What is Psychology?
study of the mind, brain, and behavior; an attempt to use scientific methods to address fundamental questions about mind and behavior that have always puzzled people.
mind
made up of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings. Our private inner experience
behavior
observable actions of humans
brain
physical matter of the brain; subjective experiences arise from electric and chemical occurrences in our brain
social science
psychology derives principles that apply to a wide range of people
- new builds on the old
What makes psychology harder?
1) each experience changes a person
2) each person is different
3) people change over time (with each experiment/test)
levels of explanation and analysis
1) Social
2) Individual
3) Biological
Social
1) cultural: how cultures shape the psychological processes of their members.
2) interpersonal: how people act in the presence of other people.
Individual
personality, cognition
- leaders (what makes people smart)
biological
brain systems, neurological, genetic
animism
life- giving spirit for what lives or moves.
dualism
the mind is not subject to scientific inquiry; mind is separate from the brain
- this theory was debunked
Descartes
Modified dualism
- believed that the mind and the brain were connected at the pineal gland
Modified dualism
some behavior doesn't require a mind/soul. the BODY controls some behaviors, such as reflexes.
materialism
Thomas Hobbes, John Stewart Mill
- the mind and body aren't different things at all, but the mind IS what the brain does.
empiricism
all knowledge is acquired through experience. Has to do with the idea of "nurture"
- complex ideas are built form simple ones.
- ALWAYS a little bit of both; mixture of nature and nurture.
- John Locke
phrenology
specific mental abilities and characteristics are localized in specific areas of the brain.
Franz Joseph Gall
phrenology
Darwin
features of an organism that help it adapt and produce are more likely to be passed on to subsequent generations
- William James based his ideas off of Darwin's teachings
1) behavior influences selection
2) things change as a result of experience
Luigi Galvani
nervous system is an electrical system
- stimulated frog muscles with electric current and it moved.
- figured out that NEURONS stimulate the nervous system
Johannes Muller
how different neurons transmit signals in senses.
Pierre Flourens
Ablation- took apart pieces of animal's brains to see if certain parts effected certain actions
Paul Broca
had a patient named Tan (because that was the only word he could say); infered that damage to a specific part of the brain impaired a specific mental function, demonstrating that the brain and mind are closely linked
- during his time, many people accepte
Fritsch, Hitzig, Penfield
sensory and motor cortices; parts of the brain used for feeling and movement.
Herman von Helmholtz
physiologist that had started to use his methods of studying nerve impulses to measure mental abilities.
- neural transmission
- along with Wundt, pioneers of psychology
Ernst Weber
sensory magnitudes; Weber's law
Wilhelm Wundt
first psychologist
- Leipzig, Germany 1879
- had a lab for sensation and perception response times
- Helmholtz's research assistant
- wanted to study a person's subjective experience of the world and the mind
- had 100s of graduate students doing research
structuralism
developed by Wundt:
1) the analysis of basic elements of thought
2) breaking consciousness down into elemental sensations and feelings
3) introspection "how does blue feel?
William James
agreed with Wundt's teachings on introspection and focus on immediate experience.
- didn't agree with Wundt abut analyzing consciousness into separate elements
1) consciousness is more like a flowing stream than separate elements
2) developed an approach
Edward Titchener
- Wundt's student
- brought psychology to America (Cornell)
- made some changes--- Wundt focused on the relationships between basic elements and Edward focused on the elements themselves
functionalism
the study of the purpose that mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment.
psychoanalysis
focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness
- patients recall past experiences
- became controversial because it suggested that relating a person's thoughts, feelings, and behavior required exploration of early sexual experiences.
-
Gestalt psychology
1) Wertheimer, Kohler, Lewin
experiment with flashing vertical light then diagonal light. sometimes we perceive it as one light. (Gestalt means whole)
- emphasizes that we often see the whole INSTEAD of the sum of the parts.
behaviorism
suggested that scientist should only study observable behavior.
- extremely different from functionalism, psychoanalysis, and structuralism
1) science needs to produce outcomes that repeat themselves, so the introspective methods weren't working. moving t
Watson
- pioneer in the behaviorist movement
- objective was to predict and control behavior in ways that benefit society.
- influenced by the work of Pavlov
- believed that environment has a major effect on behavior.
Pavlov
physiologist who studied "stimulus-response" experiments. Every time he fed dogs, he would ring a bell. Every time the bell rang, dogs would salivate.
BF Skinner
wanted to study how animals learned to adapt to their environment.
- ex: experiment with rat; rat learned that pressing a lever gave him food, so the rate at which the bar was pressed increased
- reinforcement
nativism
philosophical view that some kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn.
reinforcement
the consequences of a behavior that determine how likely the behavior is to occur again.
1) this became Skinner's foundation for his new approach to behaviorism
cognitive psychology
scientific study of the mental processes of thought, perception, memory, and reason.
cognitive neuroscience
attempts to understand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity
behavioral neuroscience
links psychological processes to activities in the nervous system.
What is Psychology?
study of the mind, brain, and behavior; an attempt to use scientific methods to address fundamental questions about mind and behavior that have always puzzled people.
mind
made up of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings. Our private inner experience
behavior
observable actions of humans
brain
physical matter of the brain; subjective experiences arise from electric and chemical occurrences in our brain
social science
psychology derives principles that apply to a wide range of people
- new builds on the old
What makes psychology harder?
1) each experience changes a person
2) each person is different
3) people change over time (with each experiment/test)
levels of explanation and analysis
1) Social
2) Individual
3) Biological
Social
1) cultural: how cultures shape the psychological processes of their members.
2) interpersonal: how people act in the presence of other people.
Individual
personality, cognition
- leaders (what makes people smart)
biological
brain systems, neurological, genetic
animism
life- giving spirit for what lives or moves.
dualism
the mind is not subject to scientific inquiry; mind is separate from the brain
- this theory was debunked
Descartes
Modified dualism
- believed that the mind and the brain were connected at the pineal gland
Modified dualism
some behavior doesn't require a mind/soul. the BODY controls some behaviors, such as reflexes.
materialism
Thomas Hobbes, John Stewart Mill
- the mind and body aren't different things at all, but the mind IS what the brain does.
empiricism
all knowledge is acquired through experience. Has to do with the idea of "nurture"
- complex ideas are built form simple ones.
- ALWAYS a little bit of both; mixture of nature and nurture.
- John Locke
phrenology
specific mental abilities and characteristics are localized in specific areas of the brain.
Franz Joseph Gall
phrenology
Darwin
features of an organism that help it adapt and produce are more likely to be passed on to subsequent generations
- William James based his ideas off of Darwin's teachings
1) behavior influences selection
2) things change as a result of experience
Luigi Galvani
nervous system is an electrical system
- stimulated frog muscles with electric current and it moved.
- figured out that NEURONS stimulate the nervous system
Johannes Muller
how different neurons transmit signals in senses.
Pierre Flourens
Ablation- took apart pieces of animal's brains to see if certain parts effected certain actions
Paul Broca
had a patient named Tan (because that was the only word he could say); infered that damage to a specific part of the brain impaired a specific mental function, demonstrating that the brain and mind are closely linked
- during his time, many people accepte
Fritsch, Hitzig, Penfield
sensory and motor cortices; parts of the brain used for feeling and movement.
Herman von Helmholtz
physiologist that had started to use his methods of studying nerve impulses to measure mental abilities.
- neural transmission
- along with Wundt, pioneers of psychology
Ernst Weber
sensory magnitudes; Weber's law
Wilhelm Wundt
first psychologist
- Leipzig, Germany 1879
- had a lab for sensation and perception response times
- Helmholtz's research assistant
- wanted to study a person's subjective experience of the world and the mind
- had 100s of graduate students doing research
structuralism
developed by Wundt:
1) the analysis of basic elements of thought
2) breaking consciousness down into elemental sensations and feelings
3) introspection "how does blue feel?
William James
agreed with Wundt's teachings on introspection and focus on immediate experience.
- didn't agree with Wundt abut analyzing consciousness into separate elements
1) consciousness is more like a flowing stream than separate elements
2) developed an approach
Edward Titchener
- Wundt's student
- brought psychology to America (Cornell)
- made some changes--- Wundt focused on the relationships between basic elements and Edward focused on the elements themselves
functionalism
the study of the purpose that mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment.
psychoanalysis
focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness
- patients recall past experiences
- became controversial because it suggested that relating a person's thoughts, feelings, and behavior required exploration of early sexual experiences.
-
Gestalt psychology
1) Wertheimer, Kohler, Lewin
experiment with flashing vertical light then diagonal light. sometimes we perceive it as one light. (Gestalt means whole)
- emphasizes that we often see the whole INSTEAD of the sum of the parts.
behaviorism
suggested that scientist should only study observable behavior.
- extremely different from functionalism, psychoanalysis, and structuralism
1) science needs to produce outcomes that repeat themselves, so the introspective methods weren't working. moving t
Watson
- pioneer in the behaviorist movement
- objective was to predict and control behavior in ways that benefit society.
- influenced by the work of Pavlov
- believed that environment has a major effect on behavior.
Pavlov
physiologist who studied "stimulus-response" experiments. Every time he fed dogs, he would ring a bell. Every time the bell rang, dogs would salivate.
BF Skinner
wanted to study how animals learned to adapt to their environment.
- ex: experiment with rat; rat learned that pressing a lever gave him food, so the rate at which the bar was pressed increased
- reinforcement
nativism
philosophical view that some kinds of knowledge are innate or inborn.
reinforcement
the consequences of a behavior that determine how likely the behavior is to occur again.
1) this became Skinner's foundation for his new approach to behaviorism
cognitive psychology
scientific study of the mental processes of thought, perception, memory, and reason.
cognitive neuroscience
attempts to understand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity
behavioral neuroscience
links psychological processes to activities in the nervous system.