Llamas, Nicole Q.

September 5, 2020
AB Political Science 3-A Introduction to Psychology

INTRODUCTION:
At the age of 46, Clive Wearing an accomplished musician forgot to play piano perfectly
while James Wannerton associate his taste with the sounds of words, Josh Nash a brilliant
mathematician and Nobel Prize Winner hear voices and soon diagnosed with schizophrenia who
becomes inspiration in the creation of the 2001 movie Beautiful Mind, why those people
experience that, how brain works and how it was connected to our body, those are the questions
that PSYCHOLOGY will explain to us.
1.1 WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?
 Etymology of the word “Psychology”
The word “Psychology” comes from two words—psyche and ology. Psyche comes from
Greek word means soul and Ology denotes as “scientific study of”. In short, psychology refers to
scientific study of mind or soul and eventually expanded as scientific study of mind and behavior
since mind is not directly observable.
 Trivia
Psyche is mortal woman from Greek mythology whose beauty was so great that’s why
goddess Aphrodite becomes jealous on her and send her son Eros to make her fall in love with
the ugliest man in the world, but Eros accidentally pricked the arrow to himself making him so
madly in love with Psyche. Eros bring Psyche in their palace and make her as his lover but
Psyche betrayed Eros so he abandoned her. Psyche wanted to be reunite with Eros but Aphrodite
gave her impossible task and she accomplished it. Psyche comes to represent the human soul’s
triumph over misfortunes.
 Scientific study
Scientific method—uses to acquire knowledge on how or why something happens.
Hypothesis—a tentative explanation to explain the phenomena, it is not just explanation it should
fit in the context of scientific theory.
Scientific theory—a broad explanation or group of explanations for some aspect of natural word
that is consistently supported by evidence over time.
A theory is the best understanding of natural world, hypothesis test its validity and the
result are published to help other build onto them. It is necessary that explanation in science be
testable, which means that phenomena must be PERCEIVABLE and MEASURABLE.
For example, the bird didn’t sing because it was happy so it was much better to test the
bird’s brain state. Science deals only with matter and energy and not about values and
morality that’s why science knowledge was limited.
Empirical Method—acquiring knowledge based on observation including experimentation,
rather than a method or previous authorities.
In late 1800s, psychology became accepted as academic discipline and the workings for
mind was part of philosophy. Some areas of psychology take aspects on natural science like
biology.
 Merits of an education in Psychology
Students take psychology course because it either satisfies as a general education
requirement or a required program study. Psychology becomes one of the most popular majors in
United States. Mark Zuckerberg a facebook’s creator, Jon Stewart a television personality and
actress Natalie Portman were well-known individual as psychology majors.
 Psychology is valuable first because it hone the critical thinking skills of students and
trained used in scientific method.
 Critical thinking—the active application of a set of skills to information for the understanding
and evaluation of that information.
Assessing its reliability and usefulness— is an important skill in a world full of competing
“facts,”, the evaluation of information.
 Psychology students also can develop better communication skills and prepare students
to critically evaluate the various sources of information they encounter. Psychology students
come to understand the complex factors that shape one’s behavior and learn about basic
principles that guide how we think and behave, and they come to recognize the tremendous
diversity that exists across individuals and across cultural boundaries.
1.2 HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
 WUNDT AND STRUCTURALISM
Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) 
-a German scientist who was the first person to be referred to as a psychologist.
-his famous book entitled Principles of Physiological Psychology was published in 1873.
-viewed psychology as a scientific study of conscious experience.
-he believed that the goal of psychology was to identify components of consciousness and how
those components combined to result in our conscious experience.
-established his psychology laboratory at the University at Leipzig in 1879.
-credited as one of the founders of psychology.
-he created the first laboratory for psychological research.
Introspection
-he called it “internal perception.
- a process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as
possible.
-  which an external stimulus was designed to produce a scientifically observable (repeatable)
experience of the mind

Requirements:
1. Use of “trained” or practiced observers—immediately observe and report a
reaction.
2.  Use of repeatable stimuli—produced the same experience in the subject and
allowed the subject to expect and thus be fully attentive to the inner reaction.
Note: These experimental requirements were put in place to eliminate “interpretation” in the
reporting of internal experiences and to counter the argument that there is no way to know that
an individual is observing their mind or consciousness accurately.
 Structuralism—attempt to understand the structure or characteristics of the mind.
Note: This process remained highly subjective, and there was very little agreement between
individuals. As a result, structuralism fell out of favor with the passing of Wundt’s student,
Edward Titchener, in 1927.
 JAMES AND FUNCTIONALISM
William James (1842–1910) 
-first American psychologist who espoused a different perspective on how psychology
should operate.
- introduced to Darwin’s theory of evolution by natural selection and accepted it as an
explanation of an organism’s characteristics.
-key to that theory is the idea that natural selection.
Adaptation—means that a trait of an organism has a function for the survival and reproduction
of the individual, because it has been naturally selected.
Functionalism
-psychology’s purpose was to study the function of behavior in the world, and as such, his
perspective.
-focused on how mental activities helped an organism fit into its environment.
-more interested in the operation of the whole mind rather than of its individual parts.
Note: James also relied on more objective measures, including the use of various recording
devices, and examinations of concrete products of mental activities.
 FREUD AND PSYCHOANALYTIC THEORY
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
-an Austrian neurologist who was fascinated by patients suffering from “hysteria” and
neurosis.
-theorized that many of his patients’ problems arose from the unconscious mind.
-the unconscious mind was a repository of feelings and urges of which we have no
awareness.
-the unconscious mind could be accessed through dream analysis.

Hysteria 
- an ancient diagnosis for disorders, primarily of women with a wide variety of symptoms,
including physical symptoms and emotional disturbances.
Psychoanalytic theory
-focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious, as well as early childhood experiences.
Freud was really influential person during his time because of his idea about conscious
and unconscious mind and the method of psychoanalytic. Drew Westen support his idea by
developing and providing evidence for that. His clinical approach was proven effectively and
used for therapy.

 WERTHEIMER, KOFFKA, KÖHLER, AND GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY

Max Wertheimer (1880–1943) Kurt Koffka (1886–1941) Wolfgang Köhler (1887–1967)
-German psychologists who immigrated to the United States at early 20th century to escaped Nazi
German.
-are credited with introducing psychologists in the United States to various Gestalt principles
Gesalt Psychology
-translates to “whole;
- deals with the fact that although a sensory experience can be broken down into individual parts,
how those parts relate to each other as a whole is often what the individual responds to in
perception.
Moving from Germany to United States this prevent their idea to become influential but
Gesalt Principle were actually being used nowadays. In humanistic theory, human individual
as a whole is more important rather than the sum of individuality.

 PAVLOV, WATSON, SKINNER, AND BEHAVIORISM

 Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936)

-Russian physiologist
-studied a form of learning behavior called a conditioned reflex

Conditioned reflex
-in which an animal or human produced a reflex (unconscious) response to a stimulus and,
over time, was conditioned to produce the response to a different stimulus that the
experimenter associated with the original stimulus.
-once the response to the second stimulus was “learned,” the food stimulus could be omitted.

Pavlov’s “classical conditioning”

- is only one form of learning behavior studied by behaviorists.

John B. Watson (1878–1958)

-influential American psychologist, during the early 20th century at Johns Hopkins
University.
-thought that the study of consciousness was flawed because he believed that objective
analysis of the mind was impossible.
 -focus directly on observable behavior
-known as the father of behaviorism within psychology.
 
Behaviorism
-approach of observing and controlling behavior.
- learned behavior and its interaction with inborn qualities of the organism.
- used animals in experiments
-  dominated experimental psychology
- responsible for establishing psychology as a scientific discipline
- used in behavioral and cognitive-behavioral therapy
- commonly used in classroom settings
- also led to research on environmental influences on human behavior.

B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) 
-  an American psychologist
- was a behaviorist, and he concentrated on how behavior was affected by its consequences.
- spoke of reinforcement and punishment as major factors in driving behavior
 
Operant conditioning chamber
- also known as a Skinner box
- a chamber that allowed the careful study of the principles of modifying behavior through
reinforcement and punishment
-  chamber that isolates the subject from the external environment and has a behavior
indicator such as a lever or a button.
-  When the animal pushes the button or lever, the box is able to deliver a positive
reinforcement of the behavior or a punishment.

 MASLOW, ROGERS, AND HUMANISM

Humanism—perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is
innate to all humans.
 Humanistic Psychology
Abraham Maslow (1908–1970)
-an American psychologist who is best known for proposing a hierarchy of human needs in
motivating behavior.
-asserted that so long as basic needs necessary for survival were met higher-level needs.
-the highest-level needs relate to self-actualization—a process by which we achieve our full
potential
Carl Rogers (1902–1987)
- an American psychologist who, like Maslow.
- emphasized the potential for good that exists within all people.  -
-used a therapeutic technique known as client centered therapy in helping his clients deal
with problematic issues that resulted in their seeking psychotherapy. -
-believed that people were more than capable of dealing with and working through their own
issues
Client-centered therapy—involves the patient taking a lead role in the therapy session.
- believed that a therapist needed to display three features to maximize the effectiveness of
this particular approach: unconditional positive regard, genuineness, and empathy.
Unconditional positive regard refers to the fact that the therapist accepts their client for
who they are, no matter what he or she might say.
THE COGNITIVE REVOLUTION
  The mind as a focus of scientific inquiry known as the cognitive revolution. The first
textbook entitled Cognitive Psychology, published by Ulric Neisser. Noam Chomsky was
very influential, an American linguist, was dissatisfied with the influence that behaviorism
had on psychology because psychology’s focus on behavior was short-sighted and that the
field had to re-incorporate mental functioning into its purview if it were to offer any
meaningful contributions to understanding behavior.
 The cognitive revolution helped reestablish lines of communication between European
psychologists and their American counterparts.
1.3 CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY
Contemporary psychology is a mixture of all psychological history. The diverse field that
is influenced by all of the historical perspectives described in the preceding section.
American Psychological Association (APA).  
--a professional organization representing psychologists in the United States.
-largest organization of psychologists in the world.
--mission is to advance and disseminate psychological knowledge for the betterment of
people - 56 divisions within the APA.
-was founded in 1988 and seeks to advance the scientific orientation of psychology.
-a significant proportion of its members are international, although the majority is located in
the United States.
 Other organizations provide networking and collaboration opportunities for
professionals:
NLPA- National Latina/o Psychological Association
AAPA-  Asian American Psychological Association
ABPsi-  Association of Black Psychologists 
SIP- Society of Indian Psychologists