The History and Development of Psychology: From Ancient Times to Modern Neuroscience - Pro, Study notes of Psychology

Download The History and Development of Psychology: From Ancient Times to Modern Neuroscience - Pro and more Study notes Psychology in PDF only on Docsity! 8/31/2009 1  Extra Credit Opportunity!  View Discovering Psychology Videos  Episode 1: Past, Present, Promise  Episode 2: Understanding Research N T d S 8 I l  ext ues ay, ep : n-c ass quiz  All points count toward Extra Credit!!!  Videos available on-line through Blackboard  History of Psychology  Why it’s important  Roots of psychological science  History of the discipline  Current status  The Tools of Psychological Research  The Scientific Method 8/31/2009 2  Roots of psychology go back centuries  Psychology as a scientific discipline is relatively young  Is a science of the mind and behavior possible, and if so, how is it to be defined and what should its methods be? Psychology  Ancient Greeks  Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle  Religion  Saint Augustine, Bishop of Hippo  his Confessions is notable for its analyses and description of his own psyche  St. Thomas Aquinas  human reason is a complement to religious faith in the search for truth Influences on the developing field of Psychology Rationalists: Dualism of mind & body Empiricists: Mind develops from experience Nativists: Mind is influenced by an inborn structure Associationists: Mind plays a role in forming associations Physicalists: Physical causes of mental processes Descartes Locke Kant Hume von Helmholtz 8/31/2009 5  Grew from two areas of inquiry:  Ideas about the nature of the unconscious  Medical interventions for mental illness  Sigmund Freud (1856-1939)  Dynamic unconscious  Psychopathology of Everyday Life  Techniques of Psychoanalysis  Free association  Dream analysis  Transference  Defense mechanisms  Founded by John B. Watson  The real subject of psychology is behavior: overt, visible, indisputable action  Behavioral acts described in terms of “stimulus” and “response”  Used animal research as a model I d bl l ncre i y popu ar  Decline and fall Cognitive Revolution  Around 1960, began to challenge behaviorism  Focus is a return to the study of conscious processes  Prominent principles:  Examine the process of knowing, not merely responding, to stimuli  How the mind gives form & coherence to mental experience  The individual actively arranges stimuli from the environment  Cognitive neuroscience: integration of cognitive psychology and neurosciences 8/31/2009 6  New emphasis on linking brain, mind, and behavior  Modern technology allows us to  Record the activity of brain cells in response to i li i h ist mu n t e env ronment  Create images of brain activity during different mental processes, psychological states  Better understand normal and abnormal brain chemistry  American Psychological Association (APA)  1892: first meeting, 12 charter members  2008: 148,000 members, 53 divisions, annual budget of 40+ million, publishes 29 journals  “No standard method or technique integrates the field. Nor does there seem to be any fundamental scientific principle comparable to Newton’s laws of motion or Darwin’s theory of evolution” (George Miller, 1985, p. 42)  Why people don’t “buy” psychology  The Scientific Attitude  Testing hypotheses  Barriers to developing good theory 8/31/2009 7  Judgment Overconfidence  Humans are overconfident in their knowledge and abilities GRABE -> BARGE OCHSA -> CHAOS  “Folk wisdom”  Often contradictory  Look before you leap vs. He who hesitates is lost  Absence makes the heart grow fonder vs. Out of sight, out of mind  Two heads are better than one vs. Too many cooks spoil the broth  Often wrong  Low self-esteem and aggression  Using only 10% of our brainpower 8/31/2009 10 Any bias in research results that derives from the researcher’s expectation that subjects will behave in a certain way Substance that appears to be a drug but is not (sugar pill) In testing treatment effectiveness, a control group should mimic the irrelevant parts of the treatment. Subjects should be blind to whether they are in the treatment or the control condition. The researcher should be blind to which subjects are in the treatment and control conditions (double-blind protocol). 8/31/2009 11  Laws  Is genuine knowledge impossible?  Absolute uncertainty probably unattainable  Continuum of confidence in scientific claims 1. Psychology as a science is relatively young and has its roots in philosophy and physiology 2. Different schools of psychology have struggled with how and whether to study the mind or observable behavior 3. Field of psychology today is diverse and fragmented, but there is communication between the different branches 4. Science involves a continuous cycle of generating, testing, d i i h han rev s ng ypot eses 5. Theory testing is often at battle with expectancies and belief systems 6. Good psychological theories often have to complete with pseudosciences, “commonsense” and overconfidence Next Time: The Tools of Psychological Research (cont)