History and the Scope of Psychology Wednesday August 21 2013 Psychology The science of behavior and the mind Science systematic collection of data through observations and experiments Behavior observable actions of a person or animal Mind an individual s perceptions memories dreams motives emotions and other subjective feelings Can the made be made observable The Scientific Method Observations are made and these are used to form theories and hypothesis Relies on observational facts To have a science of psychology it must be possible for behavior and mind to be studied through observables Do infants perceive occlusion Must use novel methodology Must observe behavior already observable in existence make a phenomena observable Habituation looking time for infants is observable and measurable Dishabituation if shown a new stimulus and is perceived as different Apply this method to hypotheses regarding occlusion infants do perceive occlusion Historical Overview Ren Descartes 1630 developed a version of dualism that helped pave the way for a science of psychology Dualism each person consists of two separate things mind and matter A body purely physical A soul purely nonphysical mind Descartes believed the body could be studied scientifically but not the mind Much of human behavior does not involve the mind but is determined by the body therefore some behavior could be studied scientifically Concluded that the mind could not be studied scientifically Contemporary Psychology studies what goes on in the mind by studying behavior Experiments are designed so that behavior provides information about what is going on in the head Wilhelm Wundt 1879 founded the first psychology lab and published first textbook of psychology Devised of using behavior to reveal information about what is going on inside the head The speed of neural impulses American Structuralism 1890s 1910s Used introspection to uncover the basic building blocks of thought failed because it was not very scientific Behaviorism 1913 1950s Psychology should only study observable phenomena A reaction against introspection Did not study anything between the stimulus and the response nothing inside the head black box Did not study the mind only behavior Succeeded in making Psychology a science but severely limited it Cognitive Psychology 1960s Goes back to Wundt Devise clever ways of using behavior to uncover what is going on in the mind Arose with the advent of the computer views the brain as an information processing device Serial vs Parallel processing 1 Present a memory set with one or more items 2 Present test item 3 As quickly as possible respond yes or no indicating if it was in the memory set Human Factors Psychology Clinical Psychology A type of applied psychology takes things from cognitive psychology Psychology applied in clinical settings to treat disorders Sigmund Freud early 1960s Many patients had hysteria physical problems with no physical anesthesia Ex glove anesthesia Much of what goes on in our mind is determined by unconscious processors such as buried memories and sexual and aggressive drives Much of his methods were unscientific and much of what he said turned out to be incorrect Humanistic Psychology 1960s A reaction to behaviorism and Freud Presented a more positive view of human nature Actualizing tendency the drive to reach one s full potential The goal of therapy is to help people acquire a positive self concept unconscious drive Depression arises from failure to reach what you feel is your full potential Cognitive and Behavioral Approaches to Clinical Psychology 1960s Apply principles of behaviorism and cognitive psychology that were established in lab settings Did not focus on unconscious drive Current biological treatments and psychotherapies are the product of scientific investigations Treatment evaluating therapies Without therapy conditions follow peaks and valleys How do we demonstrate the therapy works Use control groups to evaluate effectiveness of a treatment compare improvements Almost always compare drug groups with placebo groups Relative contribution of therapy if greater with many disorders often works better with medication Medication or drugs will not change cognitions Ex depression often results from internal beliefs such as low self worth etc Where therapy is more effective than medication Counseling treats the cause while medications just treats the symptoms