Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes Behavior meaning external actions and mental meaning internal actions Scientists use the scientific method to study psychology so that there is no bias in what is being observed The Scientific Method 1 Develop a Question 2 Form a Hypothesis 3 Test the Hypothesis 4 Come to a Conclusion 5 Share the Results Good Theories Replication there may be different results each time you cant base result off of one time Hypothesis VS Theory Hypothesis Testable prediction of what will happen under certain conditions Theory Comprehensive explanations of observable effects tend to be able to explain more than a hypothesis more in depth GOOD As few assumptions and as many predictions as possible Should predict new observations Falsifiable makes sufficiently precise predictions that evidence could be found to contradict it Empirical or Scientific Questions Can be tested cid 127 Who on average is taller men or women History of Psychology Psychology did not start out with one person at one time physiologists all over the world with a variety of viewpoints were trying to promote their perspectives on the human mind focusing on nothing more than understanding consciousness at the time Wilhelm Wundt was a physiologist that attempted to apply scientific principles to the study of the human mind Students in his laboratory were instructed to study the structure of the human mind He believed the mind was made up of thoughts experiences emotions and other elements that could only be inspected if thought about objectively without bias accurately cid 127 Wundt called this process objective introspection This was the first attempt by anyone to bring objectivity and measurement into psychology which is why Wundt is now known as the father of psychology Edward Titchener was a student of Wundt s who expanded upon Wundt s ideas while at Cornell University He called this new viewpoint structuralism because the focus was on the structure of the mind He believed every experience could be broken down into individual emotions and sensations Agreed with Wundt but also said that objective introspection could be used on thoughts William James was a professor at Harvard University first school to offer psychology classes who taught Psychology and focused on the consciousness in everyday life rather than just the analysis of it like Wundt and Tichener did cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 He believed the scientific study of consciousness itself was not yet possible So instead he focused on how the mind allows people to function in the real world He called this viewpoint functionalism He believed that behavioral traits could be inherited just like physical traits because they too sided in survival However functionalism is not a major viewpoint today Max Wertheimer in Germany also objected to the structuralist point of view just as James did He believed psychological events such as perceiving and sensing could NOT be broken down into any smaller elements and still be properly understood Ex If you take apart a CD player you no longer have a CD player you have a bunch of unconnected bits and pieces The whole is greater than the sum of parts Wertheimer along with other psychologist that shared this theory called their perspective Gestalt psychology meaning organized whole Today Gestalt ideas are part of the study of cognitive psychology The medical profession however took a whole different approach to psychology then these aforementioned physiologists Sigmund Freud was a neurologist study of the nervous system who sought a way to understand his patients coming to him for help that suffered from nervous disorders for which he nor any other doctors could find a physical cause It was thought that the cause of the disorders must be in the mind since there was nothing physically wrong He said that there was an unconscious mind that we repress all of our threatening urges and desires into He believed when the repressed urges tried to surface they caused the nervous disorder He stressed the importance of early childhood experiences saying that personality was formed in the first 6 years of life If people had significant problems now then they had to have begun during childhood Freud s work is still used today but in a modified version cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127 cid 127
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