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PSY 101U: Introduction to Psychology Psy Lecturer: Dr. Afroditi Papaioannou-Spiroulia E-mail: [email protected] Lecture 1 Source of basic material: Dr. A. Papaioannou-Spiroulia
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01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

May 07, 2017

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Page 1: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

PSY 101U: Introduction to Psychology

Psy Lecturer: Dr. Afroditi Papaioannou-Spiroulia

E-mail: [email protected]

Lecture 1

Source of basic material:

Dr. A. Papaioannou-Spiroulia

Page 2: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

General introduction

BASIC POINTS:

History of Psychology

Scope of Psychology

The use of “Metaphor” in Psychology: From Plato’s approach to Artificial Intelligence

Page 3: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

The history and scope of Psychology

Q: How long have people been thinking and writing about the questions that fascinate psychologists today? Where did Psychology come from? What are Psychology’s roots?

Psychology traces its roots back through recorded history, more than 2000 years ago, to the writings of many scholars who spent their lives wondering about people: How our minds work? How our bodies relate to our minds? Mind and body are connected or distinct? Human ideas are innate or result from experience?...

Psychology comes from Physiology and mainly from

Philosophy.

Page 4: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Historical origins of Psychology from Philosophy

Aristotle (384-322 B.C.): theorized about Psychology’s concepts and suggested that:

a) Soul and body are not

separate.

b) Knowledge grows from

experience.

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Page 5: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Historical origins of Psychology from Philosophy

Rene Descartes (1596-1650):

- Beliefs:

rationalist: true knowledge comes through reasoning;

nativist: heredity provides individuals with inborn knowledge and abilities and we use this to reason;

“We are to doubt everything. That’s the only way we can be certain about anything”

“I think, therefore I am”.

Page 6: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Historical origins of Psychology from Philosophy

John Locke (1632-1704):

- Saw the mind as receptive and passive, with its main goal as sensing and perceiving.

[“An Essay Concerning Human Understanding”]

- “Tabula rasa”: We are born as a blank slate, everything we know is learned → this is in direct contrast to the rationalist Descartes.

Page 7: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Psychology Becomes More Scientific

Hermann Helmholtz(1821-1894):

- He was a mechanist and he believed that everything can be understood with basic physical and chemical principles.

- He pushed for the need to test and demonstrate things.

Page 8: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Psychology Becomes More Scientific

Gustav Fechner(1801 – 1887):

- Psychophysics – He pushed to investigate the relationshipbetween the physical world and and our conscious psychologicalworld.

- Possible: a) measure the perceivedas well as the physical intensities ofsensory stimuli, b) to determine amathematical relationship[JNC: Just Noticeable Difference approach].

Page 9: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Psychological Science is born

Q: What event defines the birth of Psychology as we know it today?

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920):

- Established the 1st psychology laboratory (1879) at the University of Leipzig, Germany.

- Focused on consciousness:

found basic elements of conscious processes;

discovered how elements (sensations and feelings) are connected;

specified laws of connection.

- Introspection:

Self-observation: “seeing” mental processes in immediate experience.

Page 10: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Psychological Science is born

Wundt and Psychology’s

first graduate students

studied the “atoms of the

mind” by conducting

experiments at Leipzig,

Germany, in 1879. This

work is considered the

birth of Psychology as we

know it today.

Page 11: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

The first ‘schools’ of Psychology

Q: What were structuralism and functionalism, and

how did they differ?

Structuralism: an early school of Psychology that used

introspection to explore the elemental structure of

the human mind.

- Lots of work based on sensation and perception and breaking those down into minute detail.

- 3 basic mental elements: images, feelings and sensations.

- Edward Bradford Titchener: found 43.000 elements associated with sensory experiences (visual, auditory, taste).

Page 12: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

The first ‘schools’ of Psychology

Functionalism: a school of Psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function – how they enable the organism to adapt, survive and flourish [applying Darwin’s theory of natural selection to mental processes].

- William James (1842-1910):

stream of consciousness;

consciousness is personal/selective, continuous (can’t be “cut up” for analysis), and constantly changing;

“structuralism was foolish to search for common elements to all minds”.

Page 13: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

The first ‘schools’ of Psychology

William James wrote

an important psychology

textbook

[Principles of Psychology, 1890].

Mary Calkins (memory

researcher), James’s

student, became the

APA’s first female

president.

Page 14: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

The first ‘schools’ of Psychology

Structuralism →

searched for

the BASIC ELEMENTS

of the MIND

Functionalism →

tried to explain

WHY WE DO

what we do

Page 15: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

The first ‘schools’ of Psychology

Behaviorism: focused on observable behavior.

- John. B. Watson (1878-1958):

felt that the main goal of Psychology should be the prediction and control of behavior;

stimulus-response theory: we respond to stimuli with our behavior, not thoughts

[see and Pavlov’s dog studies]

reinforcement for behavior: if our behavior produces rewarding consequences, then we will do it again.

Page 16: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

The first ‘schools’ of Psychology

Behaviorists, like Watson and later Skinner, emphasized the study of overt behavior as the subject matter of

scientific Psychology.

Watso

n (1878-1958)

Skinner (1904-1990)

Page 17: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Subsequent ‘schools’ of Psychology

Gestalt Psychology:

- “Das Ganze ist etwas mehr als die Summe seiner Teiler: The whole is something more that the sum of its parts” →

- wholes vs multiple individual elements: “Don’t an experience into separate elements to discover truths – instead, look at the ‘whole’”.

- Max Wertheimer (1880-1943):

Phi phenomenon: you can create an illusion that a light is moving from one location to another by flashing lights on and off at a certain rate.

Page 18: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Subsequent ‘schools’ of Psychology

Psychoanalysis:

- Sigmund Freud’s (1856-1939) Psychodynamic Theory:

importance of the unconscious mind and its effects on human behavior;

conscious vs unconscious conflicts:

a) unconscious: motivations and

memories of which we are not

aware,

b) mental illness arises from being

over- whelmed by which of these is

‘in control’.

Psychoanalysis as therapy: tell me about your childhood…

Page 19: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

And Psychological Science Keeps on Developing…

Humanistic Psychology: for example, Maslow (1908-1970) and Rogers (1902-1987) emphasized current environmental influences on our growth potential and our need for love and acceptance.

Cognitive Science/Psychology: the psychological study of higher mental processes – of how people perceive, remember, think, speak, and solve problems [1956-on, Miller, Bruner, Newell…] […]

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Page 20: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Definition of modern/contemporary Psychology

Q: How has the science of Psychology’s focus changed since its birth in the late 19th century?

After beginning as a “science of mental life”, Psychology evolved in the 1920s into a “science of observable behavior”. Then, after rediscovering the mind in the 1960s, Psychology today views itself as a “science of behavior and mental processes”.

Page 21: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Definition of modern/contemporary Psychology

Q: What is the modern definition of Psychology?

We define Psychology today as

the scientific study of

behavior (what we do) and

mental processes (inner thoughts and feelings).

Page 22: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

Psychological Associations and Societies

Psychology is growing and globalizing → Psychological

Associations and Societies →

APA is the largest organization of Psychology with

about 160.000 members world-wide, followed by the

BPS with 34.000 members.

Page 23: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

PLANNIND LECTURE 2

TOPICS OF INTEREST:

Based on Lecture 1: Focus on the roots and the definition of Psychology.

Next, we’ll focus on the Psy research and the biological perspective on Psychology.

Page 24: 01-PSY 101U-Lecture 1-General Psy Introduction

FOR ANY FURTHER QUESTIONS

DON’T HESITATE TO ASK ME IN CLASS

OR CONTACT ME VIA E-MAIL

([email protected])

-Always Cc Student Support, as well ([email protected]).

ANY QUESTIONS, THOUGHTS, IDEAS…?