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Psychology: The Evolution of a Science (Clinical Psychology (5-9)…
Psychology: The Evolution of a Science
Psychology
: The scientific study of mind and behavior
Mind: Private inner experience
Behavior: observable actions of human beings and animals
What are the bases of our subjective sense of self?
fMRI: See what brain parts are active
How does the mind allow us to function effectively in the world?
Emotions function as signals to tell us when we are in harm's way
Why does the mind occasionally function so ineffectively?
Psychology's ancient roots
Plato: argued for
nativism
- some kinds of knowledge are innate/inborn
Aristotle: argued for
tabula rasa
, or
philosophical empiricism
- all knowledge is acquired through experience
The French Connection
Rene Descartes: mind and body are fundamentally different (
dualism
), but are connected in the pineal gland
Thomas Hobbes: mind & body not separate - the mind
is
what the brain
does
Franz Joseph Gall: brains and minds were linked, but by size rather than glands - developed
phrenology
, idea that since different parts of the brain were used for different things, you could measure personality by the bumps on the skull
Paul Broca: worked with patient w/ brain damage who could understand language, but not produce it - damage to a specific part of the brain impaired a specific mental function (brain & mind are closely linked). Mind is grounded in material substance.
Structuralism & Functionalism
Structuralism: From Physiology to Psychology
Hermann von Helmholtz: measured
reaction times
to
stimuli
(estimated how long it took nerve impulses to travel to the brain)
Wilhelm Wundt
: first university course in physiological psychology, published book
Principles of Physiological Psychology
, opened first laboratory to be devoted exclusively to psychological studies
Argued that psychology should focus on analyzing
consciousness
, used
introspection
as a method
Invented structuralism: the analysis of basic elements that constitute the mind
Functionalism: the study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment
William James: disagreed with Wundt that consciousness could be broken down into separate elements (consciousness was more like a flowing stream than a bundle of separate elements)
Inspired by Darwin's theory of evolution (
natural selection
) - James argued that mental abilities must have evolved because they were adaptive
Clinical Psychology (1-4)
Jean-Martin Charcot: put patients with
hysteria
under hypnosis (the brain can create many conscious selves that are not aware of each other's existence)
Freud
: said that hysterics had troublesome childhoods that were haunting them in their
unconscious
. Freud thus developed
psychoanalytic theory
(an approach that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors)
Based on psychoanalytic theory, Freud developed
psychoanalysis
, which focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness
Carl Gustav Jung and Alfred Adler were also prominent in the movement
Three parts of personality: Id (instincts), ego (reality), superego (morality). Each child faces a conflict related to a particular erogenous zone (failure or success to resolve these will affect later development)
Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers:
humanistic psychology
- an approach to understanding human nature that emphasizes the positive potential of human beings
Therapist and "client" were on equal footing: meant to help client realize their "full potential"
Behaviorism
: Psychologists should restrict themselves to objectively observable behavior
John Watson: Science needs replicable data, not subjective introspection. Inspired by Pavlov ("stimulus-response")
B.F. Skinner: used "Skinner box" (with rats) to test principle of
reinforcement
(the consequences of a behavior determine whether it will be more or less likely to occur again) - free will is an illusion
Behaviorism ignored mental processes, so
cognitive psychology
was developed (information processing)
First:
Gestalt psychology
(Wertheimer) - we often percieve the whole rather than the sum of its parts
Memory: not photographic representation of past experience - influenced by ourselves
In WWII, needed to train soldiers to interact with technology (used cognitive psychology)
Noam Chomsky: language relies on mental rules like a computer program
Clinical Psychology (5-9)
Cognitive neuroscience
: hardware of the brain vs. software (cognitive psychology) - field that attempts to undertstand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity
Behavioral neuroscience
(aka physiological psychology): links psychological processes to activities in the nervous system and other bodily processes (ex: taking parts of brains away from rats)
Uses scans A LOT
Evolutionary psychology
: explains mind and behavior in terms of the adaptive value of abilities that are preserved over time (computer build to do certain things rly well)
Social psychology
: studies the causes and consequences of interpersonal behavior
First brought forth by Jews fleeing Nazis (Holocaust brought conformity and obedience into the public eye).
Brain: social organ ; Mind: social adaptation ; Individual : Social creature
Cultural psychology
: study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members (Wilhelm Wundt was one of the first)
Biopsychosocial model
: Integrative, unifying theme - interacts with the 8 other perspectives (interrelated inseparable influences); complex processes require complex explanations