The History of the Study of Psychology

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The History of the Study of Psychology

• Pages 14-22

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Historical Background for Psychology

• Philosophers had been debating the role of the
  brain for centuries. (Locke, Descartes, etc.)
• Scientific discoveries in the 1800s (discovery
  of cells, elements, atoms, etc.) cause many
  natural scientists to study complex phenomena by
  simplifying them.
• 1879 - Wilhelm Wundt started the first psychology
  laboratory.

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Wilhelm Wundt

• Founder of Modern Psychology, Founder of
  Experimental Psychology.
• Took aspects of physiology and philosophy to make
  psych a separate discipline.
• Main method used was introspection.
• Structuralism study of the basic elements that
  make up conscious mental experiences.

http//www.psych.upenn.edu/history/wundt.jpg
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Introspection

• People were trained to look into their own minds
  to determine the contents of their own minds.
• If a stimulus was presented to them, they would
  think about how they were processing the
  stimulus. How they processed the color, the
  form, etc.
• Main experimental method for a few decades.

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Case Study

• Were going to introspect for a few minutes.
• I will show you a stimulus, you will think for a
  minute. And then you will try to script all of
  your thoughts for a minute.
• Can you see some problems with this method?

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William James

• Father of American Psychology
• Taught first psychology class at Harvard in 1875.
• Was the first functionalist concerned with the
  function (role) of consciousness rather than its
  structure.
• Wrote Principles of Psychology. Widely used
  textbook for years.
• Until Behaviorism and Psychoanalysis come along
  (early 1900s), most psychologists were
  interested in either structuralism or
  functionalism.

http//www.unav.es/gep/JamesPrincipal.html
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Mary Calkins

• William James admitted her into his graduate
  seminar, causing all the other students to drop.
  
• James tutored her alone and she scored better on
  the examination than any other student.
• Harvard refused to give her the degree and
  offered her one from Radcliffe College, which she
  refused.
• She became a psychology professor at Wellesley
  College and became the first female president of
  the APA (American Psychological Association).

http//www.macalester.edu/warren/Images/femalephi
l/Gilman4copy.jpg
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Behaviorism

• Argued that we cannot determine the contents of
  our own mind.
• The only thing that we should focus on is
  observable behavior.
• Much of their research is focused on animals
  because they cannot control their conscious
  thought.
• Behaviorism becomes the main form of
  psychological research until the 1960s.

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Key Behaviorists

• Ivan Pavlov Experiment with conditioning dogs
  to salivate at the ringing of a tuning fork leads
  to behaviorist school of thought.
• Psychologists believe that behavior is based on
  prior experiences. Therefore, people are
  different because of the different ways they
  learned.

http//www.homestead.com/flowstate/skinner.html
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John Watson

• Believed that psychology should only concern
  itself with observable facts of behavior.
• Believed that all behavior is a result of
  conditioning.
• Famous case study on Little Albert

http//psych.wisc.edu/henriques/resources/watson.g
if
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Components of Classical Conditioning

• Unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that automatically
  produces an unconditioned response (UCR)
• Conditioned Stimulus (CS) a previously neutral
  stimulus that is paired repeatedly with an
  unconditioned stimulus (UCS) that automatically
  evokes an unconditioned response, until the
  conditioned stimulus itself produces a
  conditioned response (CR).

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Example of Classic Conditioning

• Using Pavlovs experience
• The noise of his machine, or bell in later
  experiments is a conditioned stimulus (neutral).
  
• However, the noise continuously came before the
  dogs were presented the meat powder
  (Unconditioned stimulus) leading to the dogs
  salivating (Unconditioned response).
• Over time, the conditioned stimulus (bell) will
  result in the dog salivating, thus becoming a
  conditioned response.

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Case Study Two

• Little Albert
• As an 11 month old, Albert is presented with a
  little white lab rat (CS). Then a loud noise is
  made behind the child (UCS). The child will come
  to show fear and after repetition he will fear
  the rat (CR) like he fears the noise (UCR).
• The child has been conditioned to fear the rat.

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http//www.neuroanatomy.wisc.edu/selflearn/Conditi
oning.htm
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Some outcomes of Classical Conditioning

• Acquisition the process of acquiring a
  controlled response. (i.e. the fear of rats,
  salivating at the sound of a bell)
• Extinction Process after acquisition, if the
  controlled stimulus is repeatedly presented
  alone, the controlled response will gradually
  decrease to zero. (ex. Boy is exposed to rats
  without the loud sound, over time he no longer
  fears the rats).
• How can this be used in therapy?
• Spontaneous Recovery After extinction, if time
  passes and the controlled stimulus is presented,
  the old response may occur.
• Stimulus Generalization the conditioned
  response may occur not only to the specific
  conditioned stimulus, but also to objects similar
  to it.

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Assignment

• Write at least 2 paragraphs on an experience that
  you have had with conditioning.
• Examples Why you may have an irrational fear,
  certain mannerisms that you have, certain
  associations that you may have. If you cannot
  think of any, explain why you think you maybe do
  not have any strong conditioned characteristics
  or use the example of conditioning with a pet.