Introduction to Psychology Philosophical Foundations of the Psychological Sciences What comes to mind when you think of psychology Common myths from psychological psuedo science Our lives are determined by our childhood experiences it s all Mom s fault Our desires are hidden in our unconscious and emerge in our dreams Science can answer some questions but not others The best things in life are free Shakespeare s Richard III is a better play than Romeo and Juliet The death penalty is wrong There is a genetic predisposition to schizophrenia Attitudes affect the course of cancer 2 2 4 Folk wisdom can be contradictory Opposites attract vs birds of a feather flock together Better safe than sorry vs nothing ventured nothing gained Look before you leap vs he who hesitates is lost Absence makes the heart grow fonder vs out of sight out of mind True or False Opposites generally attract We use only 10 percent of our brain power If you don t vent your anger you ll explode Most of us suffer from low self esteem Talking about your depression only makes it worse Women crave chocolate when they have PMS Psychology is A set of questions A set of theories and procedures for asking and answering questions A product of history What is psychology The science of behavior and mental processes Also Explanation Understanding Scientific investigation Before Psychology A classical view of the body s control centers Liver metabolic processes Heart emotions perception Brain thought reason Personality determined by bodily fluids The theory of Humors Black bile Blood Yellow bile Phlegm moody optimistic hot tempered passive Philosophical developments Descartes Dualism human body contains 2 distinct entities Material body Mind soul What separates man from animals is thought which requires having a soul Soul and mind are used interchangeably here Mind body movie Problems with Descartes How can a non material entity soul mind have a material effect on the body How can the body follow natural laws yet be moved by a mind that does not Precludes a scientific investigation of the mind Hobbes Materialism Basic axiom everything behavior thought etc can be understood in terms of the body s physical processes especially the brain Sort of the anti Descartes Paved the way for empiricism Founder of materialism Roots of Psychology Philosophy Rationalism Empiricism Emphasis on reason and logic Emphasis on data Emphasis on theory Emphasis on data Psychology Willhelm Wundt Considered the founder of scientific psychology Interested in the speed of mental processes Used reaction time tests to determine the amount of time it took to perform cognitive tasks Basis for cognitive psychology Wilhelm Wundt we learn little about our minds from casual haphazard self observation It is essential that observations be made by trained observers under carefully specified conditions for the purpose of answering a well defined question Experimental Psychology Begins with Structuralism Edward Titchener used methods such as introspection to develop a new school of thought that became known as structuralism The basic idea of structuralism is that conscious experience can be studied when it is broken down into its underlying components or elements Focused on sensation using introspection Rules of Introspection 1 Be impartial Do not form a preconceived idea of what you are going to find by the experiment do not hope or expect to find this or that process Take consciousness as it is 2 Be attentive Do not speculate as to what you are doing or why you are doing it as to its value or uselessness during the experiment Take the experiment seriously 3 Be comfortable Do not begin to introspect till all the conditions are satisfactory do not work if you feel nervous or irritated if the chair is too high or the table too low for you if you have a cold or a headache Take the experiment pleasantly 4 Be perfectly fresh Stop working the moment that you feel tired or jaded Take the experiment vigorously What are the problems with the method of introspection The problem with this approach is that experience is subjective Each person brings to introspection a unique perceptual system and it is difficult to determine whether subjects are using the criteria in a similar way Accordingly over the course of time introspection was largely abandoned in psychology Functionalism Addresses the Purpose of Behavior Functionalism was more concerned with how the mind operates than with what the mind contains The mind came into existence over the course of human evolution and it works the way it does because it is useful for preserving life and passing along genes to future generations William James and Functionalism Inspired by biology Darwinism What is the purpose of the behavior Focused on the purpose and function of the mind Behaviors serve adaptive function Influenced by Darwin Paid lip service to the experimental method but relied on introspection William James A great many people think they are thinking when they are merely rearranging their prejudices Believe that life is worth living and your belief will help create the fact The greatest discovery of any generation is that a human being can alter his life by altering his attitude Gestalt Psychology Mind must be understood in terms of organized wholes not parts Looking at a duck you first recognize it as duck not a collection of wings feathers and a bill Gestalt Psychology Emphasizes Patterns and Context in Learning Psychodynamic Approach Founded by Freud Emphasizes unconscious motivations often sexual early childhood experiences 3 levels of mind Id Ego Superego Behaviorism Took over psychology for the first half of the 20th century Experience reinforces behavior Possessed scientific qualities Behaviorist Approach Skinner smiling Rejected Freud s dependence on unobservable phenomena Should study directly observable behaviors Watson Cognitive Approach George Miller Displaced behaviorism Focuses on ability to acquire organize remember and use knowledge to guide behavior Magic number 7 Modern Psychology Return to cognitive psychology in late 20th century Cognition mental processing Fundamental cognitive abilities Current fields in psychology Biopsychology Cognitive Developmental Health Clinical Social Evolutionary
View Full Document
Unlocking...