2. What is Psychology?
• The scientific study of human behavior and
mental processes.
• A blend of Philosophy and Biology
• Started with the Greeks (psyche = soul)
• The idea that the Mind and Brain are different
• Gained its scientific roots in 1879 with
Wundt’s first laboratory in Germany.
2
Section 1
3. How did Psychology Develop in Pre-Scientific Times?
3
• Socrates & Plato
– Mind is separate from the body and knowledge is
innate at birth
• Aristotle
– Mind and the body are one and knowledge is gained
from experiences
• Rene Descartes
– Mind survives the body’s death
• John Locke
– The mind is a blank slate at birth “tabula rosa”
– We learn from our experiences
4. Applying Theories to Psychology
4
• Theory: An explanation using an
integrated set of principles (highly
researched) that organizes
observations and predicts
behaviors or events
• Strengths of Theories
– Produces testable predictions
– Effectively organizes information
• Weakness of Theories
– Does not fully explain all aspects of
behavior
– Often misused by the public
There are many
“theories” about
hair color and
personality
5. How did Psychology Develop in Post-Scientific Times?
• Wilhelm Wundt
– Father of Psychology; observed “atoms of the mind” through the first
psychology laboratory & experiment involving reaction time and perception
speed
• G. Stanley Hall (Johns Hopkins University)
– First President of APA; first American Psychology Laboratory at Johns
Hopkins University
• Edward Titchener (Cornell University)
– Structuralism- using introspection to explore the structure of the mind
(mostly touch, vision, and hearing)
• William James (Harvard University)
– Functionalism-How mental and behavioral processes function (help the
organism to adapt and survive); First psychology textbook- Principles of
Psychology
• Mary Whiton Calkins
– APA’s first female president, had credit for Ph.D., but Harvard would not
issue it.
• Margaret Floy Washburn
– First woman to receive Ph.D. in Psychology and studied behaviorism
7. Who contributed to Modern
Psychology?
7
• Sigmund Freud
– Physician who developed theories of personality, unconscious mind
• John B. Watson
– Behaviorist, Little Albert Experiment
• Ivan Pavlov
– Classical Conditioning Behaviorist, Pavlov’s Dog
• B.F. Skinner
– Operant Conditioning Behaviorist
• Abraham Maslow
– Humanist who theorized about human needs
• Carl Rogers
– Humanistic therapist
8. Wilhelm Wundt
G. Stanley Hall
B.F. Skinner
Sigmund Freud
William JamesEdward Titchener
John B. Watson Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers
Mary Calkins Margret Washburn
Structuralism Functionalism Gestalt Psychology
Behaviorism Humanistic PsychologyPsychoanalytic Psychology
Carl Jung Ivan Pavlov
Red “X” means that
they disagreed
Max Wertheimer
Notas do Editor
Discuss Mind and Brain being different: Ask students how they are different?
Hair Color and Personality: Are They Correlated?Kristie Leong M.D., Yahoo! Contributor NetworkMar 27, 2008 "Share your voice on Yahoo! websites. Start Here."More:Hair ColorHair ColoringRed Hair ColorNatural Hair ColorFlagPost a commentWe've all heard the stereotypical phrases relating to hair color such as "the dumb blonde" or the "hot headed red head", but how much of this is true? Do people with certain hair colors tend to have particular traits? In this day and age when so many people change their hair color, can you draw any correlations between hair color and personality? As it turns out, certain personality traits do seem to be associated with hair color and people do sometimes make judgments based on a person's hair color. Whether we look it or not hair color and personality may be interrelated. What is your hair saying about you?Hair color and personality: Brunette hair colorYou're probably aware of the stereotype. Brunettes are reliable, dependable, even tempered, and intelligent. Few studies are really able to measure whether brunettes are actually more reliable or dependable than their blonde and red headed counterparts, but no study that's looked at intelligence and hair color has found an association up to this point. Interesting enough, this stereotype still exists with surveys showing that the vast majority of both men and women consider brunettes to be more intelligent as well as more stable and well grounded.Over half of men report that they find brunettes to be more attractive than their blonde counterparts. Whether or not these stereotypes hold true, the brunette gets credit for a variety of admirable traits. When famous brunettes come to mind such as Catherine Zeta Jones, Eva Longoria, and Penelope Cruz, it's hardly surprising that brunettes are considered to be desirable.Hair color and personality: Blonde hair colorIf there's one hair color that's the butt of jokes, it's the flaxen hair of the blonde. Interestingly, the vast majority of blondes come from a bottle which begs the question of whether they're really blondes or brunettes in disguise. When you look at worldwide statistics, less than one out of fifty people is a natural blonde which makes it a fairly rare hair color. Nevertheless, blondes, whether they're natural or bottled, tend to be seen as lacking in intelligence and as being more fickle, outgoing, and flighty.Then there's the old die hard stereotype that gentlemen prefer blondes which has already been called into question based on surveys of men. Plus, blondes get a further bad name from the publicized antics of such infamous light haired women as Britney Spears, Paris Hilton, and Lindsey Lohan. (although her hair changes color on a monthly basis) Seems like blondes have public sentiment stacked against them in some respects, yet women continue to alter their hair color in the belief that "blondes have more fun".Hair color and personality: Red hair colorNatural redheads are actually more common than natural blondes with one out of every thirty-three people being a natural redhead, most of them being native to the U.K, Scotland, Ireland, and Australia. They are often credited with having a hot temper. Although no formal study has been done to address how common this trait is in redheads, redheads are probably no more likely to fly off the handle than blondes or brunettes except when someone calls them "Red" or points out their freckles. Interestingly, redheads have been shown to be the most sensitive to pain of all hair colors and often require higher doses of pain medication and anesthesia than blondes or brunettes. The interest in being a redhead seems to be at an all time high with many women turning to hair dyes to get the red haired look.Although hair color and personality don't seem to have a strong correlation, it is difficult to measure these traits with the exception of intelligence. It may just be that people who have a certain hair color through chance or by choice tend to adopt the stereotype. This just lends credence to the idea that most people aspire to what other people expect them to be.
: Wundt and his student Titchner focused on the elements of mind, and studied it by using introspection (self-reflection). Wundt established the first laboratory of psychology in 1879 at Leipzig, Germany, and wrote the first textbook of psychology. James suggested that it would be more fruitful to consider the evolved functions of our thoughts and feelings than simply studying the elements of mind. Based on the theory of evolution, he suggested that the function of these thoughts and feelings was adaptive. James admitted the first woman student Mary Calkins to Harvard and tutored her. Despite his efforts she was not able to attain her PhD from Harvard.
Conduct something similar to his experiment (Class Activity)
. Ivan Pavlov a Russian Physiologist, James Watson and Skinner were all instrumental in developing the science of psychology and emphasized behavior instead of mind or mental thoughts. From 1920 to 1960, psychology in the US was heavily oriented towards behaviorism.