Unit 1 – Introduction
to Psychology
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Chapter 1 – Section 3
A History of Psychology
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Socrates – “Know thyself” – learn much about
ourselves from looking within (introspection)
Aristotle – human behavior (associationism)
experiences remind us of other experiences and
we respond to them
Hippocrates – suggested that problems are
caused by abnormalities in the brain…not
punishment by the gods
Roots from Ancient
Greece
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Europeans believed that mental problems were
a punishment for sins. (water-float test)
The Middle Ages
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Scientific approach led to the birth of modern
psychology.
Psychologists argued that ideas about human
behavior and mental processes should be
supported by evidence.
The Birth of Modern
Science
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Discovering the basic elements of
consciousness (objective sensations and
subjective feelings)
Objective sensations – sight and taste (reflect
the outside world)
Subjective feelings – thought to include
emotional responses and mental images.
Wilhelm Wundt Structuralism
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Functionalism – how mental processes help
organisms adapt to their environment.
Adaptive behavior patterns – learned and
maintained because they are successful
William James Functionalism
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Watson defined psychology as the scientific
study of observable behavior.
John B. Watson Behaviorism
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Positive – animals and people will act in certain
ways when the outcome is a positive one and
they are reinforced for that behavior
B.F. Skinner Reinforcement
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Means “shape” or “form” in German
Perceptions are more than sums of their parts
Believe that learning is active and purposeful,
not mechanical
Gestalt psychology
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Importance of unconscious motives and
internal conflicts
Human behavior is aimed at satisfying desires,
even though some of them are socially
inappropriate
Sigmund Freud psychoanalysis