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Evolution of Psychology
Summary of Chapter 1 - Evolution from Psychology from 5th edition "Psychology: Themes and Variations" by W. Weiten and D. McCann
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HH PSYC 1010 (6.00)Introduction to Psychology
Evolution of Psychology
Chapter 1
From the Book: Weiten, W. and McCann, D. (2019) Psychology: Themes and Variations (5th edition) Toronto, Canada.
Nelson
What is Psychology? – An Introduction
Many students initially associate psychology with the study of psychological disorders or abnormal psychology.
However, psychology is about much more than that. It is also about:
How people are able to perceive color. How hunger is regulated by the brain.
Whether chimpanzees can use language to communicate. Why it is so hard to diet and lose weight.
Why we procrastinate on getting our essays and studying What causes bullying and aggression.
done.
How you can protect yourself. And much more.
Psychology as a scientific discipline has something for everyone. From addressing internal aspects in the body
(consciousness, sight, memory), to researching on issues about our individual lives and society at large.
Psychology is a way of thinking where scholars and researchers in the field commit to investigating questions
about human behavior in a scientific way. They seek to formulate precise questions about behavior and then
possible answers through systematic observation.
With this commitment, psychology provides a means of building knowledge that is relatively accurate and
dependable while also providing a basis for assessing the assertions we hear every day about behavior.
Psychology is constantly found in the media however, this coverage is often distorted or grossly oversimplified,
so that misinformation is commonplace. Many “truisms” about behavior come to be widely believed when they
really are just misconceptions or myths. Some popular myths related to psychology include:
Most people use only 10% of their brain power. Playing Mozart’s music to infants boosts their
intelligence.
Hypnosis is a unique “trance” state that differs in kind Hypnosis is useful for retrieving memories of forgotten
from wakefulness. events.
The polygraph (lie detector) test is an accurate means of Opposites attract: we are mostly romantically attracted to
detecting dishonesty. people who differ from us.
People with schizophrenia have multiple personalities. A large portion of criminals successfully use the insanity
defense.
From Speculation to Science – How Psychology Developed:
Psychology is a story of people working towards gaining a better understanding of themselves.
As we have always wondered how the human mind works, It could be said that this discipline is as old as the
human race itself. However, it was not until a 140 years ago when it actually emerged as a scientific discipline.
The term first came about in 16th century Greece to define a topic of study, being named after two Greek words:
Psyche (soul) and logos (study of subject).
With further developments in philosophy and physiology, psychology gained more than its rare usage among
scholars in the early 18th century and acquired its literal meaning used today: the ‘study of the mind’.
Regardless of its vast history, many people in the field today date the emergence of psychology as a distinct
discipline to the works of Wilhelm Wundt (1832 – 1920)
A Science is Born
Psychology’s intellectual parents were the disciplines of philosophy and physiology as scholars from both fields
actively explored questions about the mind.
, HH PSYC 1010 (6.00)
Introduction to Psychology
It was a German professor however, who eventually changed this view. Wilhelm Wundt mounted a campaign to
make psychology an independent discipline rather than a stepchild of philosophy or physiology.
His pioneering work left an enormous impact on the development of psychology which is why he is widely
characterized as the founder of psychology.
In 1879, Wundt succeeded in establishing the first formal laboratory for psychological research and in 1881, he
established the first journal devoted to publishing research on psychology.
Along with these achievements, Wundt also declared a new focus to the newly claimed field: He voiced that
psychology should be the scientific study of conscious experience.
Although psychology was born in Germany, it blossomed into adolescence in North America.
The Battles of the Schools Begins: Structuralism vs. Functionalism
In Psychology, the first two major schools of thought, structuralism and functionalism, were entangled in the
first great intellectual battle in the field.
Structuralism Functionalism
Emerged through the leadership of Edward Titchener Was heavily influenced by William James (1842 – 1910) –
(1867 – 1927)– an Englishman who emigrated to the US an American Scholar.
in 1892. believed that psychology should investigate the function
Believed that the task of psychology is to analyze or purpose of consciousness rather than its structure.
consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how Argued that the consciousness consisted of a continuous
these elements are related. flow of thoughts. James, in particular wanted to
Was concerned with work on sensation and perception in understand the flow itself – which he called the stream of
vision, hearing, and touch. consciousness.
Depended on the method of introspection – the careful, - He went on to make many important
systematic self-observation of one’s own conscious contributions to psychology, including a theory of
experience. emotions that remains influential today as well as
- Required training a subject to be more subjective a landmark book that he wrote: Principles of
and aware of their surroundings. Psychology (1890)
- Subjects were exposed to auditory tones and Was interested in how people adapt their behavior to the
visual stimuli, and then asked to analyze and demands of the real world around them.
describe the quality, intensity, and clarity of what Investigated mental testing, patterns of development in
they experienced. children, the effectiveness of educational practices, and
Required most of its researchers to gravitate to the lab. behavioral differences between the sexes.
These schools of thought fought energetically with their ideas for years, however, many historians declare
functionalism as the winner of this battle as it fostered the development of two important descendants –
behaviorism and applied psychology.
Watson Alters Psychology’s Course as Behaviorism Makes its Debut
In the early 1900’s, another major school of thought appeared that dramatically altered the course of
psychology.
Founded by John B Watson (1878 – 1958), Behaviorism is a theoretical orientation based on the premise that
scientific psychology should study only observable behavior.
Watson proposed that psychologists should abandon the study of consciousness altogether and focus
exclusively on behaviors that they could observe directly. With this proposal, he redefined what scientific
psychology should be about.
For Watson, mental processes were not a proper subject for scientific study because they were ultimately
private events.
Consequently, if psychology were to be a science, it would have to give up consciousness as a subject matter and
become instead, the science of behavior – any overt (observable) response or activity by an organism.
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