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Full Intro to Psychology Notes
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Detailed intro to psychology notes
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1.1- Psychology-the scientific study of the mind and behavior
- psyche=soul in greek
- Must use something testable/measurable when hypothesizing (ex happiness does not
work, brain state does work)
- Empirical method-method based on observation, including experimentation, for acquiring
knowledge, rather than only on forms of logical argument or previous ideas
1.2-History of Psychology
-19th cent.-two founders of psych-Wilhelm Wundt and William James
Wundt and Structuralism
- Wundt was a German scientist who was 1st person to be referred to as a psychologist
- Wundt viewed psychology as a scientific study of conscious experience & believed the
goal was to id components of consciousness and how those components combined to
result in our consciousness
- Used introspective-a process by which someone examines their own conscious
experience as objectively as possible; used only very specific experimental conditions in
which an external stimulus was designed to produce a scientifically observable
(repeatable) experience of the mind
- Structuralism-attempts to understand the structure or characteristics of the mind
through structured experiments-this didn’t really work out because it was still highly
subjective and there was very little agreement amongst researchers & scientists
James and Functionalism
- Used Darwin’s theory of evolution; behavior has adapted
- Study function of behavior in the world
- functionalism-focused on how mental activities helped an organism fit into its
environment; looks at the function of the WHOLE MIND rather than individual parts (like
structuralism)
- Used introspection AND objective measures (recording devices, physiology, anatomy)
Freud and Psychoanalytic Theory
- Freud thought the unconscious mind was a repository of feelings & urges that we had no
awareness of; thought we could examine these feelings & urges through dreams
- Psychoanalytic Theory- focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious, as well as early
childhood experiences, and this particular perspective dominated clinical psychology for
several decades
- Some of Freud’s ideas are widely accepted & used, others are very controversial-some
of Freud’s findings are used in therapy
,Wetheimer, Koffa, Kohler, and Gestalt Psychology
- Wetheimer, Koffa, Kohler introduced American psychologists to to Gestalt principles
- Gestalt psychology-a sensory experience can be broken down into individual parts, but
how those parts relate to each other as a whole is what the individual responds to in
perception
Pavlov, Watson, Skinner, and Behaviorism
- Pavlov studied a form of learning behavior called a conditioned reflex in which an animal
or human produced a reflex response to a stimulus and was conditioned to produce the
response to a different stimulus that the experimenter associated with the original
stimulus (dogs with food, like Jim & Dwight with the mint prank) “classical conditioning”
- Watson focused directly on observable behavior & trying to bring that behavior under
control (behaviorism)
- A major object of study behind behaviorism is learned behavior & its interactions with
inborn qualities of the organism
- Behaviorism dominated experimental psych for several decades & is still important
today; it is largely responsible for establishing psychology-used in classroom settings
- Skinner was a behaviorist & focused on how behavior was affected by its consequences;
he spoke of reinforcement and punishment as major factors in behavior (operant
conditioning chamber/Skinner box=mice with buttons and cheese-very important to
psychology today); thought operant conditioning was crucial for happiness
Maslow, Rogers, and Humanism
- Humanism- a perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that
is innate to all humans
- Maslow-Hierarchy of Needs-said that once all needs are met, humans would reach their
full potential & higher level needs would motivate behavior
- Rogers used client-centered therapy-client takes lead role in therapy sessions; rogers
believed that a therapist needed to have unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and
empathy, this made patients more capable of dealing with and working through their own
issues;this approach is still commonly used today
, - Humanism has been influential to psychology as a whole
The Cognitive Revolution
- After behaviorism & humanism, new disciplinary perspectives, neuroscience, and
computer science revived interest in the mind as a focus of scientific inquiry (cognitive
rev)
- No one person is responsible for revolution, but Noam Chomsky was very influential
- Chomsky was dissatisfied with the influence of behaviorism on psychology & believed
that psychology’s focus on behavior was short-sighted & mental functioning needed to
be incorporated into psychology
- This movement reconnected European & American psychologists & incorporated
different sciences in the field of psychology
Multicultural Psychology
- Not all research applies to all types of people, psych applies to various cultures
differently, so it has remained a descriptive science
- Psychological studies on a variety of different groups of people are very important
1.3 Contemporary Psychology
- Diverse field influenced by all of the historical perspectives described in the preceding
section
- American Psychological Association (APA)-professional organization representing
psychologists in the US; largest org of psychologists in the world; mission is to advance
and spread psychological knowledge for the better of people; has 56 divisions that cover
a very wide range of topics
- Association for Psychological Science (APS)- 1988; seeks to advance the science of
psych; founded because of disagreements in APA
- Also lots of psych groups relating to ethnicity
-
Biopsychology and Evolutionary Psychology
- biopsychology-explores how our biology influences our behavior (how nervous system
affects behavior) combines research strategies of of both psychologists and
physiologists; biologists, medical professionals, chemists, psychologists (neuroscience)
- Biopsych studies sensory and nervous systems, sleep, drug use and abuse, indigestive
behavior, reproductive behavior, neurodevelopment, and bio correlations of psych
disorders
- Bio focuses more on immediate causes of behavior, while evolutionary psych focuses on
ultimate causes of behavior
- Evolutionary studies psych as people adapt to surroundings (physical and social
environment); study of behavior as it relates to evolution
- Tough to do studies for evolutionary science because it is hard to show if traits are
naturally selected, genetic, cultural, etc
, - Also difficult to make predictions bcuz we don’t entirely know what life/people were for
sure like really long ago
- Evolution can make predictions regarding memory, mate choices, relationships,
friendship, status
Sensation and Perception
- Scientists interested in psych aspects of sensory systems & psych experience of
sensory info
- Perception is very complex and influenced by many factors
Cognitive Psychology
- Area of psych that focuses on thoughts and their relationship with our actions/underlying
mental processes to behavior
- Interests range from attention to problem solving to language to memory
Developmental Psychology
- Scientific study of development across a lifespan; psychologists are interested in
processes related to physical growth & changes in cognitive skills, moral reasoning,
social behaviors
- Jean Piaget demonstrated that very young children do not have object permanence
skills (physical things continue to exist, even when hidden)
Personality Psychology
- Focuses on patterns of thoughts and behaviors that make each individual unique
- Individual personality develops from individual perspectives
- Personality traits- what much of this psych focuses on now, these traits can be measured
(relatively consistent patterns of thoughts and behavior) (the big five- conscientiousness,
agreeableness, neuroticism, openness, and extraversion)
Social Psychology
- Focuses on how we interact with and relate to others (study behaviors, prejudices,
attraction, how we resolve conflicts)
- Milgram experiment (shocks) & Stanford experiment-changed guidelines for experiments
because of ethicalness
Industrial-Organizational Psychology (I-O Psychology)- subfield of psych that applies psych
theories in industrial and organizational settings (personnel management, organizational
structure, workplace environment)
Health psychology- focuses on how health is affected by the interaction of biological,
psychological, and sociocultural factors (biophysical model-psychological, social, biological);
help individuals through public policy, education, etc
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