The Roots and Branches of Psychology

1
The Roots and Branches of Psychology

• Changing perspectives of the mind, reality, and
  the acquisition of knowledge

2
Early Philosophers Contribute

• Aristotle
• Empiricism
• Tabula Rasa

• Plato
• Nativist
• veined marble

3
Psychology as a Science

• Wilhelm Wundt establishes a laboratory and a
  science (1879)
• Focus structure of consciousness?elements
• sensation, perception, affective states
• Procedural control Use of rules
• E.g., Avoid stimulus error
• Edward Titchener establishes structuralism in
  U.S.
• Continued Wundts scientific methodology
  introspection and psychophysics
• Example Christine Ladd-Franklins research in
  color vision

4
The Battle with Functionalism

• William James in America
• Darwins (1859, 1871) theory
• Focus applied psychology
• Role of mental processes
• Living and adaptation
• Individual differences
• Examples
• James A. Bayton
• Inez Beverly Prosser

1842-1910
5
Behaviorism

• Ivan Pavlov (USSR),
• John Watson, and B. F.
• Skinner (U.S.)
• Focus observable behavior
• Objective methods
• Learning via conditioning
• Stimulus-response connections
• Actions ? Consequences
• Rewards and punishments

1904-1990
6
Psychoanalytic Theory

• Sigmund Freud in Vienna
• Karen Horney (U.S.)
• Focus unconscious thoughts and processes
• Childhood experiences
• Conflict among desires and with society
• Focus on sex and aggression
• Basic anxiety

1885-1952
1856-1939
7
Humanistic Psychology

• Carl Rogers and others, U.S.
• Focus full human potential for human growth
• Freedom and rationality of the human being
• The Self and unconditional positive regard

1902-1987
8
The Cognitive Revolution

• Jean Piaget (Switzerland)
• Ulric Neisser (U.S., 1928- )
• Focus thinking
• Mental processes
• Memory
• Reasoning
• Problem solving
• Decision making
• Organization of information
• Example Mary Whiton Calkins research in
  learning and memory

1896-1980
1863-1930
9
Biological Perspective

• Roger Sperry (U.S.) and split-brain phenomenon
  (1965)
• Physiological bases for behavior
• David Hubel, Torsten Wiesel (1962, 1963)
• Single-cell specificity
• Focus brain processes and effect of brain
  chemicals

10
Evolutionary Psychology Movement

• David Buss (U.S., 1999) Cognitive revolutionnot
  far enough
• Focus behavioral and mental adaptation to
  survive
• Pre-programming
• Darwins theory of natural selection
• Shaped by evolution
• Criticismtoo broad

11
Positive Psychology Movement

• Martin Seligman (2003) Objected to focus on
  pathology.
• Focus
• Positive subjective experiences
• Positive individual traits
• Positive institutions and communities
• Criticisms (Richard Lazarus, 2003)
• Oversimplifies human experience
• Fad?

12
The Gestalt RevolutionThe whole is different
from the sum of its parts

• Focus conscious, holistic,
• experience
• Principles of organizations
• Illusions

13
Penrose
Escher