Chapter 1

Psychology: The Evolution of a

Science

Slides prepared by Randall E. Osborne, Texas State University-San Marcos

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

1.1

Psychology’s Roots: The Path to a Science of Mind

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1.1 Psychology’s Roots

- Psychology’s definition•mind & behavior defined

- Important questions•What are the bases of perceptions, thoughts,

memories, and feelings, or our subjective sense of self?•How does the mind usually allow us to function

effectively in the world?•Why does the mind occasionally function so

ineffectively in the world?

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1.1 Psychology’s Roots—The Great Philosophers

- Plato (428 BC–347 BC) argues for nativism• innate knowledge

- Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC) and “tabula rasa”•philosophical empiricism

- Descartes (1596–1650) – dualism•pineal gland

- Phrenology – takes “Gall” (1758–1828) •mapping the mind?

http://www.phrenology.com/index.html

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1.1 Psychology’s Roots—Biology Matters

- Pierre Flourens (1794–1867)•added precision through surgical experiments

- Paul Broca (1825–1880)•patient unable to speak but could understand•Broca’s area

- From Physiology to Psychology•Helmholtz (1821–1894) —the speed of responses•Wundt (1832–1920) —structualism

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1.1 Psychology’s Roots—Physiology

- Important terms•physiology•stimulus• reaction time•structuralism•consciousness• introspection

- Objective measurements of conscious processes?

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1.1 Psychology’s Roots—Coming to the USA

- Titchener (1867–1927)•hard introspective labor•Elemental qualities of consciousness

- James (1842–1910)• functional approach

- Darwin—The Origin of Species (1859)•natural selection

- G. Stanley Hall (1844–1924)•child development & adolescence

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

1.2

Errors and Illusions Reveal Psychology

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1.2 Errors and Illusions Reveal Psychology

- Illusions of movement•Mueller-Lyer line illusion

Try it here http://www.michaelbach.de/ot/sze_muelue/index.html

•Max Wertheimer (train ride & movement)

- Birth of Gestalt psychology•perception of wholes, not parts

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1.2 Mental Disorders and Multiple Selves

- Psychological disorders can shed light on the workings of the “normal” mind •Felida X•dissociative identity disorder•hysteria•James’ view of and awareness of single self

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1.2 Freud and Psychoanalytic Theory

- Freud’s work with Breuer

- Psychoanalytic theory•unconscious•psychoanalysis•sexual experiences•clues into nature of mind from mental aberrations

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1.2 Influence of Psychoanalysis and the Humanistic Response

- Freud–one of the most influential thinkers

- Psychoanalysis —greatest impact on clinical practice• inherent pessimism

- Humanistic psychology• positive potential• Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers

clients not patients

driven toward future rather than prisoners of the past

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

1.3

Psychology in the 20th Century: Behaviorism Takes Center Stage

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1.3 Psychology in the 20th Century

- Behaviorism—study the objective

- Watson (1878–1958) & emergence of behaviorism•study what people “do”• influenced by work of Ivan Pavlov

- Stimulus-response

- Little Albert

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1.3 B. F. Skinner & Behaviorism

- Skinner (1904—1990) - The conditioning chamber (“Skinner box”)

• consequences matter• influenced by work of Ivan Pavlov

response

reinforcement

- Teaching machines (break complicated task into small bits and use reinforcement)

- No free will (reinforcements from our past)

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

1.4

Beyond Behaviorism: Psychology Expands

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1.4 Beyond Behaviorism

- Advent of computers• decline in behaviorism

- Information processing systems• can we think of mental events as the flow of information

through the mind?• computer metaphor

- Cognitive psychology• Remembering, attending, thinking, believing, evaluating,

feeling, and assessing

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1.4 The Emergence of Cognitive Psychology

- Sir Frederic Bartlett (1886–1969)—memory•expectations effect memory

- Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909)—nonsense syllables for studying memory

- Piaget (1896–1980)•cognitive errors of children and insight into mind

- Kurt Lewin (1890–1947)•behavior is predicted by person’s subjective

experience of the world

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1.4 The Emergence of Cognitive Psychology - Technology

- World War II—how to train radar operators• required an understanding of perception,

attention, identification, memory, & decision-making

- Donald Broadbent (1926–1993)•paying attention to several things at once

- George Miller•similarity in capacity limitations across situations•7 +/- 2

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1.4 The Emergence of Cognitive Psychology—Technology

- Writing computer programs to mimic language?•Skinner’s Verbal Behavior•Chomsky’s critique based on novel constructions

- Developments of 1950s set stage for explosion of cognitive psychology in the 1960s

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1.4 The Rise of Cognitive Neuroscience

- Cognitive psychologists studied the “software” of the brain•but what about the hardware?

- Karl Lashley (1890–1958)• train rats to run maze•surgically remove brain parts & run maze again•hope to find spot in brain where learning occurs

- Scientists who followed developed area now called behavioral neuroscience

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1.4 The Rise of Cognitive Neuroscience

- Goal is to learn about relationship between brain and behavior

- Which brain parts perform which functions?

- New technologies to observe living brains (such as PET scans depicted in Figure 1.5)

http://www.radiologyinfo.org/en/info.cfm?pg=pet

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1.4 The Rise of Cognitive Neuroscience

- Behavioral neuroscience• links psychological processes to activities in

nervous system•cannot do “experimental” brain surgery

- Cognitive neuroscience•brain scanning techniques•which brain parts are active with which tasks?

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1.4 The Emergence of Evolutionary Psychology

- Garcia—rats learn to associate nausea with food smell faster than with a flashing light•adaptive•organisms are not just blank slates

- Charles Darwin (1809–1892)• theory of natural selection

- Evolutionary psychology• things that remain serve or served an adaptive

function

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

1.5

Beyond the Individual: Social and Cultural Perspectives

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1.5 Social and Cultural Perspectives

- Social psychology•Triplett’s bicycle study•Lewin’s “field theory”•Asch’s “mental chemistry”•Allport—stereotyping, prejudice, and racism

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1.5 Social and Cultural Perspectives

- Cultural psychology•defining “culture”•Wundt paid attention to culture?•anthropology and psychology•absolutism•relativism

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

1.6

The Profession of Psychology: Past and Present

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1.6 Psychology’s Past and Present

- July 1892—APA is born at Clark University•7 original members

- 150,000 members today•20% come from academia

- APS formed in 1982• renamed in 2006

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1.6 Psychology’s Past and Present

- Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930)• first woman elected president of APA

- Francis Cecil Sumner (1895–1954)• first African American to hold PhD in psychology

- Kenneth Clark (1914–2005)• first member of a minority group to become

president of APA•elected in 1970

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1.6 What Psychologists Do

- Faculty positions

- Private practice

- School psychologists

- Research psychologists

- Counseling psychologists