Module 1: Psychology’s History and Approaches
Psychology’s Roots
1.1: Prescientific Psychology
● Ancient societies have speculated about human behavior
● Psychology began with philosophy and physiology
● Prescientific psychological views
○ Mind and body are CONNECTED + knowledge grows from experience
■ Aristotle, Francis Bacon, John Locke
■ Bacon created empiricism (idea that knowledge comes from experience)
■ Locke thought ppl were born as blank slates and coined the theory “tabula rasa”
○ Mind and body are SEPARATED + knowledge is innate
■ Socrates, Plato, Descartes
■ Descartes believed that thoughts and actions go through “hollow nerves”
● Dorothea Dix - 1st advocate for the mentally ill; created 1st mental asylum in America
1.2: Psychological Science is Born
● Research and experiments influenced many theories and schools of thought (perspectives)
● Structuralism
○ Wilhelm Wundt - Created the 1st psychology laboratory in Germany; founded
structuralism
○ Edward Titchener - Wundt’s student; further developed structuralism
○ Use introspection (looking inward) to reveal the human mind’s structure
● Functionalism
○ William James - 1st American psychologist; founded functionalism; mentored Mary
Whiton Calkins (1st female president of APA; created self-psychology)
○ Use introspection, questions, mental tests
○ Explore how consciousness functions help ppl adapt to environments
● Gestalt psychology
○ Max Wertheimer - Founded Gestalt psychology
○ Consciousness is to be looked at as a whole
○ “The whole is greater/different than the sum of its parts”
● Psychoanalysis
○ Sigmund Freud - Father of psychoanalysis; 1st to focus on abnormal behavior
○ Problems rise from unresolved conflict in unconscious mind
○ Use free association (saying whatever comes to mind without censorship) and dream
analysis to explore unconscious mind
● Behaviorism
○ John B. Watson - Father of behaviorism; believed that psych should study only what can
be observed and objectively measured
○ B.F. Skinner - Believed that only external factors shape behavior (thoughts are
irrelevant)
● Humanism
○ Carl Rogers
■ Ppl are born good and primed for growth
○ Abraham Maslow
■ Hierarchy of needs (physiological needs > other needs)
● Cognitive revolution
○ Led psych back to its early interests in mental processes
○ Scientific exploration of how we perceive, process, remember info
○ Cognitive neuroscience: study of brain activity related w cognition