Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Psychology
With hopes of satisfying curiosity, many people listen to talk-radio counselors and psychics to learn about others and themselves.
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Psychologys Roots
Aristotle (384-322 B.C.)
Aristotle, a naturalist and philosopher, theorized about psychologys concepts. He suggested that the soul and body are not separate and that knowledge grows from 5 experience.
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Wundt (1832-1920)
American philosopher William James wrote an important 1890 psychology textbook. Mary Calkins, Jamess student, became the APAs first female president. 7
James (1842-1910)
Mary Calkins
Sigmund Freud, an Austrian physician, and his followers emphasized the importance of the unconscious mind and its effects on human behavior.
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Freud (1856-1939)
Psychology originated in many disciplines and countries. It was, until the 1920s, defined as the science of mental life.
Skinner (1904-1990)
Watson and later Skinner emphasized the study of overt behavior as the subject matter of scientific 10 psychology.
Watson (1878-1958)
Maslow (1908-1970)
Rogers (1902-1987)
Maslow and Rogers emphasized current environmental influences on our growth potential 11 and our need for love and acceptance.
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Psychology Today
We define psychology today as the scientific study of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (inner thoughts and feelings).
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The American Psychological Association is the largest organization of psychology with 160,000 members world-wide, followed by the British Psychological Society with 34,000 members.
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Focus
How the body and brain enables emotions?
Sample Questions
How are messages transmitted in the body? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives? How does evolution influence behavior tendencies?
Evolutionary
How the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of ones genes?
Behavior genetics How much our genes and our environments influence our individual differences?
To what extent are psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and vulnerability to depression attributable to our genes? To our environment?
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Focus
How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts?
Sample Questions
How can someones personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes and childhood traumas? How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the most effective way to alter our behavior, say to lose weight or quit smoking?
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Behavioral
Focus
How we encode, process, store and retrieve information? How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures?
Sample Questions
How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Problem solving? How are we as Africans, Asians, Australians or North Americans alike as members of human family? As products of different environmental contexts, how do we differ?
Social-cultural
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What they do
Explore the links between brain and mind. Study changing abilities from womb to tomb. Study how we perceive, think, and solve problems. Investigate our persistent traits. Explore how we view and affect one another.
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Developmental 24.6%
What they do
Studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders Helps people cope with academic, vocational, and marital challenges. Studies and helps individuals in school and educational settings Studies and advises on behavior in the workplace.
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Other 3%
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