AP Psych Prep 1 - Intro, History, Approaches

8/13/2019 AP Psych Prep 1 - Intro, History, Approaches

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Introduction, History and Approaches


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Contents:

1) AP Exam overview

2) About this Course

3) Introduction to Psychology

4) History of Psychology

5) Modern Psychological Perspectives +

Fields of Study


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AP Psychology Exam

Overview Two hour exam, 2 sections

First section: 70 minutes, 100 multiple

choice questions. No guessing penalty

Second section: 50 minutes, 2 free-

response questions. Must answer BOTH

m/c = 2/3 of your score. f-r = 1/3


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AP Psychology Exam Coverage


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This course

Will help you by explaining the important

concepts that are covered on the AP

Psychology Exam, and giving you

practice with exam questions.

Old BlogMay be useful

http://sghs-psych.blogspot.kr/

Attendance and Effort is very important.
http://sghs-psych.blogspot.kr/http://sghs-psych.blogspot.kr/http://sghs-psych.blogspot.kr/http://sghs-psych.blogspot.kr/


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This course

Psychology has a lot of information, a lotof terms.

We will use Barrons AP Psych. 5thEd.

But also many handouts and other

resources.

You will have to do some studying

outside of class.


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Introduction to Psychology

Psychology - Scientific study of

behaviour, mental states and processes

Uses scientific methods to determine

what we believe is right about

psychology.


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Introduction to Psychology

Applied Research vs. Basic Research

Not just common sense:

E.g. Who falls in love faster, men or

women? Why?

Not just studying mental disease or

disorder.


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History of Psychology

Can divide into Waves of dominant

thought

Wave one: Introspection

Wave two: Gestalt

Wave three: Psychoanalysis

Wave four: Behaviourism

Wave five: Multiple Perspectives


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Pre-Scientific Psychology

Many others have thought about the

mind, thinking, and behaviour, over

human history

E.g. Greek philosophers like Plato, etc.


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Wave One: Introspection

However, these were before scientific

Psychology.

Start of scientific psych often pegged to

1879

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)first

psych lab in Leipzig Germany


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Introspection

Wundt taught people to introspect, (look

within) watching own thinking and

recording their responses to simple

stimuli

Trying to examine simple thinking

processes, divide thought and behaviourinto different structures


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Introspection

E.g. The subject would be presented

with an object, such as a pencil. The

subject would then report the

characteristics of that pencil (color,length, etc.). The subject would be

instructed not to report the name of the

object (pencil) because that did not

describe the raw data of what the

subject was experiencing.


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Introspection

Created theory of Structuralism

structures in our minds combine

emotions and objective sensations

Structuralism vs. Functionalism


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Introspection

1890William James (1842-1910)American Psychologist, wrote the first

psych textbook Principles of

Psychology

Was a functionalist, looked at how

structures function in our lives, how they

can help us function


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Introspection: Other Important

Early Psychologists

G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924)started

study of child development, was 1st

president of American Psychological

Association (APA)

Mary Whiton Calkins (1863-1930)

studied with James, later became APApresident


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Introspection: Other Important

Early Psychologists

Margaret Floy Washburn (1871-1939)

first woman to get a Ph.D. in Psychology

Introspective theories (structuralism,

fuctionalism) were important in

establishing psych as a science,

But they dont really impact modernpsychological thinking


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Wave Two: Gestalt

Psychology Gestalt psych didnt want to divide

thinking into structures.

Instead tried to examine a persons

TOTAL experience.

More than the sum

of the parts.


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Gestalt Psychology

Later, psych therapists used gestalt

thinking to examine more than just the

persons problem

Importance of the context of the

problem, a lot of other information about

the persons life.

Gestalt also doesnt touch modern

psych thinking very much


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Wave Three:

Psychoanalysis Who is the most famous psychologist

you know?

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

Treated patients for

psychosomatic (mind/body)

troubles


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Psychoanalysis

Claimed to have discovered the

unconscious mind

Part of our mind we cant control, and

cant directly see/experience, but that

influences how we think

and behave.


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Psychoanalysis

Thought we pushed negative, anxiety

causing memories, thoughts, feelings,

etc down into our subconscious

(repression)

To understand people, we need to try to

understand peoples unconscious minds

Try to see unconscious using sneaky

methods: dream analysis, word

association, etc.


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Psychoanalysis

Sometimes still used in psych. therapy,

(but less these days) and in other areas

like art.

Some psychoanalytic vocab has comeinto everyday speech e.g. defense

mechanism

Freud criticized for being unscientific, for

creating un-testable theories.


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Wave Four: Behaviourism

Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) Russian, dogbehavioural studies

Early behaviourist John Watson (1878-1958) studied Pavlovs experiments.

Thought that to be really scientific,

psych needed to only look at observable

behaviour


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Behaviourism

Very opposite psychoanalysis (areaction to it)

Subconscious is very unobservable.Black box.

Stimuli in, behaviour out.


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Behaviourism

B.F. Skinner (1904-1990) - Anotherbehavioural psychologist

Added idea of reinforcement, somethingthat happens to make behaviours more

or less likely.

Punishments, rewards, etc


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Behaviourism

Reaction against psychoanalysis

Dominated psychology from 1920s to

1960s. Especially in the United States.


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Wave Five: Multiple

Perspectives

Now, no one way of thinking is

dominant. Many views.

Many psych. say they are eclectic, using

many diff. perspectives to more

accurately view the world.

All persp. have limitations

Modern Psych Seven Broad


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Modern Psych- Seven Broad

Pers: 1. Humanist Perspective:

Partly reaction against perceived

dehumanizing, deterministic

behaviourism (seeing actors like

machines)

Importance of individual choice, free will,(not deterministic)


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Humanist Perspective:

We choose most of our behaviours, and

these choices are based on our needs

(physical, emotional, intellectual,

spiritual)

Abraham Maslow (1908-1970) and Carl

Rogers (1902-1987) were humanistpsychologists


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Humanist Perspective:

Humanistic theories are also hard to test

with scientific method, so sometimes

viewed as less important to psychology

But still commonly used in psychological

therapy to help people with their

problems.

2 Psychoanalytic


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2. Psychoanalytic

Perspective:

Described above, unconscious mind,

etc.

Part of modern psychology, though it is

very controversial.

3 Biopsychological


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3. Biopsychological

Perspective: (or Neuropsych / neuroscience)

Explain behaviour and thought using

biological processes.

Effects of things like genes, hormones,

neurotransmitters, brain structures, etc

Rapidly growing perspective


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5 Behaviourist


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5. BehaviouristPerspective: Described previously

Explain using conditioning, rewards,

punishments, learning,

And environmental influences that could

cause these


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6. Cognitive Perspective:

How do humans remember? Mentally

process the world?

Patterns, ways of thinking,

interpretations of the world,

Also interested in how our minds and

thinking develops over time as we age

Jean Piaget (1896-1980) Swiss psych.

Cognitive Development

7 Social Cultural


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7. Social-CulturalPerspective: Interested in variation across cultures.

How environment, social factors, and

culture influences thoughts and

behaviours

Common cultural practices / norms, sex

+ gender influences, etc.


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Other Divisions in Psych:

Developmental Psychchanges over

peoples lives

Educational Psychlearning, teacher +

student behaviour, teach. methods etc.

Ciminal / Forensic Psychrelated to

crime, criminal justice system, etc.

Abnormal Psychabnormal behaviour

and thinking that causes problems Clinical or Counseling Psychhelping

people with their problems.


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Other Divisions in Psych:

Personality Psychlooks at individual

differences in peoples mental makeup

Industrial/organizationalworkplace

psychology

Consumer Psych, Health Psych, Sports

Psych, Social Psych, and more.


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Jobs in Psych

And there are more divisions withinpsychologists.

Good to note difference between

Applied and Academic workApplied Psychcounseling, psychiatry,

Academic Psychresearch, teaching

Psychologist vs. PsychiatristPsychiatrist is a M.D., can prescribemedication

Documents

AP Psych Prep 1 - Intro, History, Approaches