Psychology Overview

Branches of Psychology

• Structuralism: Founded by William Wundt, focused on sensation, perception, and attention through experiments (e.g., optical illusions). A key problem was participant honesty.
• Functionalism: Founded by William James, connected to Darwin's theories on adaptation. This branch explored how mental characteristics developed to aid survival.
• Psychoanalysis: Developed by Sigmund Freud, focused on uncovering unconscious thoughts and motivations. Patients discussed their backgrounds with trained psychologists.
• Behaviorism: Founded by John Watson, focused solely on observable behaviors as the primary data source. This was the only branch focusing solely on external factors.
• Humanism: Developed in the 1950s, emphasizing personal control and self-determination. Abraham Maslow was a famous humanist. This branch contradicts behaviorism.
• Cognitive Psychology: Studies mental processes like memory, learning, and thinking. Its roots date back to the late 19th century with intelligence testing. The 1950s saw significant expansion in this area, examining the brain and its processes.

Definition of Psychology

• Psychology is the scientific study of mental processes and behaviors, considered the science of the mind.
• Psychologists study the brain-mind-behavior relationship.

History of Psychology

• Ancient Greeks: Recognized individuality and its relation to bodily fluids but their theory lacked scientific basis, was flawed, and led to potential personality mismatches.
• Hippocrates: Noted the brain's role in personality, challenging the heart's supremacy.
• John Locke: Introduced the concept of the mind as a receiver and processor of sensory information.
• Phrenology (Franz Joseph Gall): Early attempt to relate personality to brain structure. Although inaccurate, this sparked the study of the brain's entire structure and different regions' unique functions.

Parts and Lobes of the Brain

• Frontal Lobe: Largest lobe, responsible for personality, emotions, language, memory, social behavior, and decision-making.
• Parietal Lobe: Processes sensory input, touch, spatial awareness, and object manipulation.
• Temporal Lobe: Processes auditory information, long-term memory, language comprehension, and object recognition.
• Occipital Lobe: Processes visual information, including color, depth, and object recognition.
• Cerebellum: Controls balance and voluntary motor skills.
• Brainstem: Connects the brain to the body, managing vital functions like breathing and heartbeat.

Brain Structures (Amygdala, Hippocampus, etc.)

• Amygdala: Processes emotions like fear, aggression, and anxiety, relating them to specific memories.
• Hippocampus: Converts short-term memories to long-term memories. Larger in females, linked to emotional processing, and potentially associated with lower aggression.
• Medulla: Controls breathing, specifically through the pre-Botzinger complex.
• Pons: Contains the locus ceruleus, important for attention.
• Hypothalamus: Connects the nervous and endocrine systems, regulating body temperature, thirst, hunger, and circadian rhythms.
• Pituitary Gland: Releases hormones, regulating various bodily functions (stress, growth, reproduction), and acting as a relay between the hypothalamus and other glands.
• Thalamus: Relays sensory information to the cerebral cortex, acting as a central sorting station.

Right and Left Brain Functioning

• Left Hemisphere: Logical, analytical, controls right side of body, associated with verbal skills, detail orientation, and logical thinking.
• Right Hemisphere: Creative, intuitive, controls left side of body, associated with nonverbal communication, holistic thinking, imagination, and emotional expression.

Specific Brain Facts

• The human brain weighs 3 lbs and is 60% fat.
• Brain generates approximately 23 watts of power.
• Brain receives 20% of bloodstream oxygen.
• Brain loses consciousness in approximately 8-10 seconds without blood supply.
• Brain can survive 5-6 minutes without oxygen.
• Brain has 100 billion neurons.
• Neuron development is rapid (250,000 per minute during early pregnancy).
• Memory decline in later life is linked to the brain's inability to filter old memories.

Sigmund Freud

• Psychoanalysis: Emphasized the unconscious mind as key to understanding behavior. Published "The Interpretation of Dreams," which sparked debate and was burned in WWII.
• Dream Theory: Dreams are wish fulfillments, often stemming from repressed desires. Nightmares are anxiety-related manifestations.
• Personality Theory (Id, Ego, Superego): The mind is divided into conscious and unconscious parts. Personality arises from the interactions of the id (pleasure principle), ego (reality principle), and superego (morality principle). A healthy individual has a dominant ego.
• Psychosexual Stages of Development: Personality development occurs through stages centered on biological drives. Experiences in these stages impact adult behaviors.

Stages of Development (Freud)

• Oral (0-2 years): Pleasure from oral activities; fixation leads to trust/distrust issues and various behaviors based upon not meeting this needs.
• Anal (2-3 years): Potty training; fixation can lead to control issues (anal-retentive) or lack of order (anal-expulsive).
• Phallic (3-6 years): Awareness of sexual differences; Oedipus/Electra complex (sexual attraction to opposite-sex parent and rivalry with same-sex parent).
• Latency (6-puberty): Dormant sexual feelings, focus on friendships and learning.
• Genital (puberty-death): Mature intimacy and self-understanding; Successful resolution leads to well-adjusted adults.

Dreams and Their History

• Ancient Egypt: Dreams were messages from the gods.
• Biblical Times: Similar beliefs about dreams as messages.
• Middle Ages: Nightmares were associated with the Devil.
• Biology of Dreams (REM): Rapid Eye Movement (REM) sleep is associated with intense brain activity and dreaming. Adults spend about a quarter of their sleep in REM.

Neo-Freudians (Adler and Jung)

• Alfred Adler: Rejected Freud's focus on sexuality; emphasized power and inferiority feelings. Created individual psychology and the inferiority complex concept.
• Carl Jung: Split with Freud over sexuality's importance; developed analytical psychology, including concepts like the personal and collective unconscious and personality functions (sensation, intuition, thinking, feeling), and introversion/extroversion.

Classical and Operant Conditioning

• Ivan Pavlov (Classical Conditioning): Known for dog experiments illustrating how neutral stimuli can become associated with significant outcomes (conditioned response).
• B.F. Skinner (Operant Conditioning): Developed operant conditioning, highlighting how positive and negative reinforcement (and punishment) shape behavior. Positive reinforcement is more effective.

John Watson (Behaviorism)

• Founder of Behaviorism, and focused on observable actions and believed we are all born as a blank slate. Famous for Baby Albert experiment demonstrating fear conditioning.

Erik Erikson

• Stages of Psychosocial Development: Expanded on Freud's ideas, emphasizing social and environmental influences on development throughout the lifespan.

Abraham Maslow

• Hierarchy of Needs: Proposed a hierarchy beginning with basic needs (physiological and safety) and progressing toward self-actualization (reaching one's full potential).
• B Values: Values identified with self-actualization (truth, beauty, goodness, uniqueness).

Jean Piaget

• Stages of Cognitive Development: Focused on how children's cognitive abilities change over time including different stages from sensory to more complex thought processes.

Stanley Milgram

• Obedience to Authority: Famous for experiments demonstrating people's tendency to obey authority figures, even when actions contradict their morals.

Harry Harlow

• Attachment Studies with Monkeys: Demonstrated the importance of maternal caregiving, affection, and social relationships for development.

Memory

• Three Levels of Memory: Sensory, short-term, and long-term memories.

Amnesia

• Different Memory Types Affected: Various types of amnesia affect different memory categories. Procedural memory is generally preserved while the others may be affected.

Psychopaths vs. Sociopaths

• Psychopath: Individual with extreme neurosis or psychosis; impaired judgement.
• Sociopath: Individual acting on psychosis, often with methodic behaviour with enough control to appear outwardly normal.

Abnormal Psychology

• Mental Health vs. Mental Illness: Mental health refers to overall well-being; mental illness is a condition affecting normal development or culture.
• Neurosis: Mental distress that doesn't necessarily require medical intervention.
• Psychosis: Loss of contact with reality, severely impairing social functioning – often needs medical treatment.

DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders)

• Diagnostic Tool: Mental health professionals use DSM criteria to diagnose mental disorders; containing standardized categories and criteria for over 350 disorders.
• Evolution of DSM: The DSM has evolved, with categories and criteria adjustments over time and removal of conditions like Homosexuality.

Explore the essential branches of psychology including Structuralism, Functionalism, Psychoanalysis, Behaviorism, Humanism, and Cognitive Psychology. This quiz delves into each branch's key concepts, founders, and impact on the field. Test your knowledge of these foundational psychological theories.