture, education, relationships
The deep level, Biology:
genes, brain, neuro-transmitters, survival, reflexes, sensation
In the middle, Psychology: thoughts, emotions, moods, choices, behaviors, traits, motivations, knowledge, perceptions
Click to reveal three levels.

21. The three levels as influences on some psychological phenomenon
Example: Depression
Example: Enjoying Soccer
Example: Intelligence
Example: Shyness
Activity: analyze examples in thee levels

22. Psychology’s Subfields
Basic research
Biological
Developmental
Cognitive
Personality
Social
Positive Psychology
Applied
Clinical Psychology
Counseling Psychology
Educational Psychology
Industrial-Organizational
Community Psychology
No animation.
Instructor: This slide lists categories that are covered in more depth in the next two slides.

23. Psychology’s Subfields Research Examples
Type of research
Biological
Developmental
Cognitive
Personality
Social
Positive Psychology
Explore the structural problems in the brain that may be part of autism
Study how the stages of cognitive and emotional development vary in autism
Clarify the difficulties autistic children have with understanding sarcasm
Decide whether traits like neuroticism need to be measured differently in autism
Click to reveal an example for each type of research.
Find how autistic children can learn social skills as procedures if not by intuition
Explore what motivates people and contributes to life satisfaction

24. Psychology’s Subfields Applied
Clinical Psychology
Counseling Psychology
Educational Psychology
Industrial-Organizational
Community Psychology
Use exposure therapy to decrease phobic reactions in a traumatized client
Help someone achieve career goals despite family conflict and self-doubt
Evaluate aptitudes and achievement to plan for a student with learning problems
Figure out how a factory can improve coordination of tasks, roles, and personalities
Click to reveal an example of each type of applied psychology.
Instructor: This slide lists categories that are covered in more depth in the next two slides.
Help coordinate a city’s efforts to understand and prevent elder abuse
Use exposure therapy to decrease phobic reactions in a traumatized client

25. An Application of Psychology: Improving your test performance
Scientific studies show us that:
Testing yourself boosts retention of material.
The retrieval practice effect/testing effect
Actively processing material helps master it.
Put it in your own words, make connections
Spaced rehearsal, interspaced with other subjects, is more efficient than cramming.
Spread studying over multiple days
Click to reveal each study result and advice that goes with it.
People tend to overestimate their mastery.
If the concept looks familiar… not good enough

26. Applying this knowledge: Use SQ3R to master a textbook
Survey
Scan/Skim what you are about to read, especially chapter outlines and section heads.
Question
Ask questions that the text might answer; write guesses.
Read
Look for the answer to your questions, reading a manageable amount at a time.
Rehearse
Click to reveal explantion of each step.
4th, Bonus “R”: wRiting new concepts, answers, reactions, connections.
Recall what you’ve read in your own words. Test yourself with quizzes.
Review
Look over text and notes and quickly review the main ideas of the whole chapter.