Download - Unit 1: Psychology’s History and Approaches

Unit 1:Psychology’s History and

Approaches

What is Psychology?

The systematic and scientific study of human behavior and mental processes

PredictionControl

Description Explanation

What are the Goals of Psychology?

Psychology’s RootsPrescientific Psychology

• Ancient Greeks–Socrates–Plato–Aristotle

Psychology’s RootsPrescientific Psychology

• Rene Descartes• Francis Bacon• John Locke

–Tabula Rasa (blank slate)

• EmpiricismScience should rely on observation and experimentation

Psychology’s RootsPsychological Science is Born

• Wilhelm Wundt (1879)–University of Leipzig–Reaction time experiment

Psychology’s RootsThinking About the Mind’s Structure

• Edward Titchener– Structuralism

• Physicists & chemists broke matter down into structures, why not the mind?

• Introspection reveals the structure of the mind

• “Tell me about things that are yellow”

Psychology’s RootsThinking About the Mind’s Function

• William James–Influenced by Darwin & evolutionary

theory– Functionalism

How mental and behavioral processes function

• Experimental psychology

Psychological Science Develops

• Sigmund Freud


• Behaviorism–John B. Watson –B.F. Skinner–“study of observable behavior”


• Humanistic psychology–Carl Rogers–Abraham Maslow

• Cognitive Neuroscience


• Psychology–Science–Behavior–Mental processes

Contemporary Psychology

Psychology’s Biggest Question

• Nature – Nurture Issue–Biology versus experience–History

• Greeks• John Locke v. Rene Descartes• Charles Darwin

–Natural selection

Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis

• Levels of Analysis–Biological–Psychological–Social-cultural

• Biopsychosocial Approach

Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis

Psychological Approaches/Perspectives

• Biological psychology• Evolutionary psychology• Psychodynamic psychology• Behavioral psychology• Cognitive psychology• Humanistic psychology• Social-cultural psychology

Psychological Approaches/Perspectives