Intro to PSYCHOLOGY COURSE

Chapter 1
Spring 2019
Mervat Amin Ijha
Sec: 54

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Introduction

What do we hope to gain from studying psychology?

 Gain insight into the mind
 Understanding of people
 Understanding yourself

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This course

This course is designed to

 give you a general idea of what psychology is, and how
psychology is applied to help improve people’s lives.
The chapters are organized so that you can get a better idea of
how psychology works; from basic theories and principles, through
research, understanding and explaining results, to the actual
application of psychological techniques.
This course is not designed to make you a psychologist. It is
written in a general format so that you can gain a better idea of all
of the major concepts in psychology.
You will learn a lot, however, and hopefully you will increase not only
your knowledge base, but also your interest in the principles of psychology.
This course provides a great deal of information about the applications of
psychology in a self-help format.
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What is Psychology

The term psychology comes from two Greek words: psyche, which
means “soul,” and logos, "the study of." These root words were
first combined in the 16th century, at a time when the human soul,
spirit, or mind was seen as distinct from the body.

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What is Psychology?

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mind.

This definition contains three elements:
1- psychology is a scientific enterprise that obtains
knowledge through objective methods of observation
and experimentation.
2- psychologists study behavior, which refers to any
action or reaction that can be measured or observed
3- psychologists study the mind, which refers to both
conscious and unconscious mental states. These states
cannot actually be seen – such as thoughts, feelings,
sensations, perceptions, memories, dreams, motives

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What Is Psychology?
Psychology is both an applied and academic field that studies the human mind
and behavior.

Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior of

people and other organisms and mind-behavior
interaction.
Research in psychology seeks to understand and
explain thought, emotion, and behavior.
Applications of psychology include mental health
treatment, performance enhancement, self-help, and
many other areas affecting health and daily life.

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psychologists
Many people think of psychologists as individuals
who dispense advice, analyze personality, and help
those who are troubled or mentally ill. But
psychology is far more than the treatment of
personal problems.
Psychologists strive to understand the mysteries of
human nature why people think, feel, and act as they
do.
Some psychologists also study animal behavior,
using their findings to determine laws of behavior
that apply to all organisms and to formulate theories
about how humans behave and think.
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Psychology and Other Sciences
Psychology overlaps with other sciences that investigate behavior and mental
processes. Certain parts of the field share much with the biological sciences,
especially physiology, the biological study of the functions of living organisms and
their parts. Like physiologists, many psychologists study the inner workings of the
body from a biological perspective. However, psychologists focus on the activity of
the brain and nervous system

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 Cont.
The social sciences of sociology and anthropology, which study human societies
and cultures, also intersect with psychology. For example, both psychology and
sociology explore how people behave when they are in groups. However,
psychologists try to understand behavior from the vantage point of the individual,
whereas sociologists focus on how behavior is shaped by social forces and social
institutions.

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 Cont.

Anthropologists investigate behavior as well, paying

attention to the similarities and differences between
human cultures around the world.
Psychology is closely connected with psychiatry,
which is the branch of medicine specializing in
mental illnesses. The study of mental illness is one of
the largest areas of research in psychology.
Psychiatrists and psychologists differ in their
training. A person seeking to become a psychiatrist
first obtains a medical degree and then engages in
further formal medical education in psychiatry.
Most psychologists have a doctoral graduate degree
in psychology
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History of Psychology

One of the youngest sciences, psychology did not emerge as a

formal discipline until the late 19th century. But its roots
extend to the ancient past. For centuries, philosophers and
religious scholars have wondered about the nature of the mind
and the soul. Thus, the history of psychological thought begins
in philosophy

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Philosophical Roots
From about 600 to 300 BC, Greek philosophers
inquired about a wide range of psychological topics.
They were especially interested in the nature of
knowledge and how human beings come to know the
world, a field of philosophy known as epistemology.
The Greek philosopher Socrates and his followers,
Plato and Aristotle, wrote about pleasure and pain,
knowledge, beauty, desire, free will, motivation,
rationality, memory, and the nature of perception.

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 Cont.

They also theorized about whether human traits are innate or

the product of experience. In the field of ethics, philosophers of
the ancient world probed a variety of psychological questions:
Are people inherently good? How can people attain happiness?
What motives or drives do people have? Are human beings
naturally social?

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 Cont.

Many ancient societies thought that mental illness

resulted from supernatural causes. Both Socrates
and Plato focused on psychological forces as the
cause of mental disturbance.
More recently, many other men and women
contributed to the birth of modern psychology. In
the 1600s French philosopher René Descartes
theorized that the body and mind are separate
entities. He regarded the body as a physical entity
and the mind as a spiritual entity, and believed the
two interacted only through the pineal gland. This
position became known as dualism.

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 Cont.

English philosophers Thomas Hobbes and John Locke

disagreed. They argued that all human experiences—including
sensations, images, thoughts, and feelings—are physical
processes occurring within the brain and nervous system.
Therefore, these experiences are valid subjects of study. In this

view, which later became known as monism, the mind

and body are one and the same.

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The Birth of Psychology as a Science

Modern psychology is deeply rooted in the

older disciplines of philosophy and
physiology. But the official birth of
psychology is often traced to 1879, at the
University of Leipzig, Germany. There,
physiologist Wilhelm Wundt established
the first laboratory dedicated to the
scientific study of the mind.
In the United States, William James
observed the emergence of psychology with
great interest.
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 Cont.

James was fascinated by psychology and

philosophy. In 1875 he offered his first
course in psychology. In 1890 James
published a two-volume book entitled
Principles of Psychology. It immediately
became the leading psychology text in
the United States, and it brought James
a worldwide reputation as a man of
great ideas and inspiration. Today,
historians consider James the founder of
American psychology.
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 Cont.

James’s students also made lasting contributions to

the field. In 1883 Stanley Hall established the first
true American psychology laboratory at Johns
Hopkins University, and in 1892 he founded and
became the first president of the American
Psychological Association. Mary Calkins created an
important technique for studying memory and
conducted one of the first studies of dreams. In 1905
she was elected the first female president of the
American Psychological Association. Thorndike
conducted some of the first experiments on animal
learning and wrote a textbook on educational
psychology. 18
Wilhelm Wundt
–Leipzig, Germany
–The “father of psychology”
–Founder of modern psychology
–Opened the first psychology lab in
1879
–applied laboratory techniques to
study of the mind

Wilhelm Wundt
(1832–1920)
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Schools of Thought
Throughout psychology's history, a number of
different schools of thought have formed to explain
human thought and behavior. These schools of
thought often rise to dominance for a period of time.
While these schools of thought are sometimes
perceived as competing forces, each perspective has
contributed to our understanding of psychology. The
following are some of the major schools of thought in
psychology.

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Structuralism Becomes Psychology’s First
School of Thought

Edward B. Titchener, would go on to found

psychology’s first major school of thought.
According to the structuralists, human
consciousness could be broken down into much
smaller parts. Using a process known as
introspection (examining your own feelings),
trained subjects would attempt to break down their
responses and reactions to the most basic sensation
and perceptions.
While structuralism is notable for its emphasis on
scientific research, its methods were unreliable,
limiting, and subjective. When Titchener died in
1927, structuralism essentially died with him.

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 E.B. Titchener
•Wundt’s student,
professor at Cornell
University
•Analyzed the intensity,
clarity and quality of the
parts of consciousness
•Founder of structuralism
•generalpsychology2015@
hotmail.com E. B. Titchener
(1867–1927)
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•P20152015
 The Functionalism of William
Psychology flourished in American during the mid- to late-
James
1800s. William James emerged as one of the major American
psychologists during this period. His ideas eventually served
as the basis for a new school of thought known as functionalism.
The focus of functionalism was on how behavior actually
works to help people live in their environment. Functionalists
utilized methods such as direct observation. While both of
these early schools of thought emphasized human
consciousness, their conceptions of it were significantly
different. While the structuralists sought to break down
mental processes into their smallest parts, the functionalists
believed that consciousness existed as a more continuous and
changing process. While functionalism is no longer a separate
school of thought, it would go on to influence later
psychologists and theories of human thought and behavior.

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 William James
•First American psychologist
•Startedpsychology at Harvard
in 1870s
•Opposed Wundt and
Titchener’s approach
•Author of the first psychology
textbook
•Founder of Functionalism William James
–functionalism – influenced by Darwin (1842–1910)
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to focus on how behaviors help us
adapt to the environment
Freud and Psychoanalysis

Alongside Wundt and James, a third prominent leader of

the new psychology was Sigmund Freud, a Viennese
neurologist of the late 19th and early 20th century.
Through his clinical practice, Freud developed a very
different approach to psychology.
Freud formulated a theory of personality and a form of
psychotherapy known as psychoanalysis.
Freud introduced his new theory in The Interpretation of
Dreams (1889), the first of 24 books he would write. The
theory is summarized in Freud’s last book, An Outline of
Psychoanalysis, published in 1940, after his death.
Freud believed that people are motivated largely by
unconscious forces, including strong sexual and
aggressive drives. He likened the human mind to an
iceberg: The small tip that floats on the water is the
conscious part, and the vast region beneath the
surface comprises the unconscious.

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 Cont.

Freud believed that although unconscious motives can be temporarily

suppressed, they must find a suitable outlet in order for a person to
maintain a healthy personality.

To probe the unconscious mind, Freud developed the psychotherapy

technique of free association. In free association, the patient reclines and
talks about thoughts, wishes, memories, and whatever else comes to mind.
The analyst tries to interpret these verbalizations to determine their
psychological significance. In particular, Freud encouraged patients to
free associate about their dreams, which he believed were the “royal road
to the unconscious.” According to Freud, dreams are disguised
expressions of deep, hidden impulses.

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 Cont.

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 Sigmund Freud (1856-
1939)

 Austrian physician that focused

on illness
 Founder of the psychoanalytic
perspective
 Believed that abnormal behavior
originated from unconscious
drives and conflicts

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Behaviorism
In search of more-scientific methods, psychologists gradually
turned away from research on invisible mental processes and
began to study only behavior that could be observed directly.
This approach, known as behaviorism, ultimately
revolutionized psychology and remained the dominant school
of thought for nearly 50 years.
The foundation for the new behaviorism was American
psychologist Thorndike. In 1898 Thorndike conducted a
series of experiments on animal learning.
Thorndike proposed the law of effect, which states that
behaviors that are followed by a positive outcome are
repeated, while those followed by a negative outcome or none
at all are extinguished.

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 Cont.

In 1906 Russian physiologist Pavlov stumbled onto

one of the most important principles of learning
and behavior. Pavlov was investigating the
digestive process in dogs by putting food in their
mouths and measuring the flow of saliva. He found
that after repeated testing, the dogs would salivate
in anticipation of the food, even before he put it in
their mouth. He soon discovered that if he rang a
bell just before the food was presented each time,
the dogs would eventually salivate at the mere
sound of the bell. Pavlov had discovered a basic
form of learning called classical conditioning in
which an organism comes to associate one stimulus
with another. Later research showed that this basic
process can account for how people form certain
preferences and fears.
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 Cont.

Many American psychologists were quick to adopt

behaviorism. Aiming to predict and control
behavior, the behaviorists’ strategy was to vary a
stimulus in the environment and observe an
organism's response.
The most forceful leader of behaviorism was
Skinner, an American psychologist who began
studying animal learning in the 1930s. Skinner
coined the term reinforcement and invented a new
research apparatus called the Skinner box for use
in testing animals. Based on his experiments with
rats and pigeons, Skinner identified a number of
basic principles of learning. He concluded that
nearly all behavior is shaped by complex patterns
of reinforcement in a person’s environment, a
process that he called operant conditioning

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 Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936)

 Behaviorist
 Russian Physiologist
 Studied learning through
associations in animals
 Emphasized the study of
observable behaviors

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 B.F. Skinner
•Behaviorist

•American psychologist at
Harvard
•Focused on learning
through rewards and
observation
•studied learning and
effect of reinforcement B. F. Skinner
(1904–1990)
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 Gestalt
Like psychology
behaviourism, developed as a reaction against structuralism.
Gestalt psychologists believed that human beings and other animals
perceive the external world as an organized pattern, not as
individual sensations. For example, a film consists of thousands of
individual still pictures, but we see what looks like smooth,
continuous movement. The German word Gestalt means pattern,
form, or shape.
Unlike the behaviourists, the Gestaltists believed that behaviour
should be studied as an organized pattern rather than as separate
incidents of stimulus and response. The familiar saying "The whole
is greater than the sum of its parts" expresses an important
principle of the Gestalt movement. 
Gestalt psychology was founded about 1912 by Wertheimer, a
German psychologist. During the 1930's, Wertheimer and two
colleagues took the Gestalt movement to the United States.  
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 Wolfgang Kohler

 Created Gestalt Psychology

 The whole is different from the
sum of its parts.
 Integrate pieces of information
into meaningful wholes.

Wolfgang Kohler
(1865-1965)
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Humanistic Psychology: “The Third Force”
Faced with a choice between psychoanalysis and behaviorism,
many psychologists sensed a void in psychology’s conception
of human nature. Freud had drawn attention to the darker
forces of the unconscious, and Skinner was interested only in
the effects of reinforcement on observable behavior.
Humanistic psychology was born out of a desire to understand
the conscious mind, free will, human dignity, and the capacity
for self-reflection and growth. An alternative to
psychoanalysis and behaviorism, humanistic psychology
became known as “the third force.”
The humanistic movement was led by American psychologists
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow. According to Rogers, all
humans are born with a drive to achieve their full capacity
and to behave in ways that are consistent with their true
selves.

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 Cont.

Maslow theorized that all people are motivated to fulfill a

hierarchy of needs. At the bottom of the hierarchy are basic
physiological needs, such as hunger, thirst, and sleep. Further
up the hierarchy are needs for safety and security, needs for
belonging and love, and esteem-related needs for status and
achievement. Once these needs are met, Maslow believed,
people strive for self-actualization, the ultimate state of
personal fulfillment. As Maslow put it, “A musician must
make music, an artist must paint, a poet must write, if he is
ultimately to be at peace with himself. What a man can be, he
must be.”

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Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow
(1902-1987) (1908-1970)

 Helped to create Humanistic Psychology

 Stressed the study of conscious experience and an individual’s
free will
 Healthy individuals strive to reach their potential.
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 The the
From Cognitive
1920sRevolution
through the 1960s, behaviorism dominated
psychology in the United States. Eventually, however, psychologists
began to move away from strict behaviorism. Many became
increasingly interested in cognition, a term used to describe all the
mental processes involved in acquiring, storing, and using
knowledge.
Such processes include perception, memory, thinking, problem
solving, imagining, and language. This shift in emphasis toward
cognition had such a profound influence on psychology that it has
often been called the cognitive revolution.
One reason for psychologists’ renewed interest in mental processes
was the invention of the computer, which provided an intriguing
metaphor for the human mind. The hardware of the computer was
likened to the brain, and computer programs provided a step-by-
step model of how information from the environment is input,
stored, and retrieved to produce a response. Based on the computer
metaphor, psychologists began to formulate information-processing
models of human thought and behavior. 39
Why Study Psychology History?

Contemporary psychology is interested in an enormous range

of topics, looking a human behavior and mental process from
the neural level to the cultural level. Psychologists study
human issues that begin before birth and continue until
death. By understanding the history of psychology, you can
gain a better understanding of how these topics are studied
and what we have learned thus far.

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