Prologue- The Study of Psychology Notes

- Our brain is by far the most complex physical object known to us.
What is Psychology?
- To be human is to be curious about ourselves and the world around us.
- The birth of Psychology was in the year 1879, in Germany.
- Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in Germany. (Science of
Psychology)
- Wundt was seeking the measure "atoms of the mind" - the fastest and simplest mental
processes.
- Before long, this new science of Psychology became organized into different branches.
- The two early schools were structuralism and functionalism.
- Wundt's student, Edward Titchener aimed to discover the mind's structure. He engaged
people in self-respective introspection (looking inward).
- Structuralism used introspection to define the mind's makeup; Functionalism focused on how
mental processes enable us to adapt, survive, and flourish.
- Introspection proved somewhat unreliable, because people's self reports were varied to
person to person.
- William James assumed that thinking, like smelling, developed because it was adaptive - it
contributed to our ancestors' survival.
- James' legacy stems partly from his Harvard mentoring and his writing. In 1890, over the
objections of the Harvard's president, he admitted Mary Whiton Calkins, into his graduate class.
Mary Calkins would later become to the first woman to receive a Psychology PhD, and became
the first female president of the American Psychological Association.
- After Calkins, Margaret Washburn was the first woman to be granted a PHD and the second
woman president of the APA. She also wrote an influential book, "The Animal Mind."
- Psychology was defined as "the science of mental life."
- Until the 1920s, Psychology was then redefined as "the scientific study of observable
behavior."
- Behaviorism is the view that Psychology 1) should be an objective science that 2) studies
behavior without reference to mental processes. Most psychologists agree with (1) but not
with (2).
- As the behaviorists had done in the early 1900's, two other groups rejected the definition of
psychology that was current in the 1960's.
- The humanistic psychologists drew attention to ways that current environmental influences
can nurture or limit our growth potential, and the importance of having our needs for love and
acceptance satisfied.
- The rebellion of the second group of psychologists during the 1960's is now known as the
cognitive revolution, and it recaptured early interest in mental psychology.
From 1920s to 1960s : Two types of fields: 1) Behaviorism 2) Freudian (childhood experience)
- Cognitive Neuroscience is the study of the brain activity that is linked with cognition that
includes perception, thinking, and language.
* - Today, we define Psychology as the science of behavior and mental processes.
- There are 3 main levels of analysis: 1) Psychological Influence 2) Socio-cultural Influence, and
3) Biological Influence
- Together, these different levels of analysis form an integrated biopsychosocial approach,
which considers the influence of biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors.
Psychology's Subfields
- Some psychologists conduct basic research that builds psychology's knowledge base.
- Other psychologists also may conduct applied research, that tackles practical problems.
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Psychology's Current Perspectives:
Perspective Focus Sample Questions Examples of Subfields
using this perspective
Neuroscience How the body and brain
enable emotions,
memories, and sensory
experiences.
How do pain messages
travel from the hand to
the brain?
Biological; cognitive;
clinical
Evolutionary How that natural selection
of traits has promoted the
survival of genes
How does evolution
influence behavior
tendencies?
Biological; developmental;
social
Behavior Genetics How our genes and our
environment influence our
individual differences
Personality;
developmental
Psychodynamic How behavior springs
from unconsciousness
drives and conflicts
Clinical; counseling;
personality
Behavioral How we learn observable
processes
Clinical; counseling
Cognitive How we encode, store,
and retrieve information
How do we use
information in
remembering?
Cognitive
Social-cultural How behavior and
thinking vary across
situations and cultures
How are we alike as
members of one human
family?
Developmental; social