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The History and Scope of Psychology
Module 1
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The History and Scope of Psychology Overview
What is Psychology? Psychology’s Roots
Contemporary Psychology
Psychological Perspectives
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Psychology’s RootsAristotle (384-322 B.C.)
Aristotle, a naturalist and philosopher, theorized about psychology’s concepts.
He suggested that the soul and body are not separate and that knowledge grows from
experience.
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Psychology’s Roots
Psychological Science
Is Born Empiricism
Knowledge comes from
experience via the senses Science flourishes
through observation
and experiment
Wave One
• Introspection
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Psychological Science is Born
Wundt and psychology’s first graduate students
studied the “atoms of the mind” by conducting
experiments at Leipzig, Germany, in
1879.
This work is considered the birth of psychology as we know
it today.
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Psychological Science is Born
American philosopher William James wrote an important 1890 psychology textbook.
Mary Calkins, James’s student, became the APA’s first female president.
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Psychological Science is Born
Psychology originated in many disciplines and countries. It was, until the 1920s, defined as the science of
mental life.
Wave Two
Gestalt PsychologyMax Wertheimer
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Wave three
Psychoanalysis
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Psychological Science is Born
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician, and his followers emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind and its effects on human
behavior.
Fre
ud
(1856
-1939)
Wave Four
•Behaviorism
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Psychological Science DevelopsBehaviorists
Watson and later Skinner emphasized the study of overt behavior as the subject
matter of scientific psychology.
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Wave Five
• Multiple Perspectives
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Psychological Science Develops
Humanistic Psychology
Maslow and Rogers emphasized current environmental influences on our growth
potential and our need for love and acceptance.
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Psychology Today
We define psychology today as:… The scientific study of behavior and mental
processes.
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Psychological Associations & Societies
The American Psychological Association is the largest organization of psychology, followed by the British Psychological
Society.
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Psychology’s Big Question
Nature versus Nurture
The controversy over the relative contributions of biology and experience.
Nurture works on what nature endows.
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Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis- Biopsychosocial
Approach
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Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective Focus Sample Questions
Neuroscience/Biological
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 the promotes the perpetuation of one’s 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?
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Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective 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?
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Psychology’s Current Perspectives
Perspective Focus Sample Questions
Cognitive (aka Experimental Psychologists)
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?
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Psychology Subfields
• Basic research – builds the knowledge base of psychology
• Applied research – researches practical problems
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Psychology’s Subfields: Research
Psychologist What she does
BiologicalExplore the links between brain and mind.
DevelopmentalStudy changing abilities from womb to tomb.
CognitiveStudy how we perceive, think, and solve problems.
PersonalityInvestigate our persistent traits.
SocialExplore how we view and affect one another.
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Psychology’s Subfields: Research
Data: APA 1997
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Psychology’s Subfields: Applied
Psychologist What she does
ClinicalStudies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders
CounselingHelps people cope with academic, vocational, and marital challenges.
EducationalStudies and helps individuals in school and educational settings
Industrial/Organizational
Studies and advises on behavior in the workplace.
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Psychology’s Subfields: Applied
Data: APA 1997
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A clinical psychologist (Ph.D.) studies, assesses, and treats troubled people with
psychotherapy.
Psychiatrists on the other hand are medical professionals (M.D.) who use treatments
like drugs and psychotherapy to treat psychologically diseased patients.
Clinical Psychology vs. Psychiatry
How to write operational definitions
• Measurable
• Quantitative definition of a term
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Loyalty of a Pet
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Identify the variables
• Loyalty measured
• Pet is the population variable
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Define the population
• Pet:
• “dog that has graduated from basic obedience school”
• We must ensure that all subjects are on an even playing field..
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Operationally define Loyalty
“How quickly a dog comes when called”
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Refine and enhance
• “How quickly” is a Measure of time so we can define it in units of time- seconds, minutes
• “comes” distance and position to start from and end in .
• “comes from a sitting position fifteen feet away to a sitting position beside the caller
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• “called” can be defined by the type of call or the caller
• “when the caller says ‘come’ or time starts”
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The loyalty of a pet
“How many seconds it takes a dog which graduated from obedience school to come from a sitting position fifteen feet from the caller to a sitting positionb besider the caller after the caller says ‘come’. “
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Your turn!
identify and operationally define the following:
The loyalty of a friend
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EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY(7th Edition in Modules)
David MyersPowerPoint Slides
Aneeq AhmadHenderson State
University
Worth Publishers, © 2008
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