The History of Psychology

Transcription

1 The History of Psychology The History of Psychology goes waaaay back... "Learning undigested by thought is labor lost, thought unassisted by learning is periolous" - Confucias Progression of Human Thought - Theological, Metaphysical (Logic), and Scientific Psychology is born of Philosophy Begun by the Greeks They were the Conjecturers - early type of thought process Thales - first to get people thinking about thinking, began asking questions about human nature and how thoughts are conjured Alcmaeon - first to say that organs send perceptions to the brain where by means of thinking we interpret them and derive ideas from them. Did not know about nerves but did discover the optic nerve Protagoras - "man is the measure of all things" felt that there could be no truth since all truths are relative to individual perception, if you think that something is blue then so it is... Democritus - founded the ideas for atoms and the idea of sensation traveling along nerves like the optic nerve. Also perplexed by Progagoras' idea of perception and truth. We can only percieve what our brain translates, others may see it differently. Hippocrates - health comes when we have a propper balance of the 4 humors (blood, plhegm, black bile, yellow bile)if someone is ill, they have too much blood, bring on the leeches. If any of the humors are too low = mental illness. Then we evolve a bit to the fame of Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle... The Scholars - began to study and observe St. Augustine - people who were billious were so because their bodies created bile when aggrevated by a source outside the body. Beginnings of introspection St. Thomas Aquinas - divided functions of the psyche into vegetative (autonomic), sentient (perception, appetite, motion) and rational (memory, imagination, reason) The Rationalists Descartes - I think therefore I am, if there is any room for doubt then it must be untrue. You can not imagine that you do not exist because the thought of you imagining is real. Thus the ego, or soul, is seperate from the body. Deeds of the body can effect the soul, but the body can not survive without the soul but the soul can survive without the body... The Empiricists Thomas Hobbes - life in a natural state is nasty, brutish, and short. Everything in the mind is but a conglomeration of sense experience Locke - the mind is a blank slate that can only be filled by experience, combinations of familiar objects allow us to formulate images of abstract objects David Hume - the science of man (psychology) is the basis for all other sciences and must be based on experience and observation Later people like Broca began dissecting the brain in living animals to see what each part actually did... Jul 7 9:58 PM 1

2 Modern Psychiatric Founders Wilhelm Wundt - the father of psychology performed the first psyche experiment, testing reaction time 1879 dropped a ball and when it hit the subject had to press a key impulse vs. reaction scientificated the study of pscyhe "psyche without a soul" established a lab with grad students to conduct more experiments recorded conscious reactions to a metronome, kind of dull... believed consciousness came from actual neural events all acts even impulses are based on us making a choice to act (controversy) His greatest achievement was getting the ball rolling. Most of his conclusions have been discounted today but he did begin the scientific lab approach to psychology. William James First American Psychologist studied memory, memorized 158 lines of a poem in 8 days then memorized all of Paradise Lost in 38 days 20 minutes at a time, then it took him longer to memorize the rest of the original poem. Disproved "exercise makes better" theory of memory big on introspection - how you percieve your thoughts answer your own questions... too unscientific, not enough proof from experiments minds have evolved because it was necessary for survival viewed mental life as real not just physiology consciousness is a function not a thing (stream of consciousness theory) how do I know that my thoughts and my experiences all happened to Me? the Will is our desire to feel, have, do... and we wish it into existence free will allows us to act upon the potentiality of choices we can act unconsciously (driving to school for the 132nd time) but may not remember it because we gave it no real attention began the study of emotions as a biophysical (heart racing, etc) response to the external stimulus (rampaging cougars in the hallways) that gets us excited Jul 8 4:29 PM 2

3 Sigmund Freud Austrian and Jewish, faced much antisemitism left in the Anschluss Very bold and controversial ideas on taboo subjects Over time has been called a genius and a quack The first psychologists sought to find out how the mind works, Freud wanted to know who he was and what made him that way. Began his career in 1881 as a doctor in neurology but did so with some regret would have preferred to do reseach alone experimented with cocaine until he saw the addictive problems studied his first psychoanalytical work on a hysterical woman in 1882 under Dr. Breuer under hypnosis he got her to reveal causes for her hysteria once the cause was established the symptoms went away she developed new neuroses and a hysterical pregnancy with Dr. B. he fled and Freud picked up the work All of the symptoms came back, Freud delved deeper and tried to resolve the conflict not just expose the cause he considered most causes sexual in nature too controversial for most to accept his ideas widely Studied hysteria very closely, caused by trauma + weak nerual systems he used hypnosis to discover the trauma and had great success hysterics bottle up trauma and do not deal with the emotions involved so the emotions present themselves through physical symptoms turned out to be only a temporary relief Freud worked harder to find a cure not just temporary relief Psychoanalysis Free Association - allow patient to speak freely, do not guide them or lead them or badger them. Eventually they will reveal the true inner thoughts of themselves, nature etc.. Rorschack tests (ink blots) are a great tool of this. Freud started by laying patients on a couch to relax their mind and body many failed to recount painful memories (repression) Transference - some thoughts and emotions are transfered to the Psychologist or other people. Often triggered by a sound, smell, perception. Dream Interpretation - reveals the hidden desires and wishes Freud looked at his own dreams and 1000's of others, wrote a book (much more to come later... this is just a teaser) Jul 13 7:47 AM 3

4 2 History of Psyche.notebook Jul 13 7:47 AM 4

5 2 History of Psyche.notebook Behaviorism This is the study of how people respond to stimuli, learning and conditioning. It is a more observable and quantifyable study than psychoanalism. This study of psychology has been greatly debated because it focuses on testing of animal responses. What do rats teach us about human thought? cats vs. dogs vs. pidgeons vs. monkeys vs. people Ivan Pavlov was a physiologist and never considered psychology Did operations on dogs to install saliva meters Classical conditioning Thorndike invented the maze boxes and tested animal responses very many factors that caused problems as statistical outliers motivation, emotion, satiation, different animals had different responses based on a lucky strike to get out B. F. Skinner invented the famed Skinner box Automated box where an action is presented with a reward or punishment for certain behavior. It is also equipped with a measuring device that records frequency and elapsed time between behaviors operant conditioning John Watson conditioned fears baby Albert despised psychoanalysm Pragmatists tried to make everything measurable and quantifyable Francis Galton amazed by the theories of bell curves tried to explain intelligence and eminence in society by genes coined the term eugenics much villified some tried to have rules against letting imbicels breed Hitler's perfect race Aryan measured everyone he could Alfred Binet found a way to test and create an intelligence scale created the idea of a mental age make a list of tasks that kids should be able to do at a certain age a 4 year old with the mental capacity of a 2 year old would have a mental capacity of 50. A 15 yr old who can operate at a 20 yr old level has a mental capacity of 150 (IQ scales) PROBLEM this does not take into account environmental factors let to thoughts that affluent whites were smarter some questions were culturally biased also examples? Jul 14 3:06 PM 5

6 The Bottom Line Psychology began to gain credibility from Physiology The main founders began in the mid 19th century Key changes came from people who were inspired by the lack of an answer to why and how people think All of the theories have pros and cons Jul 14 3:47 PM 6