1. MODULE 2: HISTORY AND PERSPECTIVES

2. LEARNING GOALS:
 1. Describe the first psychologists and the origins of
psychology as a science
 2. Explain how twentieth Century psychologists
changed the way psychology was studied
 3. Discuss how some of psychology’s
groundbreakers helped advance gender and race
equality.
 4. Explain the six contemporary psychological
perspectives.
 5. Discuss 3 recentareas of psychological study.

3. MODERN PSYCHOLOGICAL NINTEENTH-
CENTURY ROOTS
 Thinking critically: How did the study of psychology
of science get started?
 Earliest pioneers shared an interest in
understanding mental proce3sses and behavior.
 Wilhelm Wundt(VOONT)- German philosopher
and physiologist.
 Became a doctor but wanted to understand human
consciousness.
 Introspection-describe own concious experiences in
systematic way.
 Experiment-given similar sound or visual
experience and each person asked to give full
details of what they felt.

4. WUNDT….CONTINUED…..BORING
 Used details as foundation for understanding
consciousness
 More examples of consciousness: BUTTON
EXPERIMENT. Time it took to react
 Time it took to press button and left green right red
button
 Task one- perception of light
 Task 2-perception of light, decision of color,
decision of button to press.

5. EDWARD TITCHENER AND STRUCTURALISM
 Wundt’s student
 Structuralism- Theory that the structure of
conscious experience could be understood by
analyzing the basic elements of thoughts and
sensations.
 Understand conscious experience through intensity,
clarity and quality of its basic parts.
 Example tree
 Intensity-height clairity-texture quality of
leaves
Building blocks of consciousness
Titchener steered psychology to use descriptive titles

6. GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY
 German word meaning configuration
 Emphasized our tendency to integrate pieces of
information into meaningful wholes.
 Not just use consciousness, but to use individual
elements of the experience.
 Example song

7. WILLIAM JAMES AND FUNCTIONALISM
 William James(1842-1910)First American
psychologist
 Needed to study the functions of consciousness or
how consciousness helps people adapt to their
environment.
 Functionalism-STUDY OF HOW conciousness
helps adapt to their environment
 Analysis of basic thoughts and sensations in
lab

8. PSYCHOLOGY IN THE 20TH CENTURY
 People didn’t really hear of structualisma nd
functualism
 1900 Sigmund Freud(1856-1939) introduced
psychoanalysis
 Psychoanalysis-Theory of personality and
therapeutic technique that attributes our
thoughts and actions to unconcous motives
and conflicts
 Focused on abnormal behavior- Freud linked to
unconscious drives and conflicts stemming from
childhood.
 Example:potty training cleaniliness later in life.

9. FREUD CONTINUED
 Psychoanalysis relied on personal observation and
reflection instead of controlled laboratory
experimentation as its means of discovery.
 Cons- Freud claimed his work was scientific, but
relied on self reported reflections and not scientific
method.
 Freud’s original theory still is being used as a basis
till today.

10. IVAN PAVLOV, JOHN WATSON, AND
BEHAVIORISM
 Ivan Pavlov(1849-1936) studied of animal behavior
prompted interest in observable behaviors from the
self-examination of inner ideas and experiences.
 Focused on things that are visual not mental
 John Watson(1878-1958) Made article to dismiss
the idea of consciousness
 Used fact that the study of structuralism and
functionalism where non-scie3ntific and so you
should not even consider theories.
 Wanted psychology to move to more experimental

11. WATSON CONRTINUED…
 Developed the idea of behaviorism
 Behaviorism- the theory that psychology should
only study observable behaviors not mental
processes
 Utilized scientific methods
 BREAK-WHAT ARE THE SCIENTIFIC
METHODS???
 Watson’s ideas where most dominant thought in
schools.
 Promoted the study of learned reflexes orignially
developed by Pavlov

12. WATSON
 Developed experimentation on human reactions to
stimuli in their environment
 Famous presentation of white furry object paired
with a loud noise
 Fear of furry white object similar to Pavlov’s dog

13. BF SKINNER AND ALBERT BANDURA
 BF Skinner(1904-1990)
 American Psychologist whose brand of behaviorism
focused on the role of responses in learning
 Utilized operant conditioning(will cover in later
chapters)
 Albert Bandura(1925-)
 Utilized idea that people learned by watching others

14. ABRAHAM MASLOW, CARL ROGERS AND
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
 Behaviorism and psychoanalysis was strong in the
field of psychology till the 1960’s
 Humanistic psychology- school of thought that
focuses on the study of consncious experience,
the individual’s freedom to choose, and the
capacity for personal growth
 Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers rejected the
idea thaqt humans are controlled by a series of
rewards and reinforcements they instead
emphasized conscious experience and “ FREE
WILL”

15. HUMANISTIC CONT.
 Gestalt theory was idea based on humanistic
experience
 CON-did not have enough scientific research to
back up ideas
 RULE: IF YOU HAVE AN IDEA… SCIENTIFIC
RESEARCH MUST BACK IT UP…

16. JEAN PIAGET AND CHILD
DEVELOPMENT
Jean Piaget(1896-1980)Swiss biologist and
psycholigist.
Pioneer for children devleopment on their thinking
abilities
Worked at a school that administered intelligence
testing and noticed that younger kids made
mistakes that on tests that older children did not
make

17. PIAGETS WORK

18. PSYCHOLOGY’S AMERICAN
GROUNDBREAKERS
 G. Stanley Hall was student of Wundt and first
american to receive Ph.D.
 First American to open up laboratory at John
Hopkins and first APA president in 1895
 Women in psychology was unheard of due to
discrimination.
 Mary Whiton Calkins first women to get Ph.D from
Harvard but they did not give it to her.
 APA president in 1905
 Margaret Floy Washburn was Titchener’s first grad
student at Cornell and wrote first textbook in 1908
about animal behavior

19. AMERIKAN
 Francis Cecil Sumner was the first African American
in 1920 to receive Ph.D.
 Wrote many articles about racism, prejudice and
nature nurture issues.
 Kenneth Clark and Mamie Phipps Clark were
deucational psychologists whose research was
presented as evidence to the US Supereme Court
during the landmark case of desegregating schools
Brown V board of education.
 Lead to separate but equal clause

20. AMERIKAN CONT.
 Inez Beverly Prosser first AA woman to receive
Ph.d in 1933 studided development of AA in
segregated and integrated schools

21. SIX CONTEPORARY PSYCHOLOGICAL
PERSPECTIVES
 Thinking critically: how do current psychological
theories explain thinking and behavior?
 Perspectives have come and go
 People view one way look that way: behaviorist
looks at behavioral perspectives
 Review
 Behavioral perspective-observable responses to
rewards and punishments
 Humanistic-how people strive to reach full potential
 Psychodynamic perspective-behavior springs from
unconcious drives and conflicts

22. CONT
Cognitive perspective-thought that focuses on how
people think
Structuralism fuctionalism and gestalt psychology
follow this style
Biological perspective-thought that focuses on
physical structures and substances underlying a
particular behavior
Chemical responses in the bran
Social-cultural perspective:thought that focuses on
how thinking or behavior changes in situations.
Psychologists today focus on all 6 perspectives

23. PSYCHOLOGY IN 21ST CENTURY
 Thinking critically: what are the basic ideas behind
the 3 of psychology’s developing areas?
 Psychology continues to grow
 Developing areas
 Genetics, evolutionary psychology and positive
psychology