Chapter 1

“Copyright © Allyn & Bacon 2007

This multimedia product and its contents are protected under copyright law. The following are prohibited by law:

• any public performance or display, including transmission of any image over a network;

• preparation of any derivative work, including extraction, in whole or in part, of any images;

• any rental, lease, or lending of the program.


Psychology: Yesterday and Today


What Is Psychology?

• Psychology is the science1 of mental processes and behavior.

1Systematic knowledge of the physical or material world gained through observation and experimentation.


Levels of Analysis

The person

The group

The brain


Is psychology all common sense?

• Take the Psychology Quiz and see for yourself


The Evolution of a Science

• Structuralism– Wilhelm Wundt & Edward Titchener (student of

Wundt)– Focused on identifying the “building blocks” of

consciousness– Introspection: Looking within

• Not objectively verifiable



• Functionalism– William James– Influenced by Charles Darwin

• Studied how consciousness helped an individual survive and adapt to an environment

• Animal observations provide clues for human behavior

– Focused on pragmatic issues such as improving education



• Gestalt Psychology– Max Wertheimer– Focused on consciousness

and principles of perceptual organization

• The whole is greater than the sum of its parts



• Psychodynamic Theory– Sigmund Freud– The mind has separate components

• Conscious and unconscious components

– Much of behavior in influenced by the unconscious

– Psychoanalysis



• Behaviorism – John Watson & B. F. Skinner– The mind cannot be observed– Behavior can be observed– Science should study the observable– Reinforcement– Stimulus-response



• Humanistic Psychology– Carl Rogers & Abraham Maslow– Client-centered therapy– We strive for self-actualization



• The Cognitive Revolution– Alan Newell & Herbert Simon– Focus on mental processes (information

processing)– Computer metaphor– Cognitive neuroscience



• Evolutionary psychology– Lida Cosmides, John Tooby, David Buss, & Steven

Pinker– Evolutionarily successful cognitive strategies and

goals survived– Cultural universality

Chapter 1

Education

mental processes

psychology

evolution

behavior