Chapter 1Section 3

A History of Psychology

Objective

• Explain the historical background of the study of psychology.

Discussion

• Why don’t people’s actions always match their words?

• How do children learn right from wrong?• These are questions about human behavior

that have intrigued people throughout the ages.

Roots from Ancient Greece

• In ancient Greece, long before the time of Plato, and in many other ancient cultures, people believed that thoughts and dreams, as well as madness were sent by the gods. Peoples of ancient Mesopotamia believed that their gods sent them messages telling them when to plant crops and against whom to make war. The ancient Hebrews believed that God rewarded them with good visions and punished them with evil spirits. Beginning around the sixth century B.C., scholars in India, China, and Greece all began to attribute human thoughts and emotions to an internal source: the mind.

• Socrates coined the phrase “know thyself.” This motto has remained a part of psychological study. We can learn much about ourselves by carefully examining thoughts and feelings.

• Introspection- is a method of learning to look within.

Something to think about

• Consider whether Socrates’ directive to “know thyself” is useful advice.

• What role does introspection play in helping people learn about themselves?

• How can learning to know yourself help you understand the world and the people who inhabit it?

• Aristotle(384-322 B.C.) Greek philosopher who raised questions about human behavior.

• Associationism: a learning theory, Aristotle showed how experiences often remind us of similar experiences in the past. That the face of a loved one makes us feel secure. How thought leads to ideas as we dream and daydream.

• Peri Psyches: “about the mind” from the works of Aristotle. He took the scientific approach that human behavior, like the movements of the stars and the seas, which is subject to certain rules and laws. One law is that people seek pleasure and avoid pain. The works also explored sensations, memory, feelings and emotions.

• As discussed earlier, the Greeks generally believed that the gods punished people for wrongdoing by causing them confusion and madness.

• Hippocrates (460-377 B.C.) Greek physician suggested that such problems were caused by abnormalities in the brain. Biological based.

The Middle Ages

• Most Europeans believed that problems such as agitation and confusion were signs of possession by demons.

The Birth of Modern Science

• The first known written use of the term psychology ( then psychologia) was in a manuscript written about 1520 by a Croatian writer named Marulic. About 70 years later, the term appeared in the title of a German encyclopedia about “the improvement of man.” During the 1600s, the term psychology gained widespread use.

• People in the 1500s,1600s, and 1700s were shown great scientific and intellectual advances.

• 1500s-Nicolaus Copernicus, Polish astronomer, challenged the view that the sun revolved around Earth, suggesting instead that Earth revolves around the sun.

• 1600s-Sir Isaac Newton, English scientist, formulated the laws of gravity motion.

• John Locke, English Philosopher, theorized that knowledge is not inborn but is learned from experience.

• 1700s-Antoine Lavoisier, French scientist founded the science of chemistry and explained how animals and plants use oxygen in respiration.

• 1800s-scientific approach also led to the birth of modern psychology.

• Psychological laboratories were established in Europe and the United States. In the laboratories psychologists studied behavior and mental processes using methods similar to the study of chemistry.

• 1879- is when many historians of psychology as the establishment of the modern laboratory science. German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt established his laboratory in Leipzig.

Activity

• Create a two-column chart titled “Early Perspectives in Psychology”

• Label one column Wilhelm Wundt and the other William James.

• Directions: Complete your charts by comparing and contrasting the schools of thought introduced by these early psychologists.

Calvin and Hobbes

• Review the comic strip on page 14.• Analyze Calvin’s reactions to the experience of

learning to ride a bicycle. • How might a structuralist view the experience?

(Calvin’s subjective, or personal, feelings that the bicycle is dangerous are overwhelming his objective sensations, which should indicate that the bicycle is not actually going anywhere unless he deliberately causes it to.)

• How might a functionalist view the same experience? ( If Calvin’s father continues to force Calvin to get on the bicycle before he is ready, Calvin may stop trying to ride. However, if Calvin experiences a few successes on the bicycle, he will probably repeat his attempts, and bicycle riding will gradually become easy and habitual.)

Activity

• Note, over the course of a school day, the number of times your behavior is reinforced in a positive way by other people. For example, a teacher may congratulate you on a correct answer, or a friend may compliment you on your choice of clothing.

Charts

• Create a chart listing the name of each school of thought covered in the section, each school’s major theorist, and each school’s main principles.

Theorists

• John B. Watson-Behaviorism- Watson believed in the functionalist idea to

focus on learning. He felt consciousness as a private event that was only known to the individual. If psychology was to be a natural science-like physics or chemistry, must be limited to observable, measurable events-behavior. He defined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior.

Quote from Watson

• “ Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select– doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and race of his ancestors.” John Watson-Behaviorism, 1930

Theorists

• B.F. Skinner-Reinforcement• “The consequences of behavior determine the

probability that the behavior will occur again.”Skinner thought people learn in the same way animals

do. People learn to behave in certain ways because they have been reinforced for doing so.

In 1953, after observing the instructional methods used in his daughter’s elementary school, B.F. Skinner concluded that his methods of teaching new behaviors to animals could be applied to humans as well.

Skinner continued

Skinner believed that a learning task could be broken down into small steps and placed in a logical sequence. The learner would then follow a programmed series of lessons that involved learning a small bit of knowledge, answering a question about it, and then immediately finding out whether or not the answer was correct. In this way, learning would be scientifically reinforced. Many computer programs in use today apply Skinner’s theory of learning.

The Gestalt (unified) School

• The drawings demonstrate the idea that the perception of something is affected by the context in which it occurs.

• German psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler were interested in the ways in which context influences people’s interpretation of information.

• Gestalt psychology was founded in the 1920s. Gestalt psychology rejects the structuralist idea that experience can be broken down into individual parts or elements.

Gestalt psychology

Gestalt psychology reject behaviorist idea about observable behavior. They feel that learning should be active and purposeful. They don’t agree with the fact that learning is mechanical. Learning, particularly problem solving is accomplished by insight, not mechanical repetition.

Insight is the reorganization of perceptions that enables an individual to solve a problem. Insight is the appearance of the Gestalt or form that allows the person to see the solution.

Sigmund Freud-Psychoanalysis

• Sigmund Freud-Psychoanalysis/ emphasizes the importance of unconscious motives and internal conflicts in determining human behavior.

• Freud is very much part of popular culture. For example is the interpretations of dreams.

• Majority of psychologists conducted research in a laboratory. Freud conducted research by understanding human behavior through consultations with clients. He felt that the unconscious feelings were more important then conscious experience governing people’s behavior and feelings.

Freud

• Psychodynamic thinking- this theory assumed that most of what exists in an individual’s mind is unconscious and consists of conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes. People are often consciously unaware of the real motivations for their behavior.

Chapter 1/Section 3 Review

• 1. Describe the main differences between structuralism and functionalism.

Structuralism breaks down conscious experience into objective sensations and subjective feelings; the mind functions by combining these two basic elements. Functionalism proposes that adaptive behavior patterns are learned and maintained because they are successful.

Section Review

• 2. How did the field of psychology develop?Psychology began in ancient Greece and revived

during the scientific advances of the 1500s,1600s, and 1700s. Contributions of modern psychologists such as William James, B.F. Skinner, and Sigmund Freud.

• 3. Identify one example of the influence that Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory has had on popular culture.

Common slips of the tongue are often called Freudian slips– “ I wish you were her.” A man sent a postcard to his wife with the above wording. Possibly indicating he was cheating on her.