I. Prologue: The Story of Psychology Notes
A. Psychology’s Roots
a. Psychology developed from international roots in philosophy and biology
b. It’s a science that explains how we think, feel, and act
c. The definition of psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
d. Behavior is anything an organism does, an action that can be observed or recorded
e. Mental processes are internal and subjective experiences we infer from behaviors
f. Psychology is a science
i. I’ve had the fact that psychology is a science drilled into my head for awhile. My cousin has a PhD in psychology and her sister always tell her it isn’t an actual science to make fun of her. She gets really mad at her
g. It’s more of questioning and answering, rather than a set of findings; It aims to describe human nature
h. Uses and tests theories
i. If a theory works and data supports it then it is accepted
ii. If a theory fails it is either rejected or revised
B. Prescientific Psychology
a. Buddha pondered how sensations and perceptions combine to form ideas
b. Confucius stressed power of ideas and an educated minds
c. Hebrew scholars anticipated psychology today by connecting mind and emotion to the body
d. Ancient Greece philosophers Socrates and Plato concluded that mind is separable from the body and continues after the body has died. Also said knowledge was preexisting
e. Aristotle loved data and statistics. He thought that the soul is not separate from the body and that knowledge was not preexisting, it grows from experience stored in our memories
i. Aristotle theory makes more sense to me, you have to do something to learn something.
f. Frenchmen Rene Descartes agreed with Socrates and Plato. He thought that the mind was distinct from the body
g. Descartes dissected animals and thought that the fluid in the brain’s cavities had animal spirits. The spirits flowed through the brain and into nerves then to the muscles, which provoked movement. Memories were formed as experiences opened in pores in the brain where the animal spirits flowed
h. Francis Bacon became one of the founders of modern science and used a common sense approach
i. John Locke wrote that the mind was a blank state at birth, a white paper where experiences are written
j. Empiricism- view that knowledge originates in experience and that science should rely on observation and experimentation
C. Psychological Science Is Born
a. In 1879 at Germany’s University of Leipzig Wilhelm Wundt created an apparatus that measured the time lag between people hearing a ball hit the platform and their pressing of a key
b. It took one tenth of a second when asked to press the key as soon as the sound occurred, two tenths when asked to press it as soon as they heard the sound
c. Wundt and his under graduates created the first psychological lab
D. Thinking About the Mind’s Structure
a. Structuralism- an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind
b. Introspection- looking forward
c. Wundt’s student Edward Bradford Titchener aimed to engage people in self-reflective introspection by training them to report elements of experiences when they looked at a rose, listened to a metronome, smelled a scent, or tasted a substance
d. Structuralism and introspection were unreliable, the results varied too much
E. Thinking about the Mind’s Functions
a. Functionalist William James thought it was more effective to consider evolved functions of thoughts and feelings (Why does the brain think? Why does the nose smell?)
b. Charles Darwin’s work influenced James to think they did these things because it was adaptive and necessary for survival
c. Consciousness was a function to enable us to consider past, adjust present circumstances, and plan the future
d. Functionalism- a school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function, how they enable the organism to adapt, survive, and flourish
e. Functionalists encouraged explorations of down to earth emotions, memories, will power, habits, and moment to moment streams of consciousness
f. Mary Calkins joined James’s graduate seminar at Harvard
g. Harvard refused to give Calkins her PhD and offered one from their sister school; Calkins did not take the diploma because she believed she was treated unfairly
h. Margaret Floy Washburn became the first women to earn a PhD in psychology
F. Psychological Science Develops
a. 1920s definition of psychology- the science of mental life
b. John B. Watson and B. F. Skinner dismissed introspection and defined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior
c. You can’t observe a sensation, feeling, or a thought. You can observe and record people’s behavior as the respond to different situations
d. Humanistic psychology was a softer response to Freudian psychology and to behaviorism (The founders Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow found it to mechanistic).
e. Rogers and Maslow emphasized the importance of current environmental influences on our growth potential and the importance of meeting our needs for both love and acceptance
f. Cognitive revolution supported ideas developed by earlier psychologist (internal thought process, way we receive, process, and remember
g. Cognitive psychology – the study of the interaction of thought processes and brain function; it brought new ways of treating depressioj
h. Psychology today: the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
G. Contemporary Psychology
a. Psychology societies and departments and growing massive amounts in a relatively short amount of time
b. Growing and globalizing
H. Psychology’s Big Debate
a. The biggest issue concerns the relative contributions of biology and experience
b. Are human traits developed through experience or are they already equipped?
c. Nature vs. Nurture debate
d. Plato (assumed that intelligence are largely inherited and certain ideas are inborn) vs. Aristotle (nothing in the mind that does not first come in from the external world)
e. Charles Darwin’s Origin of Species proposed the idea of evolution and natural selection
f. Natural selection determined who was fit to survive and reproduce in an environment
g. Darwin believed that his theory explained animal structures and their behaviors
h. Evolution has become an important principle of both psychology and biology
i. Today’s psychologists continue the nature-nurture debate by asking questions:
i. How are differences in intelligence, personality, and psychological disorders influenced by heredity and by the environment?
ii. Is children’s grammar mostly innate or formed by experience?
j. Nurture works on what nature endows
I. Psychology’s Three Main Levels of Analysis
a. Every person is composed of smaller systems
b. Levels of analysis- offers different reasons for different things we do (So the reason I eat can be because I’m sad or just because I’m hungry)
c. Biopsychsocial approach- It considers the influences of biological, psychological, and social-cultural factors
d. Biological Influences (genetic predispositions, genetic mutations, natural selection of adaptive physiology and behaviors)
e. Psychological influence (learned fears and other learned expectations, emotional responses, cognitive processing and perceptual interpretations)
f. Social-cultural influences (presence of others cultural, societal, and family expectations, peer and other group influences, compelling models like media)
J. Psychology’s Current Perspectives
a. Neuroscience- how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences
b. Evolutionary- how the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of one’s genes
c. Behavior genetics- How much our genes and our environment influence our individual differences
d. Psychodynamic- How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts
e. Behavioral – How we learn observable responses
f. Cognitive- How we encode, process, store, and retrieve information
g. Social-cultural- How behavior and thinking vary across situations
K. Psychology’s Subfields
a. There’s a lot of psychology subfields (some do basic research, some do applied, and some provide professional services)
b. Biological psychologists explore the links between the brain and mind
c. Developmental psychologist study our changing abilities from birth to death
d. Cognitive psychologist experiment with how we perceive, think, and solve problems
e. Personality psychologists investigate investing our persistent traits
f. Basic research builds knowledge
g. social psychologists explore how we view and affect one another (My cousin is a social psychologist)
h. Industrial/organizational psychologists study and advise people in the work place, they aim to boost morale and train employees more efficiently
i. Psychology also works on issues like to how to have a happy marriage or how to overcome anxiety
j. Counseling psychologist help people cope with challenges by bring out their strengths and resources
k. Clinical psychologists asses and treat mental, emotional, and behavioral disorders
l. Psychiatrists provide physchothearpy and are medical doctors. They can prescribe drugs to help with physical side effects of mental disorders
m. Psychology can connect to math, biology, sociology, and philosophy
n. They work in medical schools, law schools, theological seminaries, hospitals factories, and offices
o. Psychology influences modern culture and alters the way people think and act
AP PSYCH Vocab List: Prologue
In what sciences does psychology have its roots? Philosophy and biology
Socrates- He was a teacher and philosopher in Ancient Greece. He thought that mind was separable from the body and that knowledge was born within us
Plato- He was Socrates’ student and shared his viewpoints. He was also Aristotle’s teacher
Aristotle- He was Plato’s student and he based his principles off of logic. He thought that the mind wasn’t separable from the body and that knowledge was not born within us
Rene Descartes- A Frenchman scientist and philosopher that agreed with Socrates and Plato. He came up with the idea of animal spirits
Francis Bacon- An English philosopher who agreed with Aristotle
John Locke- He believed that the mind was a blank slate where experiences wrote their stories
G. Stanley Hall- Had the first psychology lab in the United States and was the first president of the APA
Historical Approaches- ways psychology was approached throughout history
Gestalt Psychology- The whole is greater than the sum of the parts
Max Wertheimer- One of the founders of Gesalt Psychology
Structuralism- an early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the element of structure; answers the question what?
Wilhelm Wundt- Established the first psychology lab that was located in Germany; known as the father of psychology
Edward Titchener- Founder of structuralism and wanted to engage people in introspection
Introspection- looking inward
Functionalism- a school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral proccesses function; answered the question why?
William James- He was a huge leader in functionalism and a professor at Harvard
Mary Calkins- Should have been the first women with a PhD in psychology but was denied her diploma by Harvard because she was a women. She was James’ student and was the first women president of the APA
Margaret Floyd Washburn- First women to receive a PhD in psychology
7 (current) Approaches of Psychology
Psychoanalysis- behavior derives from the unconscious and it cannot be observed
Sigmund Freud- Brought attention to the unconscious whcih all of her theories were built upon. He also created the five childhood sexuality stages
Carl Jung- developed anaylytical psychology and founded extraverted ininverted personalities
Alfred Adler- Put his emphasis on the feelings of inferiority
Karen Horney- Classified as a New-Freudian and believed that childhood was more social rather than sexual
Behaviorism- How we learn observable responses
John Watson- Established behaviorism
Ivan Pavlov- A Russian psychologist who discovered the conditioned reflex
BF Skinner- He dismissed introspection and defined psychology as the scientific study of observable behavior
Edward Thorndike- He is famous for his work on learning theory that lead to the development of operant conditioning
Albert Bandura- He is known for his work across different approaches of psychology
Humanistic
Carl Rogers- emphasized the importance of current environmental influences on our growth potential and the importance of meeting our needs for both love acceptance.
Abraham Maslow- emphasized the importance of current environmental influences on our growth potential and the importance of meeting our needs for both love acceptance.
Cognitive- How we encode, process, store, and retrieve our information
Jean Piaget- Known for his studies with children
Noam Chomsky- He studied linguistics, hr actually wasn’t a psychologist
Herbert Simon- He was a founder of decision making and problem solving
Howard Gardner- Known for his work on multiple intelligences
George Miller- His concepts chunking information processing
Biological / Neuroscience- the body and the brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences
Roger Sperry- Won the noble prize for his research on split brain
James Olds- He co-discovered the reward center of the brain and considered one of the founders of modern neuroscience
VS Ramachandran- He known for his work in the fields of behavioral neurology and visual psychophysics
Evolutionary- How the natural selection of traits promotes perceptions of one’s genes
Charles Darwin- Father of the nature-nurture debate and came up with the idea of natural selection
David Buss- He is known for his evolutionary psychology research on human sex differences in mate selection
Sociocultural- How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures
Erik Erikson- A developmental psychologist and psychoanalyst known for his theory on psychosocial development of human beings
Philip Zimbardo- Best known for his Stanford Prision study
Stanley Milgram- Known for his contrversal study called Milgram Study which demomstrated a relationship between obdience and authority
Solomon Asch- He was a Gestalt psychologist and pioneer in social psychology
Biopsychosocial- It entails thoughts, emotions, and behaviors that all play a significant role in human functioning
Industrial/Organizational Psychologist- the scientific study of employees, workplaces, and organizations
Clinical Psychologist- Its purpose is understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction
Counseling Psychologist- Deals with thecounseling process and outcome, supervision and training, career development and counseling, and prevention and health
Psychiatrist- They can prescribe medicine, a doctor
7 Approaches Writing Assignment
One of my very close friends developed a disgusting habit our freshmen year. My friend started to gradually smoke. In the beginning it started out just a few times a day and she eventually worked herself up to a pack and half a day. As her friend it has been very hard for me to watch her do this to herself. She had to quit one of her favorite sports because she could barley run anymore. I also find it embarrassing to be out in public with her; she is constantly lighting up a cigarette and she smells awful all the time. As her friend I am concerned for her and want to know why she insists on doing this to herself say after day. I am quite sure that I can trace my friend’s reasons for her habit through the seven approaches of psychology.
Sigmund Freud developed the psycho-dynamic approach. According to Freud everything someone does is driven by the unconscious. Freud developed five psychosexual stages, with one of the stages being oral. The oral stage lasts from the time of birth to the time a person reaches the age of one and a half. At the oral stage babies love to put anything in their mouths. If a baby does not put enough into their mouth they could develop an oral fixation later on in their life. My friend could have been deprived during her oral stage and as a result feels the need to unconsciously put stuff into her mouth. My friend smokes an average of 30 cigarettes on any given day, which is more than the national average. I have also heard her say on many occasions that she will light a cigarette just to have something in her mouth. Smoking can be my friend’s way of compensating for what she missed out on during her oral stage as a baby.