Introduction To The History And Science Of Psychology

1. Introduction To The History And Science Of Psychology Please view after reading p. 1 – 17 in the text Material taken from UCCP lesson content.

2. OBJECTIVES • After completing this lesson, you should be able to: • Trace the views of pre-scientific thinkers regarding the origin of knowledge and how the mind and body relate. • Discuss early psychologists’ efforts to understand the structure and functions of the mind. • Identify the nature and scope of contemporary psychology. • Describe the different perspectives from which psychologists examine behavior and mental processes. • Identify some of the basic and applied research subfields of psychology, and differentiate the mental health professions of clinical psychology and psychiatry.

3. Psychology is … Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. In other words, psychologists use scientific methods to study the way that people think, feel, and behave. For much of human history, people have been asking the same questions about human nature that psychologists do today. In the past, however, scientific methods were not always used to find answers. Rather, other methods, such as philosophy or religion, were used to explore the questions that people had about humanity. These other disciplines comprise the pre-scientific roots of psychology. In order to see how psychology developed into the discipline it is today, we will first examine these precursors to psychology.

4. Religion & Philosophy Some of the earliest theories about the human mind were developed by religious thinkers. - The Buddha in India wondered how the information we receive from our five senses becomes a part of our thought process. - In China, Confucius argued that education was a powerful force in human development. - In the Judeo-Christian tradition, the mind and emotions were linked to the body. Often, religious thinkers stressed that the mind and body were connected.

5. Religion & Philosophy Greek philosophers Socrates and Plato theorized that the mind and body were two separate entities. These philosophers differed from religious thinkers in that they used logical reasoning to come to their conclusions about human nature. Logical reasoning involves applying rules of logic. Types of logical reasoning, include: 1. Inductive Reasoning (using a specific example to state a general law; every fast car I’ve seen is red, therefore every fast car is red) 2. Deductive Reasoning (arguing from a general law to a specific instance; all babies cry, therefore my sister’s new baby cries) 3. Analogy (people are like other social animals, such as apes) These different forms of logic can lead to different conclusions about human nature, but they must always be based on premises that people already assume to be true. Logic is faulty if the premise is faulty (as you can see in the inductive reasoning example).

6. Religion & Philosophy Another Greek philosopher, Aristotle, believed that logical reasoning was not the best way to come to an understanding of human nature. Rather, Aristotle argued that gathering data through observation of people is the best way to learn. In his emphasis on data and observation, Aristotle anticipated modern science, and even today direct observation is used in many fields of psychology.

7. Modern Science During the Renaissance period in Europe, a number of philosophers explored human behavior with a greater emphasis on scientific methodology. One highly influential person was John Locke, who argued that at birth the human mind is a tabula rasa (meaning a blank slate, or a white paper) and that our experiences in life “write” on that blank slate to make us into the people we are today. Locke’s theory has been formalized into the concept of empiricism, the idea that knowledge we have comes from experiences and the idea that science should be used in observation and experiments.

8. Psychology As Its Own Discipline Psychology was born as a formal discipline in 1879, when William Wundt conducted an experiment to measure people’s reaction time to sounds. The first experiment: When research participants were asked to press a key as soon as the sound occurred, it took them 1/10 of a second. When participants were asked to press a key as soon as they were aware of perceiving the sound, it took them 2/10 of a second to respond. These results showed that people’s behavior doesn’t depend only on the information received by the sense organs (in this case, ears). Behavior can sometimes depend on the social environment in which we find ourselves, the instructions given, or our expectations about the situation. By making a change in wording, the reactions time slowed (their behavior changed).

9. Contemporary Psychology Today, psychology has grown to include a wide variety of perspectives. Each perspective would approach a given problem or question about human nature somewhat differently, but each would give us another piece of the puzzle to help us understand the issue. What would psychologists say about the following example? Example – In 2001, Andrea Yates drowned her 5 children in the bathtub after her husband left for work. How would different psychologists understand or explain what happened?

10. Contemporary Psychology Theories • A psychologist with a cognitive perspective might look for the cause in Andrea’s private mental functions. She might note Andrea’s low self-esteem, or Andrea’s belief that she was possessed by the devil. These beliefs could have influenced Andrea’s decision. • A psychologist with a neuroscience or behavioral genetic perspective might look for the cause in Andrea’s potential mental disorder or an illness. He might note that mood disorders ran in Andrea’s family, and that all 3 of her siblings were on antidepressants. She may also have been suffering from a chemical imbalance in her brain, which could cause depression and psychosis. • A psychologist with a behavioral or social-cultural perspective might look for the cause in Andrea’s social environment. She might note that Andrea’s husband never helped with childcare, and that he left her alone to care for 5 children when he knew that she was so depressed she could barely take care of herself. They might conclude that the stressors of her social environment were so great that Andrea took extreme measures to reduce her stress and change that social environment.

11. Theories cont … • A psychologist with a humanistic approach might focus on Andrea’s subjective experience. Humanistic psychology often avoids statistical data in favor or introspection. A humanistic psychologist would consider Andrea’s experience as a whole, and avoid focusing on one single aspect of her actions or environment. • Psychodynamic approaches place importance on unconscious drives and internal conflict. A psychologist focusing on this theory would evaluate Andrea’s actions while focusing on unconscious conflicts that may have influenced her behavior. Her actions might be explained as the results of unfulfilled wishes, childhood trauma, and defense mechanisms (such as denial). • Evolutionary and Sociobiological approaches consider the mechanics of genetics, natural selection, and their interaction. For example, a psychologist might argue that Andrea lacked the stress management skills necessary to care for her children, and that led her to behave in the way she did. They focus on how the environment influences the selection of certain traits, and how this selection perpetuates the genes of some and stifles those of others.

12. Contemporary Psychology From this example, we can see that: The different perspectives in psychology today all provide important information about human behavior AND there are many, many factors that shape human behavior. No one perspective is more “right” than the others – each adds another piece to the puzzle. This complexity is part of what makes psychology so interesting.