Psychology is the study of how people think feel and behave It is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes Introduction to Psychology Introduction and Perspectives Applications for Psychology mental health treatment performance enhancement self help basic health and daily life The Four Goals of Psychology describe what happens obtain data or reports explain what happens explain why and how what happened internal explanation from within the individual external explanation from outside the individual combined from both inside and outside the individual predict what will happen the past may help predict the future control what happens working to make behavior happen or not happen History A Timeline Greek Philosophers we are born with our given mental structures nature o Plato and Aristotle were the first to pose the question of nature vs nurture o Plato o Aristotle o Hippocrates we are born with nothing and see the world as it is nurture proposed the notion that the mind resides in the brain yet is still separate from it o Religious beliefs took over believed that the mind was a byproduct of the soul Middle Ages Renaissance Descartes o Rationalism took hold science was born o Still a subset of philosophy o Provided arguments of dualism where behavior does not require a soul Belived that the soul and mind were two separate entities Structuralism o Founder Wilhelm Wudnt o The idea that the mind consists of basic building blocks o This relied on introspection documenting data to study sensation and perception This 1 Introduction to Psychology Introduction and Perspectives reporting however was biased Functionalism o Founder William James o Tried to understand why people do the things they do o The purpose of mental processes Psychoanalytic Perspective o Sigmund Freud contributions to psychology o Developed the theory of unconscious motivation o The Psychodynamic mind consists of An extremely sexist sex obsessed man who somehow made important The ID pleasure seeking being the devil on the shoulder The EGO reality The SUPEREGO narcissism nagging you about morals the angel on the shoulder Psychodynamic Perspective Behaviorist Perspective o An edited version of Freud s theories that tends to make more sense o Founders John Watson and B F Skinner o Believed that the environment shaped people s behaviors through association o Environmental conditions can reinforce or deter behaviors to make us who we are Humanistic Perspective o Founders Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow o Focused on reaching human potential o Believed that people are innately good and have a natural tendency towards innate growth o Psychology s goal is to help people achieve great things and better themselves o Maslow s Hierarchy of Needs basic physical needs next safety and security next social needs next self esteem FINALLY potential unlocked Cognitive Perspective o Founder Noam Chomsky o Focused on the thinking process memory and language problem solving and decision making o Believed that thoughts give rise to emotions Biological Perspective o Gave rise to psychiatry o Focuses on the neurological processes including the functioning of genes the brain and the nervous system Evolutionary Perspective o Studies how neurotransmitters play a role in emotion and behavior 2 Introduction to Psychology Introduction and Perspectives o How people adapt their thoughts to survive and prosper in an evolutionary sense o mental processes serve the purpose of aiding in survival and reproduction Sociocultural Perspective o Cross cultural differences in causes and consequences of behavior o psychopathology in cultures and societies 3