Chapter 1: Psychology: Evolution of A Science (notes)

-Plato argued in favor of nativism-Aristotle believed that a child's mind was a tabula rasa (blank slate) ---> argued in favor of philosophical empiricism-Issue of nature vs nurture to explain behavior is still a controversy

-Rene Descartes: Argued that the mind and the body fundamentally different things; suggested that the mind influences the body through the pineal gland (explanation for dualism)-Thomas Hobbes: Argued that the mind and body aren't different things; the mind is what the brain does-Franz Joseph Gall: Mind and brain were linked by size rather than glands; developed the theory known as phrenology (a defunct theory)-Marie Jean Pierre Flourens: Appalled by Gall's claim; conducted experiments to prove the theory wrong-Paul Broca: Able to show via a patient that damage to a specific part of the brain impaired a specific mental function, demonstrating that the brain and mind are closely linked

-Hermann von Helmholtz: Trained people to respond when he applied a stimulus and recorded participants' reaction time-Wilhelm Wundt: Taught the first physiology psychology course, published Principle of Physiological Psychology; believed that scientific psychology should focus on analyzing consciousness; adopted the approach known as structuralism; tried to analyze consciousness through introspection ("raw" sensory experience rather than interpretation of that experience)

-Edward Titchener: Came to the United States and set up a psychology laboratory at Cornell; focused on identifying the basic elements of consciousness

-William James: Believed that trying to isolate and analyze a particular moment of consciousness distorted the essential nature of consciousness; developed functionalism; thinking was inspired by Darwin ---> mental abilities must have evolved because the were adaptive because they helped people solve problems and increase their chances of survival; reasoned that consciousness must serve an important biological function and the task for psychologists was to understand what those functions are-G.

Stanley Hall: Set up the first psychology research lab in North America at Johns Hopkins; focused on development and education and was strongly influenced by evolutionary thinking

-Philosophers have pondered and debated ideas about human nature for millennia, but given the nature of their approach, they did not provide empirical evidence to support their claims-Some of the earliest successful efforts to develop a science linking mind and behavior came from the French scientists Marie Jean Pierre Florins and Paul Broca, who showed that damage to the brain can result in impairments of behavior and mental functions-Hermann von Helmholtz furthered the science of the mind by developing methods for measuring reaction time-Wilhelm Wundt is credited with the founding of psychology as a scientific discipline. His structuralist approach focused on analyzing the basic elements of consciousness. Wundt's student, Edward Titchener, brought structuralism to the United States-William James applied Darwin's theory of natural selection to the study of the mind. His functionalist approach focused on how mental processes serve to enable people to adapt to their environments-G.

Stanley Hall established the first American research laboratory, journal, and professional organizations devoted to psychology

-Jean-Martin Charcot and Pierre Janet: Interviewed patients who had developed hysteria and found that they behaved differently under hypnosis-Sigmund Freud: Theorized that many patients' problems could be traced to the effect of painful childhood experiences that the person could not remember (suggesting that seemingly lost memories revealed the presence of an unconscious mind)---> development of the psychoanalytic theory

-Freud's ideas were difficult to test and a theory that can't be tested is limited in psychology-Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers: Pioneered a new movement called humanistic psychology (focused on the highest aspirations that people had for themselves); movement first reached it's peak in the 1960s when a generation of "flower children" found it easy ti psychological life as a kind of blossoming spirit

-Psychologists have often focused on patients with psychological disorders as a way of understanding human behavior. Clinicians such as Jean-Martin Charcot and Pierre Janet studied unusual cases in which patients acted like different people while under hypnosis, raising the possibility that each of us has more than one self-Through his work with hysteric patients, Sigmund Freud developed psychoanalysis, which emphasized the importance of unconscious influences and childhood experiences in shaping thoughts, feelings, and behavior-Happily, humanistic psychologists offered a more optimistic view of the human condition, suggesting that people are inherently disposed toward growth and can usually reach their full potential with a little help from their friends

-John Broadus Watson: Believed that private experience was too idiosyncratic and vague to be an object of scientific inquiry; proposed that psychologists focus entirely on the study of behavior because behavior can be observed by anyone and it can be measured objectively; influenced by the work of Ivan Pavlov (study where dogs salivated not only at food but at the person who fed them)

-Burrhus Frederick Skinner: Wondered if he could develop behaviorist principles that would explain how animals learned to act in everyday life; built a conditioning chamber (Skinner box); saw evidence for the principle of reinforcement; set out to use the ideas of reinforcement to help improve the quality of everyday life; argued that his insights could be used to increase human well being and solve social problems

-Behaviorism advocates the study of observable actions and responses and held that inner mental processes were private events that could not be studied scientifically. Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson studied the association between a stimulus and a response and emphasized the importance of the environment in shaping behavior-Influenced by Watson's behaviorism, B.

F. Skinner developed the concept of reinforcement using a Skinner box. He demonstrated that animals and humans repeat behaviors that generate pleasant result and avoid performing those that generate unpleasant results. Skinner extended Watson's contentions about the importance of the environment in shaping behavior by suggesting that free will is an illusion and that the principle of reinforcement can be used to benefit society

-Max Wetheimer: Focused on the study of illusion; work led to the development of Gestalt psychology (the mind imposes organization on what it perceives)-Sir Frederic Bartlett: Tried to discover how quick and how well he could memorize and recall meaningless information; found that people remembered what should have happened or what they expected to happen rather than what actually did happen-Kurt Lewin: Argued that a person's behavior in the world could be predicted best by understanding the person's subjective experience in the world

-During WWII, the military turned to psychologists to help understand how soldiers could best learn to use new technologies-Donald Broadbent: Among the first to study what happens when people try to pay attention to several things at once; showed that the limited capacity to handle incoming information is a fundamental feature of human cognition

-Karl Lashley: Conducted a famous series of studies in which he trained rats to run mazes, surgically removed parts of their brains, and then measured how well they could run the maze again ---> the more of the rat's brain he removed, the more poorly the rat ran the maze; findings helped to develop behavioral neuroscience

-John Garcia: Research helped to create evolutionary psychology-Evolutionary psychology: Darwinist roots; inspired by the functionalist approaches of William James and G.

Stanley Hall (led them to focus on how mental abilities help people to solve problems and therefore increase their chances of survival)

-Psychologists such as Max Wertheimer, Frederic Bartlett, Jean Piaget, and Kurt Lewin defined the behaviorist doctrine and studied the inner workings of the mind. Their efforts, as well as those of later pioneers such as Donald Broadbent, paved the way for cognitive psychology to focus on inner processes such as perception, attention, memory, and reasoning-Cognitive psychology developed as a field due to the invention of the computer, psychologists' efforts to improve the performance of the military, and Noam Chomsky's theories about language-Cognitive neuroscience attempts to link the brain with the mind by studying individuals with brain damage (connecting the area damaged with the loss of specific abilities) and individuals without brain damage, using brain scanning techniques-Evolutionary psychology focuses on the adaptive function that minds and brains serve and seeks to understand the nature and origin of psychological processes in terms of natural selection

-Norman Triplett: Credited with the birth of social psychology-Social psychology was shaped in its early years by the Holocaust

-First psychologist to pay attention to the influence of culture was Wilhelm Wundt-Margaret Mead and Gregory Bateson: Attempted to understand the workings of culture by traveling and carefully observing child-rearing patterns, rituals, religious ceremonies, etc.

-Social psychology recognizes that people exist as part of a network of other people and examines how individuals influence and interact with one another. Social psychology was pioneered by German emigres, such as Kurt Lewin, who were motivated by a desire to address social issues and problems-Cultural psychology is concerned with the effects of the broader culture on individuals and with similarities and differences among people in different cultures. Within this perspective, absolutists hold that culture has little impact on most psychological phenomena, whereas relativists believe that culture has a powerful effect-Together, social and cultural psychology help expand the discipline's horizons beyond just an examination of individuals.

These areas of psychology examine behavior within the broader context of human interaction

-About half of all APA members are women, and the percentage of non-White members continues to grow ---> reflects the diversity of American society

-Majority do clinical work (47%)-Many also are involved in research

-The American Psychological Association (APA) has grown dramatically since it was formed in 1892 and now includes over 150,000 members working in clinical, academic, and applied settings. Psychologists are also represented by professional organizations such as the Association for Psychological Science (APS), which focuses on scientific psychology-Through the efforts of pioneers such as Mary Calkins, women have come to play an increasingly important role in the field and are now as well represented as men. Minority involvement in psychology took longer, but the pioneering efforts of Francis Cecil Sumner, Kenneth B. Clark, and others have led to increased participation of minorities in psychology-Psychologists prepare for research careers through graduate and postdoctoral training and work in a variety of applied settings, including schools, clinics, and industry