The Evolution of Psychology

*Schools of Psychology

(Packet) 5 Perspectives Cornell Notes: What’s the story of early

psychology? How did it develop? • Key Points• Structuralism• Functionalism• Psychoanalysis• Behaviorism• Humanism

Summary:

Notes:

The Birth of Psychology

• Wilhelm Wundt in Leipzig, Germany noticed that what he and his friends were studying was neither medicine nor philosophy.

• The new discipline was named “Psychology”

• **Note: Wundt is considered “the Father” of Psychology.

• Stanley Hall, the first American psychologist, established a research lab in the U.S. and is the founder of the American Psychological Association.

Structuralism: the how• Edward Titchner (Cornell University)• Job of structural psychologist to:1. Analyze consciousness’ basic elements

through introspection like chemists were doing with matter Like trying to understand how a car

works by examining its partsEX: understand our senses: touch, vision, hearing

2. Investigate how our basic elements of consciousness are connected Put an apple in your mouth. It tastes

sweet. Feels cold and slightly rough. When I bite into it, it’s crispy. In this way, we begin to understand how we connect consciously to the experience of “tasting an apple.”

** Structuralism focused on how our senses affected us

Functionalism: the why

• William James• Job of functional psychologist to

understand the function of our consciousness, how humans adapt to our “situations.”

• Natural Selection causes us to modify our behavior based on our conscious observations to have survival and reproductive advantages.

Who cares how the car works? The question is why do we feel we need a car? What is attractive about having a car? How have cars changed our behavior in society?

Put an apple slice in your mouth. What impact does the conscious experience of tasting that apple have on your life? Does it relax you? Does it comfort you? Does it spark a memory?

Psychoanalytic Theory

• Sigmund Freud• Psychoanalytic psychologist

attempt to explain personality, motivation, and mental disorder by focusing on the unconscious mind.

• Freud felt that a persons sexual urges made them do things they did not want to do: libido.

Behaviorism• John B. Watson• Behaviorlists studied a persons

observable behavior. Ex: shopping, eating, human interaction

• Behavioralists thought it impossible to study a person’s consciousness or unconsciousness.

• Psychologists should study ONLY observable behaviors.

• Environmental factors play an important part on who we are.

• B.F. Skinner• Control behavior by manipulating

outcomes and responses (in other words, environment)

Humanism• Carl Rogers• Humanists believed that

humans unique qualities make us different, and allow us to grow and adapt.

• Humanists believed that each human has a sense of self that drives him/her to reach life’s full potential.

Summary: Write down at least three cause-effect relationships you can identify in the evolution of Psychology as a discipline.

*Schools of Psychology Paragraph

• R= Restate• A= Answer• C= Cite Evidence

• E= Expand your answer

Question: Which of the five original schools of psychology would you have joined had you been alive at the time of their inception? Why?

(R) As someone who is interested in how people learn, (A) I would choose to be a functionalist. (C) Functionalism interests me more than structuralism (its rival), because it focuses more on processes rather than on static points (4). (E) Functionalism would focus on a learner’s thought process rather than on a concrete, resultant thought. I could then unravel the mystery of how learning through perception takes place.

Share and Compare: Schools of Psychology Paragraph

• After finishing, get up and find someone who picked the opposite school than you did. Here are the opposites:• Structuralism vs functionalism• Psychoanalysis vs behaviorism• Behaviorism vs humanism

• Share your perspective on why the school of psych that you picked was the best, most interesting, etc.

The Birth of Psychology Taboo Vocab. Activity

• Skim pgs. 1-7 • You will be put into groups of 4-5• You’ll be assigned a person and terms/phrases that you will

have to act out and describe without using any of the words in your terms/phrases.

• Audience members must GUESS THE PERSON referenced first on your list.

• You may cue your audience at the beginning of your performance by telling them what page your material is on and how many terms/phrases have been assigned to you.

The Right Word

• Wundt (3), • Hall (3), • Titchener (4),• James (4),• Freud (7-8)• Watson (6), • Skinner (8), • Rogers (10)

Key to “Taboo” Activity

• Wundt (3), “father of psychology,” first lab(oratory)• Hall (3), American Psychological Association, first

lab(oratory) in America• Titchener, Structuralism, introspection (4)• James, Functionalism, natural selection (4)• Freud (7), Psychoanalysis (8), Unconscious (7)• Watson (6), Behaviorism (6), observable behavior• Skinner (8), Behaviorism, free will• Rogers, Humanism, self-concept (10)

(Packet) Modern Psychology

• Use pgs. 11-18 for the following activity. • Write three facts about each of these modern types of

psychology. You may include definitions, how each developed, and key concepts. • applied psychology, • clinical psychology, • cognition, • biological perspectives, • cultural diversity (sociocultural perspectives),• evolutionary psychology

Applied Psychology Synthesis Project

• Situation: Georgie is obsessed about his appearance. He gets up two hours early every day to wash and style his hair. His siblings are constantly upset with him because he won’t let them use the mirror.

Applied Psychology Synthesis Project:

• Divide up into groups of 3-4.

Group #1: Psychoanalysis

Group #2: Behaviorism

Group #3: Humanism

Group #4: Cognition

Group #5: Biological Perspectives

Group #6: Sociocultural Perspectives

Group #7: Evolutionary Psychology

Applied Psychology Synthesis Ctd.

• On an index card, write a 5-point summary of your assigned school of psychology

Ex.• Biological Perspectives1. Brain structure impacts behavior.2. We inherit behaviors from our parents.3. Our formation in the womb impacts our future

behavior.4. Etc.

Applied Psychology Synthesis Activity Cotd.

• Situation: Georgie is obsessed about his appearance. He gets up two hours early every day to wash and style his hair. His siblings are constantly upset with him because he won’t let them use the mirror.

• Based on the school of psychology that has been assigned to you write an explanation for Georgie’s behavior as part of a visual you make.

• Use key words from each theory in your explanation to bolster your explanation’s credibility.

• Each group choose a representative. Present.

Sociocultural Perspective5 facts:1. People from different cultures have different thought processes and behaviors.2. Psychologists realized in the late 20th century that most of their research had been done on white males.3. Psychologists in the late 20th century acknowledged that there are no general principles of behavior that would be applicable to all of humanity.4. Middle class values dominated people’s assumptions about behavior. 5. Psychologists began recognizing that enthnocentricism was a factor in impeding cultural explanations for people’s behaviors.

Georgie is from icelandic culture where hair grooming is a matter of family honor. He is adopted, and his siblings are Americans, and since Georgie looks like them, few people know . Georgie’s family and teachers have criticized him heavily, yet Georgie hasn’t taken Psychology and does not know that this criticism is a result of ethnocentricism. Georgie visits a psychologist and is ashamed that the psychologist tells him that he has OCD. Georgie is so upset that he goes to a school counselor and explains Iceland’s emphasis on hair styling. She contacts Georgie’s family and explains her view on what is going on. Georgie talks with his family about how he feels about his hair and why. They make a deal that he will get ready in his room so that his siblings can use the restroom and they will stop making fun of him.

I love my hair! Mama would be proud! If she hadn’t got eaten by that whale . . .

(Packet) Psych Careers• Write one question on psychology careers before the

informational presentation (use pgs. 11-21 as a starting point if you cannot think of a question).

• As you see the informational PowerPoint, seek for an answer to your question. Write down at least three facts that stand out to you, including on topics related to your question.

• Open your book to pg. 20-21. In which of these psychological fields are you the most interested? Why? Write your answer in RACE form. Add any new questions you may have to your original question.

R.A.F.T.: Say What?

• R= Role- who is the writer?• A= Audience- to whom are you writing?• F= Format-what format should the writing be in?• T= Topic-What are you writing about?

R.A.F.T. Example• R= Freud• A=B.F. Skinner• F=Hate Mail• T=Behaviorism

Dr. Skinner-

Just thought I’d let you know that you’re a big hypocrite! This insistence that the unconscious should be eliminated from all “scientific” psychological studies makes no sense even according to your own standards. Motivations, some unconscious, underlie all of our behaviors. Even for your blasted pigeons, their motivation for pushing that stupid little lever in their cages is “hunger.” Can you see hunger? No! So, Mr. Behaviorist, how can you possibly consider those experiments “scientific” and claim that my case studies in psychoanalysis aren’t?

Contemptuous disdain,

Sigmund Freud

HERE ARE YOUR CHOICESR ATitchener JamesJames TitchenerFreud Watson, SkinnerWatson, Skinner Freud Rogers Watson or Freud

Personal Application Activity

• Make the following chart on a fresh piece of paper.

Subtitle Me Class Members

Developing Sound Study Habits

Improving Your Reading

Getting More Out of Lectures

Improving Test-Taking Strategies

General Tips

Tips for Multiple-Choice Exams

Tips for Essay Exams

[Packet] Personal Application:

Personal Application Activity• The following article represents one of the

many applications you’ll find for Psychology, the study of human behavior and thought processes.

• Read pgs. 27-31. Jot down facts or strategies you find helpful in and/or interesting in the “Me” category. Then survey various class members, and jot down facts or strategies that they found helpful and/or interesting. Do this in the “Class members” category.

(Spiral) Seven Key Themes

• Read about the Seven Key Themes (pg. 21-25). • Instructions: Now expand! Choose one of the seven

themes to which you can relate personally either by observation or by example. Describe that observation or example in detail.

• Share your questions with people around you. See if they can answer them.

Seven Themes Ctd. text-to-self or text-to-world

Example of Expansion text-to-self or text-to-world• Georgie’s Example: I can relate to Theme #4,

which is that behavior is determined by multiple causes. My brother, Ret, was diagnosed with ADHD in first grade. At first, his medication did not help him control his behavior. He must have seen the doctor ten times before my mother finally told her that she and my dad had split up at the beginning of the year, and that’s when Ret’s behavior changed. The doctor lowered Ret’s dosage guessing that the problems at home were aggravating Ret’s ADHD and that he was being over-medicated. Ret continued having problems in school that entire year. His behavior didn’t start improving until the next year, when things had calmed down at home. Therefore, my brother’s behavior was being impacted by both his physiology and his environment.

Your R.A.F.T.

• Group #1 Group #2• R= Professor R= Student• A= Student A= Professor• F= Letter F= Letter• T= How to take tests T= How to make better

tests