Psychology 111 - Chapter 1: The Nature of Psychology
Psychology 111 - Chapter 1: The Nature of Psychology
Psychology 111 - Chapter 1: The Nature of Psychology
(1) Helps us understand why people behave the way that they do.
(2) Guide to an effective inquiry to the phenomenon using well established scientific
What is Psychology? methods.
(3) Scientific study of human behavior and cognitive processes.
(4) “The study of the mind/soul”
Sigmund Freud Stated that SEX and AGGRESSION drives human behavior.
Thomas Hobbes
Human beings AVOID PAIN and SEEK PLEASURE.
(Philosopher)
Jean-Jacques Rousseau
Man is naturally born GOOD.
(Philosopher)
Man is NEITHER GOOD NOR BAD.
John Locke
(Philosopher)
Man is compared to tabula rasa (blank/empty paper).
Punching a hole on the head to let out bad spirits. (from the first definition,
Trepanation/Trephination
psychology is the study of the soul)
Overt Type of behavior that is visible.
Covert Type of behavior that is not easily observable (thinking, feeling, emotions).
introspective self-report questionnaire with the purpose of indicating differing
Myers-Brigg Type Indicator (MBTI) psychological preferences in how people perceive the world around them and make
(Personality test) decisions. The MBTI was constructed by Katharine Cook Briggs and her daughter
Isabel Briggs Myers.
The Early Beginning of Psychology
Pscyche = Mind
Psyche + Logos (Greek)
Logos = Study
Literal meaning The study of the mind.
Definition Scientific study of human behavior and cognitive processes.
(1) Psychologists can read minds
Common misconceptions (2) psychologists can hypnotize or control the mind of their patients
(3) Psychologists are the same as the psychiatrists
Roots of Psychology
Philosophy + Physiology The building blocks of Psychology
Greek philosophers who 1st questioned the nature of the mind and human
Socrates, Plato, Aristotle
experience.
By Wunt and student (Edward Titchener),
Structuralism Approach Conscious experience can be broken down into basic elements.
Gestaltism is an attempt to understand the laws behind the ability to acquire and
maintain meaningful perceptions in an apparently chaotic world.
Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Demonstrated perception through the movement of using two bulbs. Perceptual
Kohler, Kurt Kofka experiences resulted from the tendency of the brain to interpret the “whole pattern”,
(Founders of Gestaltism) or the whole is more than the sum of its parts.
Father of behaviorism. Rejected introspections as a method of studying your own
experiences and insisted that psychology should be objective and should only study
John B. Watson
observable behaviors, including the analysis of how to control and predict those
behaviors.
Pavlov’s classical conditioning and Skinner’s operant conditioning demonstrated that a
Ivan Pavlov, B.F. Skinner behavior can be conditioned through association and that behavior can also be
shaped through consequences.
6 Modern Approaches
Approach Principal Contributors Description
Only observable events (stimulus response relations) can be
studies scientifically. Behaviors like eating, playing
basketball, or talking.