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Do Now • Create a two column chart on your paper and title it “Early Perspectives in Psychology”. Next, label one column Wilhelm Wundt and the other William James. To complete this assignment, I’m asking you to compare and contrast these two schools of thought. Finally, explain to me why the school of thought developed by Wundt came to be called structuralism and the school developed by James is called functionalism.
Chapter 1 Section 3: A History of Psychology
Introduction • People have always been interested in the behaviors of other people (which means that psychology is as old as human history).
Ancient Greek Roots • 2000 years ago, Plato recorded his teacher’s advice “know thyself” which has remained the motto for psychological study. • Using introspection (looking within) he suggested that we can learn much about ourselves by carefully examining our thoughts and feelings.
Aristotle • Raised many questions about human behavior. • He outlined the laws of associationism by showing us how experiences often remind us of similar experiences in the past. • His approach was scientific and he argued that human behavior was subject to certain rules and laws.
The Greeks • Ancient Greeks theorized about various problems. • Many people attributed psychological disorders to super natural forces. • Ancient Greeks generally believed that gods punished people for wrongdoing by causing them confusion and madness. • Hippocrates, however, suggested that such problems were caused my abnormalities in the brain. • This thinking has influenced our thinking for over 2000 years.
The Middle Ages • Europeans believed that these problems were signs of possession by demons. • A popular belief was that possession was punishment for sins of the result of deals with the devil. • Certain tests were used: • Ex. The water-float test (based on the principal that pure metals always sank while in pure metals always rose to the top). • If you could stay above way, you were judged to be impure and were later burned at the stake. • The innocent usually drowned.
Birth of Modern Science • Science made great advances between the 1500’s and 1700’s. • 1500’s, Copernicus challenges view that sun rotated around the earth and revealed the opposite. • 1600’s, Newton formulates the law of gravity and motion. • Locke also theorizes that knowledge is not inborn by learned from experiences • 1700’s, Lavoisier creates the science of chemistry.
Birth of Modern Psychology • The birth of scientific approach led to the birth of modern psychology. • New psychologists began to argue that human behavior should be supported by evidence. • Late in the 1800’s, laboratories were established in both the United States and Europe. They studied behavior and mental processes by using methods similar to those in chemistry. • 1879 is pointed to as the beginning of modern science because of Wilhelm Wundt.
Structuralism • Wundt founded this field. • Structuralism is concerned with discovering the basic elements of consciousness by breaking it down into two catagories. • 1) Objective Sensations: were assumed to accurately reflect the outside world. • Sight and taste • 2) Subjective Sensations: were thought to include emotional responses and mental images. • Feelings • They believed that the human mind functioned by combining these basic elements of experience.
Functionalism • One decade after Wundt • William James because convinced that consciousness could not be broken down. • He becomes the founder of functionalism, which concerned itself with how mental processes help organisms adapt to their environment.
Functionalism vs. Structuralism • Structuralism relied on introspection • Functionalists included behavioral observations in the laboratory as well. • Structuralists tended to ask “what are the elements (structures) of psychological processes?” • Functionalist would tend to ask “what are the purposes (functions) of behavior and mental processes?”
Functionalism • They proposed: • Adaptive behavior patterns are learned and maintained because they are successful • Ex. Some students learn to study hard because they learned that it results in good grades. • Less adaptive patterns are dropped or discontinued. • Adaptive actions are repeated and eventually become habits.
Behaviorism • John B. Watson did agree that psychology should be focused on learning. • But he also believed that it was unscientific to study a construct like consciousness. • Why? • He believed consciousness to be a private event that is known only to the individual. • He asserted that if psychology was to be a pure science it would need to restrict itself to observable and measureable events (behavior).
Reinforcement • B.F. Skinner • Added to behaviorists tradition by including the concept of reinforcement. • He showed that when an animal is reinforced, or rewarded, for performing an action, it is more likely to perform that same action in the future. • He even proved that animals were capable of performing complex patterns if reinforced in the right way. • People learned in the same way, by being reinforced.
Gestalt School • German psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffa, and Wolfgang Kohler • Were fascinated by the ways in which context influences people’s interpretation of information. • 1920’s, they founded the Gestalt (means shape in German) School, which was based on the idea that perceptions are more than the sums of their parts. • Instead, they are the wholes that give shape, or meaning, to their parts.
Rejections • Gestalts rejected • the structuralists idea that experience can be broken down into individual elements. • The behaviorist notion that psychology should concentrate only on observable behavior. • Disagreed with behaviorists because they believed learning was purposeful and active (not mechanical). • They were able to demonstrate that learning is accomplished by insight and not mechanized repetition. • (the reorganization of perceptions that enables an individual to solve a problem)
School of Psychanalysis • Sigmund Freud • The most famous of the early psychologists and founder of the psychoanalysis school. • This emphasized the importance of unconscious and internal conflicts in determining human behavior. • Freud did not do his research in the laboratory but instead gained his understanding through consolations with patients. • He came to believe that unconscious processes (sexual and aggressive urges) are more important than conscious experiences in governing people’s behavior and feelings.
Psychodynamic Thinking • This assumed that most of what exists in an individual's mind is unconscious and consists of conflicting impulses, urges, and whishes. • Human behavior is aimed at satisfying these desires, even if they may seem inappropriate or unacceptable. • Freud tried to give people insight into their unconscious conflicts and ways of finding socially acceptable ways of expressing their wishes.
Homwork • Students should note the number of times that their behavior is reinforced in a positive way by other people. • Examples of this are a teacher congratulating a student on getting the correct answer to a question or a friend complementing you on what you’re wearing. • Also, mark down whether this will make it more likely that you will perform the same action again. • Do you believe there is a counter argument to Skinner’s belief.
