Branches of Psychology Overview

Branches of Psychology

• Structuralism: Founded by William Wundt, focused on sensation, perception, and attention through experiments (e.g., optical illusions). A key weakness was the unreliability of self-reported experiences.
• Functionalism: Founded by William James, linked to Darwin's theory of evolution. This branch examined how mental processes help individuals adapt and survive.
• Psychoanalysis: Developed by Sigmund Freud, aiming to uncover unconscious thoughts and feelings through a trained professional. Patients discuss their background and experiences.
• Behaviorism: Founded by John Watson, focused solely on observable behaviors, as the mind itself couldn't be directly studied. Relied on external factors and the idea of a blank slate (tabula rasa). Considered a significant advancement in incorporating external factors to psychology.
• Humanism: Developed in the 1950s, emphasizing personal control and the importance of individual values and choices over past experiences. Abraham Maslow was a prominent humanist. Contrasts with behaviorism's emphasis on external factors.
• Cognitive Psychology: Examines mental processes like memory, learning, and thinking. Developed in the 1950s, with roots in intelligence testing from the late 19th century. Focuses on the brain's processes.

Definition of Psychology

• Psychology is the scientific study of mental processes and behavior; it's the science of the mind exploring the brain-mind-behavior relationship.

History of Psychology Discipline:

• Ancient Greeks: Explored personality, speculating that different combinations of four bodily fluids influenced personality types. They were the first to consider individuality and that personality originates within the body.
• Hippocrates: Linked personality to brain function, challenging the prevalent belief that the heart held mental processes. He observed correlations between brain injuries and differing behaviors. The brain was noted to be the site of "pleasures, joys, laughter, pain, and sorrow."
• John Locke: Proposed that the mind receives sensory information, processes it into complex ideas, and draws conclusions. Introduced the term "mind."
• Phrenology (Franz Joseph Gall): An early attempt to understand behavior through head bumps. Although flawed, phrenology introduced the idea of localized brain functions and highlighted the brain's role in various mental abilities (character, emotion, perception, and intellect).

Parts and Lobes of the Brain

• Exploring brain function (right and left brain), and top 10 important brain facts.

Sigmund Freud:

• Biography: (Details of Freud's life not provided – this section focuses on his theories)
• Psychoanalysis and Dreams: Viewed dreams as a key to understanding the unconscious mind, representing wish-fulfillments (often repressed sexual desires). His book "Interpretation of Dreams" was influential, but also unfortunately seen as a target for censorship during WWII.
• Theory of Personality (Id, Ego, Superego): Proposed that the mind has conscious and unconscious components. Personality is the dynamic interplay between the id (pleasure principle), ego (reality principle), and superego (morality principle). This theory explains neurotic disorders related to the imbalances between these parts.
• Psychosexual Stages of Development: Explains neurotic disorders through stages, each rooted in biological drives, influencing adult behavior. Crucial stages include:
• Oral (0-2 years): Pleasure from oral activities; fixation can lead to issues with trust, excessive eating/drinking, or self-soothing.
• Anal (2-3 years): Focus on toilet training; fixation can lead to control issues (anal-retentive) or disorganization (anal-expulsive).
• Phallic (3-6 years): Awareness of sexual differences and the Oedipus/Electra complexes, unconscious desires for the opposite-sex parent, and jealousy toward the same-sex parent.
• Latency (6-Puberty): Sexual feelings dormant, focus on relationships and friendships.
• Genital (Puberty-Death): Mature intimacy; successful resolution of earlier stages signifies a well-adjusted individual.

Dreams

• Manifest vs. Latent Dreams: Dreams are comprised of a manifest (remembered) and latent (true meaning) content. The manifest content is the disguised version of the latent content, needing psychoanalysis to reveal.
• History of Dreams: From ancient Egypt, where dreams were viewed as divine messages, to the Middle Ages, where they were sometimes linked to demonic origins. Religious interpretations played a significant role.
• Biology of Dreams (REM): Rapid eye movement (REM) sleep is a stage associated with intense brain activity and dreaming. Adults spend a substantial portion of their sleep in REM.

Neo-Freudians (Alfred Adler and Carl Jung):

• Alfred Adler: Focused on feelings of power and inferiority as shaping personality over sexuality. Introduced the concept of the inferiority complex, proposing that people's pursuit of false power reflects their lack of self-esteem.
• Carl Jung: Disagreed with Freud’s emphasis on sexuality. Developed analytical psychology, focusing on the personal and collective unconscious and various psychological functions (sensation, intuition, thinking, feeling) and the two basic personality types introvert/extrovert.

Classical and Operant Conditioning:

• Ivan Pavlov (Classical Conditioning): Famous for dog experiments demonstrating classical conditioning - a type of associative learning linking a neutral stimulus to a response.
• B.F. Skinner (Operant Conditioning): Focused on shaping behavior through reinforcement and punishment (positive and negative reinforcement).

John Watson (Behaviorism):

• Noted for the controversial "Baby Albert" experiment where fear was shown to be a learned response, as well as for the idea of a blank slate (tabula rasa).

Erik Erikson:

• Expanded upon Freud's ideas about child development by emphasizing the influence of society and relationships on personality development. Notably introduced the concept of "identity crisis," characteristic of adolescence, highlighting a process of testing various roles and integrating personal meaning.