Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Scribd
Upload
22 views

1.3 "A History of Psychology"

1. Early views of psychology began with Plato and Aristotle in Ancient Greece. Plato emphasized introspection and knowing thyself, while Aristotle outlined laws of associationism and believed humans seek pleasure and avoid pain. 2. In the Middle Ages, many Europeans believed psychological problems stemmed from demonic possession. Suspected individuals were subjected to cruel tests like drowning. 3. Modern psychology emerged in the late 19th century with pioneers like Wundt, who founded the first psychology lab, and James, who rejected Wundt's structuralism in favor of functionalism focused on adaptation. Freud also established psychoanalysis focused on the unconscious.

Uploaded by

KingPro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
22 views

1.3 "A History of Psychology"

1. Early views of psychology began with Plato and Aristotle in Ancient Greece. Plato emphasized introspection and knowing thyself, while Aristotle outlined laws of associationism and believed humans seek pleasure and avoid pain. 2. In the Middle Ages, many Europeans believed psychological problems stemmed from demonic possession. Suspected individuals were subjected to cruel tests like drowning. 3. Modern psychology emerged in the late 19th century with pioneers like Wundt, who founded the first psychology lab, and James, who rejected Wundt's structuralism in favor of functionalism focused on adaptation. Freud also established psychoanalysis focused on the unconscious.

Uploaded by

KingPro
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 5

1.

3 “A History of psychology”

Early Views and Beliefs


Ancient Greece More than 2,000 years ago, Plato (428-348 or
347 B.C.), a student of the philosopher Socrates in ancient
Greece, recorded his teacher's advice: "Know thyself."
Socrates suggested that we can learn much about ourselves
by carefully examining our own thoughts and feelings.
Psychologists call this method of learning introspection,
which means "looking within."
Aristotle outlined the laws of associationism, which are still
at the heart of learning theory more than 2,000 years later. He
showed how experiences often remind us of similar
experiences in the past, how the face of a loved one makes us
feel secure, and how thought leads to ideas as we dream and
as we daydream.
Aristotle's approach was scientific. He argued that human
behavior, like the movements of the stars and the seas, is
subject to certain rules and laws. He believed one such
universal law was that people are motivated to seek pleasure
and to avoid pain-a view still found in some modern
psychological theories.

The Middle Ages


Most Europeans of this period believed that problems such as
agitation and confusion were signs of possession by demons.
A popular belief of the time was that possession was
punishment for sins or the result of deals that those afflicted
had made with the devil.
Individuals who were suspected of being possessed were
thrown into deep water. Suspects who managed to keep their
heads above water were assumed to be impure and in league
with the devil. They were judged to be guilty and were then
executed for associating with the devil. Those who sank to
the bottom, on the other hand, were judged to be pure.
Unfortunately, they met the same fate as the "guilty"-they
died.

Pioneers in Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt and Structuralism Wilhelm Wundt (1832-
1920)
Most historians of psychology point to the year 1879 as the
beginning of psychology as a modern laboratory science. In
that year, German psychologist Wilhelm Wundt established
his laboratory in Leipzig.
Wilhelm Wundt and his students founded a field of
psychology that came to be known as structuralism.
Structuralists were concerned with discovering the basic
elements of consciousness. Wundt broke down consciousness
into objective sensations and subjective feelings.
Objective sensations were assumed to accurately reflect the
outside world. Subjective feelings were thought to include
emotional responses and mental images.
Structuralists believed that the human mind functioned by
combining these basic elements of experience.
Wundt and his students were using the method of
introspection to examine and report their experience
William James and Functionalism (1842-1910)
William James asserted that conscious experience could not
be broken down as structuralists believed.
James maintained that experience is a continuous "stream of
consciousness."
He focused on the relationships between experience and
behavior and described his views in The Principles of
Psychology.
Functionalists were concerned with how mental processes
help organisms adapt to their environment.
Vocab: stream of consciousness thought regarded as a
flowing series images and ideas running through the mind

Difference between structuralism & functionalism

Structuralism
• Rely on introspection
• Tended to ask: what are the elements ( structures) of
psychological processes?

Functionalism
• Behavioral observation in the laboratory as well as
introspection
• Tended to ask: what are the purposes (functions) of
behavior and mental processes? What do certain
behaviors or mental processes accomplish for the
person?
Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis (1856-1939)
Sigmund Freud, a Viennese physician, was perhaps the most
famous of the early psychologists. The school of thought that
he founded, called psychoanalysis, emphasizes the
importance of unconscious motives and internal conflicts in
determining and understanding human behavior.
The ideas that people are driven by hidden impulses and that
verbal slips and dreams represent unconscious wishes largely
reflect Freud's influence on popular culture.
Freud's theory, which is sometimes called, psychodynamic
thinking, assumed that most of what exists in an individual's
mind is unconscious and consists of conflicting impulses,
urges, and wishes.
According to Freud’s theory, human behavior is aimed at
satisfying these desires, even though some of them seem
socially inappropriate.

Modern Developments in Psychology


John B. Watson and Behaviorism (1878-1958)
He asserted that if psychology was to be a natural science,
like physics or chemistry, it must be limited to observable,
measurable events-that is, to behavior.
As the founder of the school of behaviorism, Watson defined
psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior.
Watson laid the foundation for the classic behaviorist belief:
Regardless of who we think we really are inside, we can be
totally conditioned by external events. Our belief in
individual choice is just an illusion.
B. F. Skinner and Reinforcement (1904-1990)
B. F. Skinner added to the behaviorist tradition by
introducing the concept of reinforcement. Skinner showed
that when an animal is reinforced, or rewarded, for
performing an action, it is more likely to perform that action
again in the future.
According to Skinner, people learn in the same way animals
do. Like animals, people learn to behave in certain ways
because they have received the positive or negative
reinforcement that guides their behavior.

The Gestalt School


Gestalt psychology developed as an alternative to
behaviorism and structuralism. German psychologists Max
Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Köhler felt that
behaviorism was only concerned with treating a specific
problem outside of its larger context.
They formed the core of the school of Gestalt psychology in
the early 20th century.
The psychology of Gestalt, which means "shape" or "form" in
German, is based on the idea that our perceptions of objects
are more than the sums of their parts. Rather, they are wholes
that give shape, or meaning, to the parts. As such, Gestalt
psychology rejects the structuralist idea that experience can
be broken down into individual parts or elements.
Gestalt psychologists also reject the behaviorist notion that
psychologists should concentrate only on observable
behavior.
In addition, Gestalt psychologists believe that learning is
active and purposeful. They disagree with the behaviorist
view that learning is mechanical.
Vocab: Insight is the reorganization of perceptions that
enables an individual to solve a problem.

You might also like