SS 124 Introduction to Psychology

Seminar Unit One

Welcome to SS 124-30 Seminar #1

- Mary Wells, Ph.D.

Clinical Psychology

(and Coco and Frank)

The Rules- If I pose a question for the entire class

• Feel free to post a brief answer (usually yes/no or a few words will be sufficient)

- If you have a comment• //////////////--I will acknowledge you and tell you to send your comment

- If you have a question• ?????????—I will acknowledge you and tell you to send your

question

Otherwise you should NOT be making posts

Moderated discussions are an option

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Seminar Questions- 1.      After reading the syllabus, do you have any concerns about any of

the topics or projects? Do you understand the objectives of the course? Are there any questions about when assignments are due? What are the expectations for the discussion questions?

- 2.      When thinking about the timeline of psychology, the early pioneers up through today, which theory had the most impact on psychology becoming a scientific study of the mind and behavior for you? What are your own reasons for believing this theory made a major impact in the field of psychology?

- 3.      How will the study of psychology benefit you both professionally and personally? Please talk about your major at Kaplan University and the role psychology will play in it.

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Question #1- 1.      After reading the syllabus, do you have any

concerns about any of the topics or projects?

- Do you understand the objectives of the course?

- Are there any questions about when assignments are due?

- What are the expectations for the discussion questions?

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Course Home- Announcements

- Syllabus

- Course Questions• Please Ask!

- KU Resources• Important Phone Numbers

•Tech support team 866-522-7747

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Course Outcomes- Upon successful completion of the course, the student will be

able to:• SS124-1: Apply psychological theories, processes, and

concepts to human behavior• SS124-2: Examine how various theories of neuroscience

explain human development and behavior• SS124-3: Discuss psychological disorders and treatment

approaches• GEL-7.1 Identify the ethical issues within the field of

Psychology

 

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Projects- Project 1, Unit 2  175 points

- Project 2, Unit 5  175 points

- Final Project, Unit 9  245 points • Synthesize the course material by answering the four

questions• Start thinking about your final project now

•Read the questions and keep them in mind as you complete each unit

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Discussions- Weekly Discussion, Units 1 – 9        40 points each

(360 points total)• Makes one primary post for each discussion thread (there may be more

than one thread) answering each of the questions fully with substance meeting length requirements (150 words for each primary post (0-20 points)). 

• Makes two or more thoughtful responses to other students on each thread contributing to the quality of the discussion and meets length requirements (50 words for each peer response (0-20 points)).

• Primary responses make at least 1 reference to the unit material, text, or other academic sources (0-5 points).

• Responses are clearly written (0-5 points).

 

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Seminars

- Option #1•Participate in the live seminar

- Option #2•Submit your responses to the seminar questions

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Question #2

- 2.      When thinking about the timeline of psychology, the early pioneers up through today, which theory had the most impact on psychology becoming a scientific study of the mind and behavior for you? What are your own reasons for believing this theory made a major impact in the field of psychology?

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Chapter 1

Psychology: The Evolution of a

Science

PSYCHOLOGYSchacter

Gilbert

Wegner

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Psychology’s Roots- Psychology’s definition

• mind & behavior defined

- Important questions• What are the bases of perceptions, thoughts, memories,

and feelings, or our subjective sense of self?• How does the mind usually allow us to function effectively

in the world?• Why does the mind occasionally function so ineffectively in

the world?

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Psychology’s Roots—The Great Philosophers

- Plato (428 BC–347 BC) argues for nativism• innate knowledge

- Aristotle (384 BC–322 BC) and “tabula rasa”•philosophical empiricism

- Descartes (1596–1650) – dualism•pineal gland

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Psychology’s Roots—Biology

- Pierre Flourens (1794–1867)• added precision through surgical experiments

- Paul Broca (1825–1880)• patient unable to speak but could understand• Broca’s area

- From Physiology to Psychology• Helmholtz (1821–1894) —the speed of responses• Wundt (1832–1920) —structualism

Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)

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Psychology’s Roots—Coming to the USA

- Titchener (1867–1927)• hard introspective labor• Elemental qualities of consciousness

- James (1842–1910)• functional approach• Darwin—The Origin of Species (1859)

•natural selection- G. Stanley Hall (1844–1924)

• child development & adolescence

E. B. Titchener (1867–1927)

William James (1842–1910)

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Freud and Psychoanalytic Theory

- Freud’s work with Breuer

- Psychoanalytic theory•unconscious•psychoanalysis•sexual experiences•clues into nature of mind from mental aberrations

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

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Influence of Psychoanalysis and the Humanistic Response

- Freud–one of the most influential thinkers

- Psychoanalysis —greatest impact on clinical practice• inherent pessimism

- Humanistic psychology• positive potential• Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers

clients not patients

driven toward future rather than prisoners of the past

Humanists

Carl Rogers (1902–1987) Abraham Maslow (1908–1970)

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Psychology in the 20th Century

- Behaviorism—study the objective

- Watson (1878–1958) & emergence of behaviorism•study what people “do”• influenced by work of Ivan Pavlov

- Stimulus-response

- Little Albert

John B. Watson (1878–1958)

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B. F. Skinner & Behaviorism

- Skinner (1904—1990) - The conditioning chamber (“Skinner box”)

• consequences matter• influenced by work of Ivan Pavlov

response

reinforcement

- Teaching machines (break complicated task into small bits and use reinforcement)

- No free will (reinforcements from our past)

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

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Beyond Behaviorism

- Advent of computers• decline in behaviorism

- Information processing systems• can we think of mental events as the flow of information

through the mind?• computer metaphor

- Cognitive psychology• Remembering, attending, thinking, believing, evaluating,

feeling, and assessing

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The Emergence of Cognitive Psychology

- Sir Frederic Bartlett (1886–1969)—memory• expectations effect memory

- Hermann Ebbinghaus (1850–1909)—nonsense syllables for studying memory

- Piaget (1896–1980)• cognitive errors of children and insight into mind

- Kurt Lewin (1890–1947)• behavior is predicted by person’s subjective experience of

the world

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The Emergence of Cognitive Psychology - Technology

- World War II—how to train radar operators• required an understanding of perception,

attention, identification, memory, & decision-making

- Donald Broadbent (1926–1993)•paying attention to several things at once

- George Miller•similarity in capacity limitations across situations•7 +/- 2

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The Rise of Cognitive Neuroscience

- Goal is to learn about relationship between brain and behavior

- Which brain parts perform which functions?

- New technologies to observe living brains (such as PET scans depicted in Figure 1.5)

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The Rise of Cognitive Neuroscience

- Behavioral neuroscience• links psychological processes to activities in

nervous system•cannot do “experimental” brain surgery

- Cognitive neuroscience•brain scanning techniques•which brain parts are active with which tasks?

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The Emergence of Evolutionary Psychology

- Garcia—rats learn to associate nausea with food smell faster than with a flashing light• adaptive• organisms are not just blank slates

- Charles Darwin (1809–1892)• theory of natural selection

- Evolutionary psychology• things that remain serve or served an adaptive function

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Social and Cultural Perspectives

- Social psychology•Triplett’s bicycle study•Lewin’s “field theory”•Asch’s “mental chemistry”•Allport—stereotyping, prejudice, and racism

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Social and Cultural Perspectives

- Cultural psychology•defining “culture”•Wundt paid attention to culture?•anthropology and psychology•absolutism•relativism

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Psychology’s Past and Present

- July 1892—APA is born at Clark University•7 original members

- 150,000 members today•20% come from academia

- APS formed in 1982• renamed in 2006

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Psychology’s Past and Present

- Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930)• first woman elected president of APA

- Francis Cecil Sumner (1895–1954)• first African American to hold PhD in psychology

- Kenneth Clark (1914–2005)• first member of a minority group to become

president of APA•elected in 1970

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What Psychologists Do

- Faculty positions

- Private practice/Community Mental Health/Inpatient Facilities

- School psychologists

- Research psychologists

- Counseling psychologists