Intro to PsychologyHistory,

Approaches, Research/Methods

Psychology….A short history and a long past.

• Stand alone discipline for 110 years

• Plato/Socrates-Ideas are Innate

• Aristotle-Show me prove it; ideas grow from experience

• Science of behavior and mental processes

Prescientific Psychology

Some ideas are inborn The mind is a blank slate

Socrates (469-399 B.C.E.) Aristotle (384-322 B.C.E.)

Plato (428-348 B.C.E.) Locke (1632-1704)

How are ideas formed?

Historical Approaches (Waves)• Wave One: Introspection• Wilhelm Wundt

– 1st Psychology Lab– Structuralism (what)

• William James (Harvard)– 1st Psychology Text– Functionalism (why/purpose)

How do our minds adapt to our environment?

What are your immediate sensations?

A rose:

Red

Silky

Aromatic

Soft

What the heck is this?

Wave Two: Gestalt• Gestalt Psychology• Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)• Examine a person’s whole

experience.• The whole is more than the sum

of its individual parts.• Gestalt Therapy

Do you recognize these terms? What do they mean?

Defense mechanismProjectionAnal retentiveId/ego/superego

Wave Three: Psychoanalysis• Freud (1856-1939)• Psychoanalytic Theory• Critics

UnscientificUnverifiable theories

Wave Four: Behaviorism• John Watson (1878-1958)• B.F. Skinner• Limit studies to observable

phenomena• Learning through associations• Reinforcement

Crash Course

2:20-5:30

Modern Approaches/Perspectives

•Biological•Cognitive•Behavioral•Evolutionary

•Psychoanalytical•Humanistic Approach

•Cross-Cultural

Biological Approach• Focus: How the body and

brain create emotion, memories, and sensory experiences.

• How might a biological psychologist study test anxiety?

Cognitive Approach• Focus: How we encode,

process, store, and retrieve information.

• How might a cognitive psychologist study test anxiety?

Psychoanalytical Approach• Focus: How behavior

springs from unconscious drives and conflicts

• Early Childhood• Dreams• How might a

Psychoanalyst approach test anxiety?

Cross-Cultural Approach• Focus: How behavior

and thinking vary across situations and cultures.

• How might someone using this approach study test anxiety?

Behavioral Approach• Focus: Behaviors are

shaped through a system of rewards/punishments.

• Reinforcement• How might a

Behavioral Psychologist approach test anxiety?

Humanistic Approach• Focus: Emphasizes that we

have great freedom in directing our future, a large capacity for growth, intrinsic worth, and self-actualization.

• How might a Humanist approach test anxiety?

Evolutionary Approach• Focus: How nature

selects traits that promote the perpetuation of one’s genes.

• How might someone from this approach study test anxiety?

7 Approaches Scramble

• Complete with your desk partner (who you are facing or who is facing the front like you)

• Keep the final product on your desk--we will go over as a group