Unit 1 - History & Intro to theories

Theories will be extended in chapter 10.

- Started/Originated in Europe ---> Eventually influenced America. Then the american psychology association
became a leading institute of the field.
- Psychology was essentially developed to prove Sigmund Freud wrong, even though he is known as the
father of psychology.
➔ Theory of introspection (heavily dependant on self report of the subject & many consider there is no
scientific basis to this line of thinking)
Understanding how certain Images (act as Stimuli and spark certain Emotions in people).
- Wilhem Wundt - He set up the first psychological Lab in Germany. Here he would set up different types of
Stimuli in order to understand the cognitive emotions it instigated in the subjects.
➔ Subjective Emotions - A certain stimuli/event/occurrence can make one person happy, while the
same stimuli makes another person sad. Eg - If one person does not like a character in a movie & one
person does, the death of said character will make the person who does not like the character happy
while it will make the person who does like the character sad.
➔ Objective Sensations - Certain reactions indicate the same universal emotions in people. The basic
emotions of happiness are often indicated with a smile or laughter, while confusing with a frown.
These reactions have been turned into visualizations of certain emotions - “He jumped up and down in
excitement” or “A frown wrinkled her forehead, as her mother spoke”.
- Structuralism was the term Wundt coined for this, it is the structure of the emotions and sensations that the
subjects experienced. ----> Raw data.
- William James - He wrote the first textbook on psychology, in order to make people understand Wundt's
findings, he broke down the data and explained it through the textbook.
➔ He coined the term Functionalism where he gave properties and functions to the raw data. How the
subjective emotions and Objective sensations functioned, the mental states and processes are
understood by the role they play in helping people adapt to their surroundings.
- His student G. Stanley Hall further developed these ideas in the contexts of educational psychology and
developmental psychology.
- Gestalt Psychology - Is the wave of psychology that looks at it as a whole. (Wolfgang Koher & Max
Wethmer). It connects Behavioral + Cognitive + Social Psychology.
- Max Wertheimier - Combined cognitive & behavioral psychology, and understood their effect on eachother.
- Behaviorism (John Watson & Ivan Pavlov) - Based on the Reward and Punishment methods. Classical
Conditioning & Operant Conditioning (More in Unit 6) fall under this.
➔ Behaviorists believe that how you behave in a certain situation and how you react to a certain stimulus
is directly related to what you were thinking at the moment.
➔ When peoples reaction is “abnormal” or considered not acceptable when a certain stimuli is provided,
behaviorists will use conditioning methods to change the reaction to said stimulus.
➔ However it is controversial as even though it is quantifiable data, and patterns can be found in it there
are many phenomena that can not be explained solely through this line of thinking. What about when
people say “I did not think before I acted” or “It was a reflex reaction”, in those cases their
thought process was not directly connected to what they thought but more on what their muscle
memory told them to do. Even social pressure that leads to cognitive dissonance separates one's way
of thinking from their direct actions in a situation. (More in Unit 7).
➢ Classical Conditioning - Stimulus + Unconditioned response = Conditioned response (this
response can be used for second tier conditioning).
➢ B.F Skinner - Reinforcement - In order to strengthen the response you give a reward every
time the wanted outcome is given by the subject (to ensure higher frequency of the action).
➢ Positive Reinforcement - Adding something good.
 ➢ Negative Reinforcement - Removing something bad.
➢ Positive Punishment - Adding something bad.
➢ Negative Punishment - Removing something good.
- Cognitive - How you react to certain stimuli is based on complex mechanisms in your brain or of the mind.
➔ The techniques used include projective techniques - storytelling, drawing & handwriting analysis.
These are extremely effective means used to understand a person's thought patterns, since the
narrative or way they chose to respond to certain prompts tells you a lot about their line of thinking,
their personality and motivation.
➔ How you process information gets converted into your thought patterns.
➔ Cognitive Therapy - When a person’s thought pattern does not align with societal norms, or leads
them to take actions that are incorrect, cognitive therapy uses different means to change them.
- Social - The environment which you are brought up in, and the conditions in which you spend your
developmental stages directly influence your actions, ways of thinking and reactions to certain stimuli. Your
relationships with the people around you and the types of interactions you have with others, generate
stereotypes or cause you to associate certain traits in people in a generalized manner.
➔ A change in the social setting can make one feel foreign, as the people are not following the norms
they are used to.
➔ A person's beliefs & values are directly influenced by the social environment.
➔ It indicates that you are defined by the people around you, but that is not always applicable.
➔ Examples can be - Being taken out of a brainwashing cult, and put in a more liberal society will cause
a person to be unaware of what they must now do to survive.
- Psychoanalysis - Sigmund Freud
This theory works on the basis of the Unconscious Mind. ---> Certain emotions and feelings that are
considered “Unacceptable” by the conscious mind are pushed to the unconscious mind (repression), this can
be traumatic events or anything that does not align with the person's way of thinking. ---> Repression as a
defense mechanism.
➔ This theory also believes that the conscious mind possesses all the beliefs, motivations and desires
(positive).
➔ If a person’s conscious mind is aware of what is in the unconscious mind then it will lead to mental
disorders.
➔ Denial
Not accepting the reality you are in.
➔ Repression
Pushing or blocking anything that could cause you anxiety to the “unconscious mind”.
Cognitive - Would ask you questions to understand the depth of what you were thinking, and use
those questions to slowly change your way of thinking while giving a certain reaction to a stimulus.
Behaviourist - Would understand the reaction to the negative stimuli, and try and condition the mind
to change the reaction.
Social - Would understand the social surrounding you were in at the time, and understand what over
there caused you to react to the stimuli in this way, and to change the reaction would ask you to
remove that factor and see if it makes a difference.
➔ Projection
Projecting the “unacceptable” thoughts on another person or object ---> playing the blame game.
➔ Sublimation -
Channeling negative emotions into a productive outcome. You are jealous of your friends relationship,
so you study extra hard to get higher marks than her.
➔ Displacement
Feeling that your reaction to something is socially unacceptable, so you change it to something
socially acceptable. ---> You are jealous of your friends' relationship, but instead of telling them that
 you say “I'm only saying this because I don't think he is good for you”. So you look like you are
concerned for her.
➔ Reaction Formation
You do not like the way you are reacting to something so you change it completely, because you feel
like something in a certain context you possess less of you try to do certain things that increase that in
your life. For instance fragile masculinity can often lead to the sigma male mindset.
➔ Regression - Based on Erik Erikson's theories of development that everyone follows.
If certain aspects of one's needs were not fulfilled in one stage, in that particular context of life it will
cause them to regress.
If you do not sort out one stage (e.g. moving from role confusion to intimacy stage may result in
isolation but not always) then every time you are faced with negative stimuli relating to it, it will cause
anxiety.
➢ Adolescence - Identity VS Role confusion
➢ Intimacy VS Isolation
- Wave 5 of thinking merged multiple lines of thinking to form modern psychology (eclectic wave).
➔ Humanist
Positive/Idealistic Approach. Everyone is a good person, and the decisions people make are guided
by psychological, emotional & spiritual needs. ---> we chose our emotions.
E.g introverts DON'T have a need for more people in their life.
However it is not testable or quantifiable. Defined by Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs -
1. Physiological (food, water and basic hygiene)
2. Safety (shelter, health based (hygiene), medicine/protection from diseases)
3. Belonging & Love (social)
4. Esteem (feeling good about yourself)
5. Self Actualization
Carl Rogers says people make bad decisions because they need to fulfill these needs. --->
experiences create reactions, our reality is that.
➔ Psychoanalytical
The brain moves certain thoughts to the unconscious mind because they are too complex to deal with.
“Everyone behaves this way”
It is not quantifiable & too generalized.
E.g - Introverts have repressed trauma and hence they do not talk to people.
➔ Biopsychology
Human cognition is due to genes, hormones and neurotransmitters. ---> Quantifiable data.
Based on family history.
E.g - Pain reaction
➔ Stimuli on sensory aspects, neurons get excited and transmit this to the nerve these signals
are taken to the brain which leads to the reflex reaction.
However this theory is not about what you are thinking at all, it is only biology and about reaction to
sensory stimulants.
➔ Evolutionary - Darwinism
Natural selection - Survival of the fittest
The ability to adapt to certain environments will be passed down genetically , whichever traits give the
person a survival advantage.
This would imply that extroverts have a higher survival advantage than introverts, but then why do
introverts exist? The issue with this theory is that it does not talk about how someone thinks or any
external perspective.
➔ Behavioral ---> Quantitative Data can be derived.
Vital in understanding information processing in the developing stages, because information
processing by babies is one by observing and mimicking certain behaviors. (applicable there).
 Teaching children good and bad behaviors is also done through this means.
Disregards thoughts and emotions, simply about figuring out reactions to stimulus and conditioning
humans with reward punishment mechanisms.
There is no understanding of the cognition between behaviors.
It is all about the environment satisfying the conditions they need to perform certain actions.
Humans are a lot more complex than that (rewards and punishments)
➔ Cognitive
It is extremely complex, and important in understanding perception & processing. How you interpret
and process a particular environment.
➢ Information processing theory - step by step process with stages. However it can be argued
everyone learns through different means.
Cognitive Dissonance - Discomfort when the behavior you are forced to do does not align with the
person's values (morality) ---> Peer pressure or need for survival.
➔ Socio-cultural
The environment one grew up in defines what they consider normal and acceptable, what type of
exposure they got to diversity.
It does not take into account individual thoughts the person may have. ---> to generalize.
People are susceptible to change if a change in environment occurs.
➔ Biopsychosocial -
Mixing biological (genetics) + values they were taught or formed through experiences + actions that
were reinforced in certain social situations + what they were conditioned to do in social situations.
- It is important to understand that not one singular wave of thinking can be used to justify all human
tendencies and reactions, emotions and behaviors. Which is why a mix of multiple lines of thinking are used
to cultivate different types of therapies, theories and tactics used in the field. Used to cure different types and
degrees of disorders or help cope with certain experiences (chapter 10)