Introduction to Psychology

What is Psychology?

• Psychology is the scientific study of mental processes and behavior.
• Behavior refers to observable actions.
• Mental processes encompass internal experiences like thoughts and actions.

Why Study the History of Psychology?

• There's no single approach in psychology.
• Studying the history helps integrate different fields within psychology.
• Understanding the history shapes modern practices in the field.

Development of Modern Psychology

• The roots of psychology lie in the works of Greek philosophers.
• Plato proposed ideas on ideal forms.
• Aristotle emphasized empirical observation.
• Socrates used questioning methods.
• Hippocrates suggested that the brain is the center of mental life.
• Modern psychology is derived from both philosophy and physiology.
• It uses scientific methods such as experimentation, observation, and statistical analysis.
• Many early psychologists had medical backgrounds, including figures like Wundt and Freud.

Data of History

• Scientific methods used include experiments, controlled observations, surveys, and statistical analysis.
• Challenges in historical data include lost or suppressed data, such as Watson's burned papers.
• Distorted data can arise from translation errors or biases in personal records.
• Self-serving data may occur, such as B.F. Skinner exaggerating his rigor in studies.

Contextual Forces in Psychology

• Economic opportunities led to psychology growing due to job openings in research, education, and therapy.
• World wars increased psychological testing and clinical applications.
• Prejudice and discrimination resulted in women and minorities being historically excluded from academia; Jewish psychologists in Europe faced barriers, such as Freud and Stern.

Formations of Scientific History

• Personalistic theory suggests that progress depends on individual contributions, as seen with Freud and Watson.
• Naturalistic theory proposes that progress is inevitable due to cultural shifts or external forces.

Schools of Thought in Psychology

• Structuralism (Titchener) focused on breaking down mental experiences into basic elements, such as thoughts, images, and sensations.
• Functionalism (James) studied how mental processes aid adaptation.
• Behaviorism (Watson) emphasized observable behavior and rejected introspection.
• Gestalt Psychology studied perception and how patterns are seen rather than fragmented parts.
• Psychoanalysis (Freud) explored the unconscious mind through therapy.
• Humanistic Psychology emphasized self-actualization and positive human traits.

Origins of Psychology Fields

• Developmental psychology originated in Europe but expanded to the U.S.
• Social psychology studies group dynamics, leadership, and social influences.

Philosophical Influences on Psychology

• Mechanical duck could eat and defecate
• Reflected the shift toward mechanistic explanations of life

The Spirit of Mechanism

• The Zeitgeist of the 17th-19th centuries viewed the universe and human behavior in a machine-like way.
• This originated from physics, with figures like Galileo and Newton.
• Determinism: events are determined by prior causes.
• Reductionism: Complex phenomena can be broken down into smaller parts.

The Clockwork Universe

• Clocks symbolized order, regularity, and predictability.
• Automata, self-operating machines, were seen as models for human behavior, including AI, defecating ducks, and flute players.

The Beginnings of Modern Science

• Empiricism involves the pursuit of knowledge through observation and experience.
• Rene Descartes proposed mind-body dualism, where the immaterial mind and material body interact in the pineal gland.
• He introduced reflex-action theory and distinguished between derived ideas from external stimuli and innate ideas existing within the mind independently of experience.

Philosophical Foundations of Psychology

• Positivism (Auguste Comte): knowledge from observable facts is valid, leading to the rejection of metaphysical explanations.
• Empiricism (John Locke): the mind is a tabula rasa (blank slate) at birth; knowledge is acquired through sensation and reflection.
• Theory of association: simple ideas combine into complex ideas.
• Primary qualities exist independently of perception (shape, motion).
• Secondary qualities depend on perception (color, taste).

Later Empiricists

• George Berkeley argued that reality only exists in perception (mentalism).
• James Mill described the mind as a passive machine driven by external stimuli, with no role for free will or creativity.
• John Stuart Mill introduced mental chemistry, indicating complex ideas are not just simple ideas combined but take on new properties.

The Importance of the Human Observer

• David Kinnebrook's mistake: his star movement measurements were consistently slower than his boss's, leading to the discovery of the personal equation.
• Individual differences in perception affect observations and shows human perception is subjective.

Developments in Early Physiology

• Mapping the brain involved extirpation (destroying parts to observe behavior changes), clinical methods (studying damaged brains), and electrical stimulation (applying electricity to observe reactions).
• Phrenology suggested personality traits correspond to skull shape but was later discredited.

Beginnings of Experimental Psychology

• Germany encouraged rigorous research, had well-funded facilities, and valued precise, controlled experiments.
• Johannes Muller advocated studying the relationship between physical stimuli and perception.

Key Figures in Psychophysics

• Hermann Von Helmholtz measured the speed of neural impulses, studied vision and hearing, and held a mechanistic view of sense organs.
• Ernest Weber applied experimental methods to sensation/perception.
• Two point threshold defines the minimum distance where two stimuli are perceived separately.
• Just noticeable difference (JND) defines the smallest detectable difference between stimuli.
• Weber's law indicates sensation is based on relative, not absolute, differences.
• Gustav Fechner coined "psychophysics".
• He introduced absolute threshold, differential threshold, and developed methods of limits, constant stimuli, average error.

The Formal Founding of Psychology

• In the mid-19th century, psychology became experimental; techniques were developed, books were written, and apparatuses were invented.
• Wilhelm Wundt was considered the "formal" founder of Psychology.

The New Psychology

• Wundt tested whether people could attend to two stimuli at once using a bell sound and pendulum movement.
• People cannot perceive two stimuli simultaneously, registering sequentially with a 1/8th of a second delay.
• Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany.
• He considered the founder for integrating, organizing, and promoting psychology as a science.

Early Days of Psychology

• Originally psychology was originally a part of philosophy.
• Wundt introduced Voluntarism organizing contents into higher thought.
• He developed introspection: self examination of conscious thoughts.

Elements of Conscious Experience

• Sensations: external stimuli affecting sense organs.
• Feelings: subjective complements to sensations.
• Tridimensional Theory of Feelings: feelings exist on three axes: pleasure-displeasure, tension-relaxation, excitement-depression.

Wundt's Influence and Psychology's Growth

• Edward Titchener: Structuralism (basic elements of the mind)
• James McKeen Cattell: U.S Psychology Labs
• Challenges to Wundt's work included limited real world application, American Psychology becoming dominant, and unreliable introspection.

Hermann Ebbinghaus - Memory and Learning

• Contradicted Wundt: Showed that higher mental processes could be studied experimentally.
• Developed research on learning and memory, introduced nonsense syllables and the forgetting curve (rapid memory loss after learning, then levels off).

Franz Brentano - Act Psychology

• Disagreed with Wundt's content-based psychology.
• Developed Act Psychology: study of mental activities, uses observation rather than experiments.

Carl Stumpf - Phenomenology

• Phenomenology: Study of immediate experience without breaking it into elements.
• Disagreed with Wundt's elementarism and reductionism.
• Influence on psychology via the study of perception, music psychology,

Psychology as a Science

• Transitioned from philosophy to empirical psychology.
• The study of subjective experiences became scientific.
• Progress depends on improvements in methods.

Structuralism

• Oswald Kulpe, initially a follower of Wundt, later disagreed and believed higher through processes could be studied experimentally
• Introduced Systematic Experimental Self-Observation: Participants verbalized experiences while solving a task
• Image-less thought: Thinkings is not just associations but meaningful units
• Determinative Tendency: Motivation and goals influence thinking

Differences Between Wundt and Titchener

• Wundt focused on consciousness and its organization and Apperception (actively interpreting stimuli), while Titchener focused on analyzing mental elements and sensory experience.
• Wundt believed the mind actively organizes elements, while Titchener thought elements are mechanically linked by association.

The Elements of Consciousness

• Titchener's 3 problems of psychology are to reduce consciousness, identify laws, and link elements to physiological processes.
• 3 elementary states of consciousness are sensations (sensory experiences)
• Criticisms of Structuralism cite problems with its subjectivity, it alters experience, unable to study objectively, biased observers, undefined introspection, and it ignored child and animal psychology

Contributions of Structuralism

• Advances in Research Methods, promoted systematic observation, experimentation and measurement
• Created a scientific approach to psychology
• Created framework for Functionalism and Behaviourism

Functionalism

• Antecedent Influences- Natural Selection dictates evolution by selection, fitness (grow to maturity and offspring), and Darwin's observations
• Species change over time
• Structural similarities exist between different species (hands or paws)
• Selective breeding changes animals
• Not all animals survive

Impact on psychology

• Animal psychology grew, no divide between humans and animals
• Functionalism developed, which focused on how function and adapt

Individual Differences and Intelligence

• Franz Galton believed in inherited traits and rejected behaviorism.
• Mental inheritance: studied genius in history and eugenics.

Mental Tests

• Intelligence could be measured through sensory and motor skills.
• Designed instruments to test motor capacities.
• Herbert Spencer created social Darwinism; evolution
• Advocated that the fittest should be free to function, the government should not interfere with constructs

The Evolution of Henry Hollerith

William James- Anticipator of Functional Psychology

• Functionalism: Focused on what the mind does rather than what it is.
• Stream of consciousness:
• Consciousness is continuous and ever-changing.
• Cannot be broken into elements

The three-part self

• Material self: Personal possessions, body, clothes
• Social self: How others recognize and perceive us
• Spiritual Self: Inner, private self, personal identity

Pragmatism and the Theory of Emotions

• Pragmatism: The value of an idea depends on its practical consequences
• James-Lange Theory of emotions:
• Physical response happens first, then emotional feeling follows
• We cry first then feel sad

Structuralism vs Functionalism

• What the mind is vs what it can do
• Elements of consciousness vs how the mind adapts
• Used introspection vs multiple methods

Functionalism and Growth of American Psychology

• Focused on was how the mind used, how a patient uses his consciousness to solve the day to day

Mental Testing - James Mckeen Cattel

• Inspired focused on reaction times and ranking intelligence
• Coined the term "mental tests" but these were not IQ tests

Alfred Binet and the IQ Test

• Disagreed with GFalton and Cattell and believed cognitive functions better measured intelligence
• Developed first intelligence test (Binet-Simon Test)

Fluid Vs Crystallized Intelligence

• Fluid intelligence: ability to solve new problems without prior knowledge (eg problem solving skills)
• Crystallized Intelligence: Knowledge and skills acquired from past experiences (eg. vocabulary, facts

###Clinical Psychology - Lightner Witmer

• Founder, created first psychology clinic focused on learning and Behavioral issues
• First to assess learning disabilities, hyperactivity, speech and motor issues

Industrial-Organizational Psychology - Walter Dill Scott

• First to apply psychology to personnel selection, management and advertising

Hawthorne Studies - Workplace motivation and productivity

• factors matter more than physical conditions

###The Shift Toward Behaviourism

• Psychology evolved to Objective Observable behaviour

Watson's Behaviourism

-Rejected the study of consciousness and introspection

The Influence of Animal Psychology on Behaviourism

• Animals learn through associative memory (stimuli trigger learned responses)

Edward Thorndike

• Studied learning in cats using puzzle boxes
• Developed connectionism: Learning occurs through associations between stimuli and responses

Ivan Pavlov - Classical Conditioning

Key concepts:

• Strengthens the association between stimulus and response
• Inspired Watson

Watson's Behaviourism

• Conditioned reflexes: Reflexes learned through association
• Reinforcement: Strengths the association between stimulus and response

Classical conditioning

• Tested classical conditioning

###Watson's View on Instincts, Emotions and Thought Accepted, later disagreed the concept of instincts

• Behaviour is entirely learned not inherited

###Methods of Behaviourism

• Impact:
• Shifted psychology Objective measurement

Criticisms of Watson's Behavourism

Challenged existing psychology (wanted to discard older theories)

###Three Stages of Behavourism

• Psychology as the study of observable behaviour

###Neobehaviourism

• Most behaviour is explained by conditioning
• Operationism adopted (scientific terms must be objectively defined

###NeoneoBehavourism

• Reintroduced processes while maintaining behavioural focus

A Key Concept in Behaviourism

• A concept isonly meaningful

Purposive Behaviourism

• Behaviour is not just reflexive it has purpose and goals

Clark Hull - Mechanistic Behaviourism

• Law of Primary Reinforcement:
• A behaviour increases when followed by a need reduction

B.F Skinner

• Radical Behavourism
• Behaviour increases when followed by reinforcement

An overview of psychology, its focus on mental processes and behavior, and the importance of studying its history. Explores the roots of psychology in Greek philosophy and its development into a modern science using empirical methods.