PSY111 Chap 1 - Dr. Mashhadi PDF

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Dr. Mashhadi...

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Chapter 1: Psychology; Evolution of a Science

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Psychology: The scientific study of mind and behavior o Mind: private inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, and feelings o Behavior: observable actions of human beings and nonhuman animals

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Psychology’s Ancestors o Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) 

Opened the first psychological laboratory in Germany in 1879

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Believed that scientific psychology should focus on analyzing consciousness 

A person subjective experience of the world and the mind

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Important because psychology was beginning to transition to a more experimental phase

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How can one study consciousness? 

Break it down to basic elements

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Structuralism- the analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind

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Introspection- the subjective observation of one’s own experiences

o William James (1842-1910) 

First to take scientific approach to study psychology

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Brought his approach from Europe to America

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Functionalism- study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to adapt to their environment

o G. Stanley Hall (1844-1924) 

Set up first psychological laboratory in North America; focused on development and education

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Founded the American Journal of Psychology

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Development of Clinical Psychology

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Freud Develops Psychoanalytic Theory o Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)

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Psychoanalytic theory- An approach to human behavior that emphasizes the importance of unconscious mental processes in shaping feelings, thoughts, and behaviors

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Unconscious- part of the mind that operates outside of awareness but influences conscious life

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Psychoanalysis- Therapeutic approach that focuses on bringing unconscious material into conscious awareness to better understand psychological disorders

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Behaviorists pissed because they cannot test his theory

Behaviorism o Psychologists must restrict themselves to the study of objectively observable behavior o Mind = Black Box o All about stimulus and response o Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936) 

Studied the physiology of digestion and founded classical conditioning

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Classical conditioning- pairing a neutral stimulus with a response-evoking stimulus to create a response to the neutral stimulus

o John B. Watson (1878-1958) 

Influenced by Pavlov; goal was to predict and control behavior through the study of observable behavior

o B.F. Skinner (1904-1990)

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Developed the “Skinner Box”, or conditioning chamber

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Founded operant conditioning

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Reinforcement increases behavior and punishment decreases it

Humanistic Psychology o Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)

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Cognitive Neuroscience o An attempt to understand the links between cognitive processes and brain activity 

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In the late 1980’s, technological breakthroughs led to the development of noninvasive brain scanning techniques

Cultural Psychology o Study of how cultures reflect and shape the psychological processes of their members

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o Studied by psychologists and anthropologists o Absolutism- culture makes little difference for most psychological phenomena o Relativism- psychological phenomena are likely to vary considerably across cultures

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