PSYC 100 Final: Psychology-Notes-Final
30 May 2018
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PSYC 100: 1
INTRODUCTION
WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
• Psychology is “the scientific study of the mind, brain, and behavior”—William James
o William James (1842-1910)
▪ Founder of American psychology
▪ Established psychology as a science
• Psychology is a ‘nasty little subject’
• “The unique contribution that psychology offers for solving problems comes from its
scientific knowledge of behavior”
• “The overarching aim of education in psychology should be to communicate the
understanding that scientific psychology offers ways of thinking and knowing that have
great potential value for helping people to cope with the world’s problems”
• Psychology is a science
o Science is not a body of knowledge, but an approach to evidence
• Psychology spans multiple levels of analysis
o Social cultural influences:
▪ Social or behavioral level
▪ Relates to others and relationships
o Psychological:
▪ Mental or neurological level
▪ Thoughts, feelings, emotions
o Biological:
▪ Molecular or neurochemical level
▪ Molecules, brain structure
• To fully understand psychology, we must consider multiple levels
of analysis: both biological and social factors are essential to
psychology
HOW IS PSYCHOLOGY DISTINCTIVE?
1. Human behavior is multiply determined—produced by many factors
a. We should be skeptical of single-variable explanations of behavior because
complex human behaviors, such as violence, are subject to many different factors
2. Psychological influences are rarely independent
a. When studying anorexia, one might assume anxiety, exposure to TV,
perfectionism, concern with body image may play a role, but many anxious
people are perfectionists etc.
3. People have individual differences
a. People have different ways of thinking, emotions, personalities, behaviors
b. Everyone may respond to situations differently
c. Differences make it difficult to generalize
4. People influence each other
a. Alfred Bandura: reciprocal determinism
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PSYC 100: 2
i. We mutually influence others’ behavior
1. An extroverted person might make people around them more extroverted which in turn may
‘feed back’ to make them even more extroverted
5. Our behavior is shaped by culture
a. Cultural differences limit generalizations on human nature
i. Japanese people look at people surrounding the ‘target’ whereas Western
people look at the ‘target’ itself. Easterners tend to see the individual’s
state more tied to the group.
PSYCHOLOGY: EMIC VS. ETIC
• Emic approach
o Investigators study behavior of a culture from a ‘native’ or insider perspective
▪ Researcher studying personality on a Pacific island would rely on
personality terms used by that culture
• Etic approach
o A researcher would adapt and translate western personality terms to another
culture, such as shyness or extroversion
• Investigators who adopt an emic approach may better understand the unique
characteristics of a culture, but may overlook characteristics that the society shares with
others; an etic approach may impose perspectives from their own culture onto others, but
may also see it from a broader perspective
HISTORY AND SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT
• EARLY HISTORY
o Psychology has only existed as a science for 130 years
▪ For centuries, it was difficult to distinguish from philosophy
▪ Psychologists did not conduct experimental research but relied on
common sense: ‘armchair psychologist’
o Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)
▪ Credited with launching psychology as a laboratory science in 1879:
developed first lab in Leipzig, Germany
▪ Focused on basic questions about mental experience: how long does it
take to react? What thoughts come to mind when doing math?
▪ Used combination of experimental methods: reaction time procedures,
introspection
• Inspired psychologists around the world to open labs
o Introspection: trained observers carefully reflect and report on their mental
experiences
▪ Ex. Look at an object and report what is seen
• PSYCHOLOGY AND SPIRITUALISM
o Psychology: ‘study of the psyche’
▪ Once closely tied to spiritualism
▪ 1800s: people fascinated by spirit mediums
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• mediums ‘channeled’ spirits of deceased individuals
• psychics claimed to read minds
• psychologists searched for paranormal capacities
o psychology eventually veered away from spiritualism
▪ created new field of psychology of human error and self-deception
• how can people believe things not supported by evidence?
o American Psychological Association first met in 1892
• STRUCTURALISM
o William Wundt and E.B. Titchener (1867-1927)
o Uses introspection to identify basic ‘structures’ of experience
o Emphasis on importance of systematic observation to study of conscious
experience
o Wanted to describe consciousness/behavior in a ‘map’ of sensations, images and
feelings—like the Periodic Table
▪ Systematic data and empiricism
o ISSUES
▪ Even highly trained introspectionists disagreed on subjective reports
▪ German psychologist Oswald Kulpe showed ‘imageless thought’: thinking
unaccompanied by conscious experience
• Important aspects of human psychology lie outside conscious
awareness
• When asked to add, people can—but cannot report what came to
mind while doing it
• Structuralists assumed a single, imperfect method—
introspection—could provide all information for psychology.
Instead, multiple methods are needed.
• FUNCTIONALISM
o William James (influenced by Darwin)
o Wanted to understand the function or adaptive purposes of our thoughts, feelings
and behaviors
o Functionalism has been absorbed into psychology
o Used evolutionary theory in modern psychology
o Why do we act the way we do? There must be a reason so that we can survive
better
o James argued that careful introspection doesn’t yield a fixed number of elements
of consciousness but instead a ‘stream of consciousness’
▪ Wrote 1890’s Principles of Psychology—introduced psychology to the
public
o Influenced by Darwin’s natural selection which emphasized that characteristics
evolve to increase changes of survival: psychological as well as physical and
behavioral
• BEHAVIOURISM
o John Watson (1878-1958), Skinner (1904-1990), Pavlov
o Uncovering the general principles of learning that explain all behaviors (focus on
observable behaviors)
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PSYC 100 Full Course Notes
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