History of Psychology: Lecture

1 Intro to psych Psychology Insert definition here: Generally agreed upon to be the study of mind and behavior. Ancient Greek is a language from which many of our words – especially scientific words come Psyche = mind logos = study Let’s find out what it is by what it is not! Michelangelo Dare for an A – name one thing that is not connected to psychology? OK so it is the study of the mind…What is the mind? Mind vs. Brain What comes first? Neural activity or thoughts? Why should it be studied? Who should study it? 2 Intro to psych Psychology is increasingly reliant on the study of the brain. But that leads us back to some interesting questions – does our brain make us do things? - fMRI professional vs. novice pianists - Elliot a middle-aged husband who had a brain tumor. - After it was removed, Elliot started to be unable to make good decisions: • got divorced, remarried, lost his money, got divorced again • Was any of that his fault? Turns out what was removed was the part that allowed him to feel emotions. Thus, psychology includes the study of brains and emotions Psychology has generally been a study of what goes wrong with the mind, brain, behavior and emotions. – see how broad it is. 3 Intro to psych History • Psychology began as philosophy • Plato believed in nativism – some knowledge is innate Example: the ability to learn language • Aristotle believed in tabula rasa = blank slate – humans are born knowing nothing and that they learn everything -This gives rise to the nature vs. nurture debate • A “sense of humor” from the 4 humors = 4 liquids Hippocrates - If you take blood from a vein and let it sit in a glass, it separates into a blackish clot at the bottom, than a layer of yellow fluid, and finally a thin layer of white on top. This fact was the basis of the early belief that personality comes from what is in your blood: • If you have too much “black bile” (darkish material at the bottom) flowing through your “tubes” inside, it makes you depressed and sad. This term was called melancholy. • If you have too much “yellow bile”, you are bitter, angry, and hot-tempered. • If you have too much “Phlegm” flowing, you are dull and sluggish. • Blood: • The Greeks thought personality could be changed by “bloodletting” using leeches or a knife to pierce the skin in order to allow evil spirits to escape. 4 Intro to psych • “Bloodletting” was popular as a treatment for many years to follow. Ex. George Washington in the late 1700’s suffered from bouts of depression unless he stayed active, so he often had blood removed, and he claimed it made him feel better (Flexner, 1974) The French Connection Rene Descartes (1600’s) argued that the mind and the brain are two different things = DUALISM Cool theory but how do the mind and brain interact? Cogito ergo sum = Paul Broca (mid 1800’s)identified Broca’s area based on his patient “Tan” Monsieur Leborgne we’ll study him in the brain chapter English Ideas Thomas Hobbes = political philosopher thought the mind is what the brain does Monism you’ve studied him in politics = opposite of John Locke Franz Joseph Gall also thought the mind and brain were linked, but by size Phrenology – study of the brain by feeling bumps of the skull and scalp The German explosion of psychology Hermann von Helmholtz measured people’s reaction time, precise calculations, and the scientific method and study the difference between a pin prick at the foot and at the thigh Wilhem Wundt notice how big the font is – important name!! *1879 Liepzig Germany = first psychology lab *Wundt wrote a book in 1867 called ‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’ in an attempt to make psychology a ‘hard science’ like biology, chem., physics *Wundt thought psychology should focus on consciousness. **Chemistry was studied by breaking things into elements *Wundt wanted to do the same thing with the mind Structuralism – what things are the mind made of? An anger part? A memory part? A sleep part? 5 Intro to psych Possible homework: draw, sculpt or make a model of your mind Introspection – looking inside your mind to examine your consciousness *Wundt trained his grad students in specific ways to think *He tried to objectively and scientifically measure thoughts American Developments Edward Titchener studied under Wundt set up a lab at Cornell 1890’s In his book he outline 44,000 elemental qualities of consciousness William James notice how big the font is – important name!! Gave rise to I/O *came up with a new approach in 1890’s Functionalism psych and edu (Ferrari) psych *wrote the first psychology book ‘the principles of psychology – what can the mind do? What should the mind do? How fast, how much? – American education *asked how can psychology be used? What is it good for? *disagreed with breaking down consciousness into elements *thought consciousness was a stream that was constantly flowing *was influenced by Charles Darwin’s natural selection theory *mental abilities must have evolved and serve a function *Wundt disagreed with James’s lack of scientific inquiry in a lab and thought James’s thoughts were merely theory *Still James’s ideas became very popular *G. Stanley Hall set up the first American Psychology lab at Johns Hopkins 1881 *believed children develop similarly to our species * We’ll study G. Stanley Hall in the development Chapters Margaret Floy Washburn • 1st women to get a PhD in psychology. • Experimented with animal sensations and what animals can know. 6 Intro to psych Mary Calkins • 1st woman president of A.P.A • Studied paired associations of words and color to scientifically explore memory Gestalt (geshtalt)Psychology – “the whole is more than the sum of its parts” (Frankenstein) Max Wertheimer realized that we do not perceive the world in pieces or think in parts. We think and perceive in groups of things. Herman Ebbinghaus – phi phenomenon Illusion is an error that is made by the brain by following rules that usually work. 7 MODERN PARADIGMS a paradigm is 20 cents Psychology is a broad science and there are a lot of ways of looking and the mind and behavior Etiology – study of causes – each paradigm is a search for a cause – what makes people do things Development of Different schools of psychology *Everything we talked about studied psychology academically *No one used it to help people who were suffering *Mid 1800’s there was the idea of hysteria *Hysteria = loss of physiological functions based on upsetting experiences - not running and screaming *People became blind, couldn’t speak, etc. *it was like a part of the mind was disagreeing with another part 7 Intro to psych Evolutionary – CHARLES DARWIN Premise: A. all behavior is a result of instincts that helped our species survive fixed action pattern B. mental life and personality are programmed by genes Some people are geniuses Some people see the world differently • males act a certain way because that is what nature has programmed them to be • females act a certain way because that is what nature has programmed them to be • Illness: 1.people acting differently then what nature intends 2.People have bad genes • Treatment: there is no treatment, an abnormal person is a mutation who may or may not pass on his genes. • Advantage: can’t be disproven, flexible theory that makes a lot of sense. • Disadvantage: not provable • Psychologists look at 1. Anthropology 2. Anatomical and biological mechanisms that make it possible 3. Environmental conditions which encourage or discourage it • key words : Heritability – the degree to which behavior is because of genetics Genotype – all of the genetic instructions Phenotype – visible genetic instructions Maturationism – children grow according to genetic instructions and environment plays a secondary role 8 Intro to psych 2. Psychodynamic – premise: all behavior and thoughts are a result of unconscious struggles Sigmund Freud notice how big the font is!!! Important!! 1890’s-1930’s - was trained as a medical doctor not a psychologist - didn’t do any research – everything was theory driven - had several students that split off from him - was addicted to cocaine – may or may not have been obsessed with sex - but we’d have to define sex - developed psychoanalysis – way of treating the unconscious • Illness: fundamental animal needs, sex, food, tenderness aggression are in conflict with imposed societal restrictions * very dark idea human nature • different parts of the mind • treatment is to resolve conflicts in a healthy way • advantages: fun, cool theory that can’t be proven wrong • Disadvantages: totally hypothesized and can’t be proven right 9 Intro to psych 3. Behavioral – premise: ALL behavior is learned …the mind is impossible to study it is not empirical so… we should focus on behaviors. We can see behaviors! *Do animals have a mind? *Margaret Floy Washburn thought so. “The Animal Mind” *first women to get a PhD in psychology – Cornell University from Titchener *John Watson & Rosalie Rayner strongly disagreed and worked with the idea of behaviorism • Watson was heavily influence by Ivan Pavlov *Pavlov was a Russian doctor studying digestion in dogs *Found that dogs associated a bell with the smell of food and would drool at the sound of a bell = response **John Watson applied Pavlov’s techniques to human infants **Controversial experiment on Little Albert *Taught the boy who used to like rats to be afraid of them **Believed that the environment was critically important **Had an affair with his assistant - At the time is was Scandalous! – was fired from Johns Hopkins **Ended up working for an advertising firm in NY and applied psychological principles to business.

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