History of Psychology

Philosophical Roots of Psychology: (ancient Greece 400-300 b.c.)

• nativism:

• rationalism:

• empiricism:

• debate between rationalism and empiricism continued into Renaissance era (14th - 17th centuries)

  • RenÈ Descartes

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  • Francis Bacon
    

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  • John Locke
    

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  • Immanuel Kant -
    

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    e.g. language

• issue of rationalism vs empiricism still an issue today

Scientific Roots of Psychology:-

• 19th century -

 

example 1: Hermann von Helmholtz

 

 

example 2: Pierre Flourens

 

 

• Psychophysics: (one of first fields of psychological research)
  

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    e.g. How much change in the intensity of light is necessary for a person to perceive a change in its brightness?

    Turn on a light. Increase it by one unit. See a difference?
    If not make the difference a 2 unit increase from the original light.
    Continue until detect a change in brightness.

Psychology as a Field:

• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1909) 1st psychology lab (Germany)

• Structuralism:

Edward Titchener (1867-1927):

 

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• used Introspection:

 

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Problems with Introspection:

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• Functionalism:

 

 

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• William James (1842-1910) - founder of American Psychology. He wrote The Principles of Psychology (1890)

  Asked questions such as:

  • How can people strengthen good habits?

  • Can someone attend to more than one item at a time?

  • How do people recognize that they have seen something before?

  • How does an intention lead to action?

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• Psychodynamic theory:
  

   

  • Sigmund Freud - (1856-1939)

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      e.g. compulsive hand washing
      
      
      
      

  • Problems:
    

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• Behaviorism:
  
  
  

  • John B. Watson (1878-1958)

     

    
    

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    e.g. stimulus-response psychology

    
    

    • B.F. Skinner

       

       

       

      e.g. child at elementary school

       

       

  • Problem:

• Gestalt:

   

   

  • Max Wertheimer (1880-1943) - "The whole is different from the sum of its parts"

     

     

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Contemporary Psychological Perspectives:

• Humanistic Perspective: (1950s)

   

   

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  • emphasized self-actualization -
    

     

    e.g. Why is Denzel Washington (actor) so successful?

     

     

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• Cognitive Perspective: study of how the mind organizes perceptions, processes information, and interprets experiences. (Cognitive psychologists & Cognitive research all fall in this area)

  • used computer metaphor

     

     

     

    e.g. eating disorders -
    
    

• Social-cultural Perspective:
  
  
  
  

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