Wilhelm Wundt
in 1879 founded first psychology laboratory in world at University of Leipzig in Germany; introspection, basic units of experience; defines psychology as scientific study of conscious experience
structuralism
the task of psychology is to analyze consciousness into its basic elements; Titchener
William James
founder of functionalism; studied how humans use perception to function in our environment; wrote first psychology textbook - The Principles of Psychology; "stream of consciousness
stream of consciousness
continuous flow of thoughts; William James
functionalism
psychology should investigate the functions of consciousness rather than its structure
G. Stanley Hall
1st president of American Psychological Association
American Psychological Association
becomes world's largest organization devoted to advancement of psychology, with over 90,000 members
Ivan Pavlov
Russian physiologist; with dogs, shows how stimulus-response bonds can be formed; classical conditioning; he paves way for behaviorism
classical conditioning
a neutral stimulus acquires the ability to evoke a response that was originally evoked by another stimulus
behaviorism
scientific psychology should study only observable behavior
Alfred Binet
French psychologist; develops 1st successful intelligence test; helps foster eventual emergence of applied psychology
applied psychology
branch of psychology concerned with everyday, practical problems
Margaret Floy Washburn
1st woman to receive a Ph.D. in psychology; publishes The Animal Mind, which leads to emergence of behaviorism and rise of animal research in psychology
Sigmund Freud
austrian physician whose work focused on the unconscious causes of behavior and personality formation; founded psychoanalysis
psychoanalytic theory
attempts to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior
John B. Watson
believes mental processes are not suitable subject for scientific study because they cannot be observed; psychology should redefine itself as science of behavior; launches behaviorism and contributes to growth of animal research
Lewis Terman
professor at Stanford who revised the Binet test for Americans to the Stanford-Binet Intelligence Test in 1916; also known for his longitudinal research on gifted kids.
Max Wertheimer
German psychologist who founded gestalt psychology
Gestalt psychology
the whole is greater than the sum of its parts; focuses mainly on study of perception
clinical psychology
branch of psychology concerned with diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders; caused by World War II and its aftermath
humanism
emphasizes unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
fueled humanism
B.F. Skinner
wrote Science and Human Behavior, pioneer of operant conditioning who believed that everything we do is determined by our past history of rewards and punishments; famous for use of his operant conditioning aparatus which he used to study schedules of rein
cognitive psychology
perspective that focuses on the mental processes involved in perception, learning, memory, and thinking; Noam Chomsky, George Miller, Herbert Simon
Stanley Milgram
publishes work on obedience to authority; causes social psychology to emerge as major area of research
evolutionary psychology
led by David Buss, Leda Cosmides & John Tooby; asserts that the patterns of behavior seen in a species are products of natural selection in the same way that anatomical characteristics are
Martin Seligman
launches positive psychology movement
positive psychology
calls for increased research on resilience, well-being, human strengths, and positive emotions
consciousness
the awareness of immediate experience
Edward Titchener
Englishmen who hoped to identify and examine the fundamental components of conscious experience, such as sensations, feelings, and images; structuralism
introspection
the careful, systematic self-observation of one's own conscious experience
unconscious
contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that nonetheless exert great influence on behavior
behavior
any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism
cognition
the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge
Jean Piaget
focused on study of children's cognitive development
ethnocentrism
tendency to view one's own group as superior to others and as the standard for judging the worth of foreign ways
psychology
the science that studies behavior and the physiological and cognitive processes that underlie it, and it is the profession that applies the accumulated knowledge of this science to practical problems
developmental psychology
looks at human development across a life span
social psychology
interpersonal behavior and the role of social forces in governing behavior; attitude formation, attitude change, prejudice, conformity, attraction, aggression, intimate relationships, behavior in groups
educational psychology
how people learn and best ways to teach them; curriculum design, teacher training, achievement testing, student motivation, classroom diversity
health psychology
how psychological factors relate to promotion and maintenance of physical health and the causation, prevention, and treatment of illness
physiological psychology
influence of genetic factors on behavior and role of brain, nervous system, endocrine system and bodily chemicals in regulation of behavior
experimental psychology
focused heavily on sensation, perception, learning, conditioning, motivation, emotion
cognitive psychology
higher" mental processes, like memory, reasoning, information processing, language, problem solving, decision making, creativity
psychometrics
measurement of behavior and capacities, through development of psychological tests; design of tests to assess personality, intelligence and a wide range of abilities; development of new techniques for statistical analysis
personality
describing and understanding individuals' consistency in behavior; factors that shape personality and personality assessment
empiricism
knowledge should be acquired through observation
psychiatry
branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders; medical school
culture
widely shared customs, beliefs, values, norms, institutions, and other products of a community that are transmitted socially across generations
multifactorial causation of behavior
behavior is governed by a complex network of interacting factors