Derived principles from careful observations. There is nothing in the mind that does not first come in from the external world through the senses.
Mind and Body Separate
Description
Mind and Body Connected
Description
Ideas are Inborn
Description
The Hebrews
Description
Augustine
Wrote about how conditions of mind & body influence each other
Socrates
Searched for how the mind and body communicate
Plato
Assumed that character and intelligence are largely inherited and that certain ideas are also inborn
Rene Descartes
Was looking for how mind and body communicate; thought that nerves were hollow places where memories were stored
Locke
Rejected the notion of inborn ideas, offering his notion that the mind is a blank sheet on which experience writes
Empiricism
The view that a) knowledge comes from experience via the senses and b) science flourishes through observation and experiment
Wilhelm Wundt
Launched the first psychological experiment when he measured the time lag between people's hearing and pressing a key
Edward Bradford Titchener
Student of Wundt
Wanted to find out how sensations relate to one another
Structuralism
An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind
Introspection
"looking inward"
Hard to get reliable results; self-contemplation just makes feelings less predictive and more confusing
Charles Darwin
Evolutionary Theorist
William James
A pragmatist and fundamentalist. Was outgoing, impish, joyous, and ready to teach anyone willing to learn. He looked at the function of the brain and assumed that thinking developed because it was adaptive.
Functionalism
A school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function - how they enable an organism to adapt, survive, and flourish
Mary Calkins
Student of James, pioneering memory researcher and American Psychological Association president. At first was denied a degree from Harvard and instead given one from Radcliffe College. She resisted the unequal treatment.
Today's Psychologists
Members of groups such as International Union of Psychological Science, American psychological Association, etc.
Psychology
As a science, attempts to sift opinions and evaluate ideas with careful observation and rigorous analysis.
Behavior
Anything an organism does
Mental Processes
Internal subjective experiences we infer from behavior
Major Issues
Several issues cut across modern psychology, the most persistent of which concerns the relative impact of biological nature and experienced nature
Stability versus Change
Do our individual traits persist as we age? Do people change with age?
Rationality versus Irrationali
Do we deserve to be called Homo Sapiens - "wise humans"?
Nurture versus Nature
The longstanding controversy over the relative contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.
Origin of Species
Explained diversity of life by proposing an evolutionary process
Natural Selection
The principle that, among the range of inherited trait variations, those contributing to reproduction and survival will most likely be passed on to succeeding generations.
Nurture Nature Debate
In contemporary science, the nurture-nature tension dissolves: Nurture works on what nature endows. Every psychological event is simultaneously a biological event.
Perspectives
Complementary outlooks on the same biological state. Behavior, thought, and emotion are viewed from different perspectives.
Subfields
Psychology contains a variety of diverse subfields all trying to describe and explain behavior and the mind underlying it.
Neuroscience Perspective
Focus on how the body and brain enable emotions, memories, and sensory experiences.
Evolutionary Perspective
Focus on ho the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of ones genes.
Behavior Genetics Perspective
Focus on how much our genes and our environment influence our individual differences.
Psychodynamic Perspective
Focus on how behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts.
Behavioral Perspective
Focus on how we learn observable responses.
Cognitive Perspective
Focus on how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information.
Social-Cultural Perspective
Focus on how behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures.
Basic Research
Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base.
Biological Psychologists
Explore links between brain and mind
Developmental Psychologists
Study our changing abilities from womb to tomb
Cognitive Psychologists
Experimenting with how we perceive, think, and solve problems
Personality Psychologists
Investigate our persistent traits
Social Psychologists
Explore how we view and affect one another
Applied Research
Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.
Psychiatry
A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders; practiced by physicians who sometimes provide medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as psychological therapy.