AP PSYCHOLOGY UNIT 1 SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATIONS

UNIT 1 SCIENTIFIC FOUNDATIONS

History and Approaches

One way to think about the history of psychology is to organize the various theorists and theories into “waves” (or schools of thought). Each wave is a way of thinking about human thought and behavior that dominated the field for a certain period of time until a new way of looking at psychology started to dominate the field.

WAVE ONE INTROSPECTION

Archaeologists and historians find evidence that humans have always thought about our thought and behavior, so in a way, the study of psychology is as old as our species. Archaeologists find evidence of trephination—Stone Age humans carving holes through the skull to release evil spirits. Greek philosophers such as Plato and Democritus theorized about the relationship between thought and

behavior. However, thinking about psychology is different than studying it scientifically.

Wilhelm Wundt

Many psychologists specializing in the history of the science date the beginning of scientific psychology to the year 1879. In that year, Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) set up the first psychological laboratory in an apartment near the university at Leipzig, Germany. Wundt trained subjects in introspection—the subjects were asked to record accurately their cognitive reactions to simple stimuli.

structuralism

Through this process, Wundt hoped to examine basic cognitive structures. He eventually described his theory of structuralism—the idea that the mind operates by combining subjective emotions and objective sensations.

William James

In 1890, William James (1842–1910) Published The Principles of Psychology, the

science’s first textbook. James examined how these structures Wundt identified function in our lives (James’s theory is called functionalism).

Mary Whiton Calkins

Another early pioneer in the new science of psychology was

Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930), who studied with William James and went on to become president

of the American Psychological Association.

Margaret Floy Washburn

Margaret Floy Washburn (1871–1939) was the first woman to earn a Ph.D. in psychology.

G. Stanley Hall

Another student of William James, G. Stanley Hall (1844– 1924), pioneered the study of child development and was the first president of the American

Psychological Association. Introspective theories were important in establishing the science of psychology, but they do not significantly influence current psychological thinking.

Wave Two—Gestalt Psychology

Gestalt psychologists like Max Wertheimer (1880–1943) argued against dividing human thought and behavior into discrete structures.

Gestalt psychology tried to examine a person’s total experience because the way we experience the world is more than just an accumulation of various perceptual experiences. Gestalt theorists demonstrated that the whole experience is often more than just the sum of the parts of the experience.

Wave Three—Psychoanalysis

While treating patients for various Psychosomatic complaints, Freud believed he discovered the unconscious mind—a part of

our mind over which we do not have conscious control that determines, in part, how we think and behave. Freud believed that this hidden part of ourselves builds up over the years through repression—the pushing down into the unconscious events and feelings that cause so much anxiety and tension that our conscious mind cannot deal with them.

Sigmund Freud

Freud believed that to understand human thought and behavior truly, we must examine the unconscious mind through dream analysis, word association, and other psychoanalytic therapy techniques. Freud’s theories were and are widely used by various artists. Many of Freud’s terms moved from being Exclusively used by psychologists to being used in day-to-day speech (for example, defense mechanism).

Wave Four—Behaviorism

ohn Watson (1878–1958) studied the pioneering conditioning experiments of Ivan Pavlov (1849– 1936). Watson then declared that for psychology to be considered a science, it must limit itself to observable phenomena, not unobservable concepts like the unconscious mind. Watson along with others wanted to establish behaviorism as the dominant paradigm of psychology.

Behaviorists maintain that psychologists should look at only behavior and causes of behavior—stimuli (environmental events) and responses (physical reactions)—and not concern themselves with describing elements of consciousness.

B. F. Skinner

Another behaviorist, B. F. Skinner (1904–1990), expanded the basic ideas of behaviorism to include the idea of reinforcement—environmental stimuli that either encourage or discourage certain responses. Skinner’s intellectual influence lasted for decades.

Behaviorism was the dominant school of thought in psychology from the 1920s through the 1960s.

Wave Five—Multiple Perspectives

Currently, there is no one way of thinking about human thought and behavior that all or even most psychologists share. Many psychologists describe themselves as eclectic—drawing from multiple perspectives. As psychology develops in the new century, perhaps one way of thinking will become dominant. For now, though, psychologists look at thought and behavior from multiple perspectives.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

The humanists, including theorists Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) and Carl Rogers (1902–1987), stressed individual choice and free will. This contrasts with the deterministic behaviorists, who theorized that all behaviors are caused by past conditioning. Humanists believe that we choose most of our behaviors and these choices are guided by physiological, emotional, or spiritual needs. A humanistic psychologist might explain that an introverted person may choose to limit social contact with others because he or she finds that social needs are better satisfied by contact with a few close friends rather than large groups.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

The psychoanalytic perspective, as described previously, continues to be a part, if a controversial one, of modern psychology. Psychologists using this perspective believe that the unconscious mind—a part

of our mind that we do not have conscious control over or access to—controls much of our thought and action. Psychoanalysts would look for impulses or memories pushed into the unconscious mind through repression. This perspective thinks that to understand human thought and behavior, we must examine our unconscious mind through dream analysis, word association, and other psychoanalytic therapy techniques. A psychoanalytic psychologist might explain that an introverted person avoids social situations because of a repressed memory of trauma in childhood involving a social situation,

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Biopsychologists explain human thought and behavior strictly in terms of biological processes. Human cognition and reactions might be caused by effects of our genes, hormones, and neurotransmitters in the brain or by a combination of all three. A biopsychologist might explain a person’s tendency to be extroverted as caused by genes inherited from their parents and the genes’ effects on the abundance of certain neurotransmitters in the brain. Biopsychology is a rapidly growing field. Some scientists wonder if the future of psychology might be a branch of the science of biology.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Evolutionary psychologists (also sometimes called sociobiologists) examine human thoughts and actions in terms of natural selection. Some psychological traits might be advantageous for survival, and these traits would be passed down from the parents to the next generation. A psychologist using the evolutionary perspective (based on Charles Darwin’s (1809–1882 theory of natural selection) might explain a person’s tendency to be extroverted as a survival advantage. If a person is outgoing, he or she might make friends and allies. These connections could improve the individual’s chances of survival, which increases the person’s chances for passing this trait for extroversion down to his or her children.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Behaviorists explain human thought and behavior in terms of conditioning. Behaviorists look strictly at observable behaviors and what reaction organisms get in response to specific behaviors. A

behaviorist might explain a person’s tendency to be extroverted in terms of reward and punishment. Was the person rewarded for being outgoing? Was the person punished for withdrawing from a

situation or not interacting with others? A behaviorist would look for environmental conditions that caused an extroverted response in the person

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Cognitive psychologists examine human thought and behavior in terms of how we interpret, process, and remember environmental events. In this perspective, the rules that we use to view the world are important to understanding why we think and behave the way we do. In the “Developmental Psychology” chapter, you will learn about Jean Piaget’s cognitive developmental theory (1896–1980), which focuses on how our cognitions develop in stages as we mature. A cognitive psychologist might explain a person’s tendency to be extroverted in terms of how he or she interprets social situations.

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Social-cultural psychologists look at how our thoughts and behaviors vary from people living in other cultures. They emphasize the influence culture has on the way we think and act. A social-cultural psychologist might explain a person’s tendency to be extroverted by examining his or her culture’s rules about social interaction. How far apart do people in this culture usually stand when they have a

conversation?

PSYCHOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVES

Bopsychsocial perspective. The modern perspective derives from humans being thinking soial creatures so ther is some "bio" biological, "Psycho" Psychological, and "Social" socil factors involved. The biopsychsocial look at aother perspectives as to narrow to cover the complexity of human thought.

Multiple Choice

You are at a lecture about the history of psychology and the speaker states that Wilhelm Wundt’s theory of structuralism was the first scientific psychological theory. On what historical fact might the speaker be basing her or his argument?

• Wundt was internationally known at the time, and this lent credence to his theory in the scientific community.

• Wundt studied under Ivan Pavlov for his graduate training, and Pavlov required scientific methods to be used.

• Structuralism was based on the results of his introspection experiments, so it is, at least in part, empirical.

• Structuralism was based on careful anecdotes gathered from Wundt’s extensive clinical career.

• Wundt was the first person to study psychology in an academic setting.

Multiple Choice

The research methodology Wilhelm Wundt used is called

• introspection.

• structuralism.

• naturalistic observation.

• inferential.

• scientific.

Multiple Choice

Which of the following psychologists wrote the first psychology textbook?

• William James

• Wilhelm Wundt

• B. F. Skinner

• John Watson

• Albert Bandura

Multiple Choice

Which of the following psychologists was part of the Gestalt group of psychologists?

• Carl Rogers

• Wilhelm Wundt

• B. F. Skinner

• John Watson

• Max Wertheimer

Multiple Choice

Which of the following concepts is most integral to Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory?

• trephining

• structuralism

• the unconscious mind

• the concept of Gestalt

• E) behaviorism

Multiple Choice

B. F. Skinner introduced the idea of __________ to the paradigm of behaviorism.

• unconscious thinking

• reinforcement

• conditioning

• defense mechanisms

• introspection

Multiple Choice

Which of the following psychologists might have described himself as a humanist?

• B. F. Skinner

• William James

• Abraham Maslow

• John Watson

• Ivan Pavlov

Multiple Choice

Symbolic dream analysis might be an important research technique to a psychologist from which of the following perspectives?

• behaviorist

• biopsychologist

• psychoanalytic

• evolutionary

• structuralist

Multiple Choice

A therapist who says that she uses whatever psychological perspective “works best” for each patient might be best described as

• (A) social-cultural.

• (B) humanist.

• (C) eclectic.

• (D) psychoanalytic.

• (E) functionalist.