AP Psychology

Prologue: The study of Psychology

Psychology – The scientific study of mental processes and behavior.

- Behavior is anything which an organism does. Sensations dreams, feelings, emotions are known as mental process.

Prescientific Psychology

- In India, Buddha wondered how sensations and perceptions combined to form ideas.- In China, Confucius stressed the power of ideas and of an educated mind.- Hebrew scripture links mind and emotion to the body.- Socrates and his student Plato believed the mind was separate from the body, the mind continued to exist

after death, and ideas were innate.- Aristotle suggested that the soul is not separable from the body and that knowledge (ideas) grow from

experience.- Rene Descartes, like Plato, believed in soul (mind) body separation, but wondered how the immaterial

mind and physical body communicated.- Francis Bacon is one of the founders of modern science, particularly the experimental method.- John Locke held that the mind was blank sheet, at birth, and experiences wrote on it.

Empiricism – the view that knowledge comes from experience via the senses and science flourishes through observation and experiment.

Psychological science is bornStructuralism - An early school of psychology that used introspection to explore the elemental structure of the human mind.

- Wilheim Wundt administrated the first psychology experiments by calculating individual time of response to simple tasks, he also established the first psychology lab in Germany.

- Edward Bradford Titchner joined the Cornell University faculty and introduced structuralism which tried to figure individual’s thoughts and elements by having the individual report how they feel about an object it was very unreliable.

- Wundt and Titchner studied the elements (atoms) of the mind by conducting experiments at Leipzig, Germany in 1879.

Functionalism – a school of psychology that focused on how mental and behavioral processes function – how they enable the organism to adapt, survive and flourish.

- Influenced by Darwin, William James established the school of functionalism, which opposed structuralism.

- James believed that “consciousness served as a function”. - Revealed that memories would reveal our present actions. - Mary Calkins became the president of the American Psychological Association’s (APA) first female

president in 1905.

Psychological science develops- Wundt was both a philosopher and a physiologist.- James was an American philosopher.- Ivan Pavlov, who pioneered the study of learning, was a Russian physiologist.- Sigmund Freud, who developed an influential theory of personality, was an Austrian physician.- Jean Piaget, the last century’s most influential observer of children, was a Swiss biologist.

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- This list of pioneering psychologists – “Magellans of the mind,” as Morton Hunt has called them – illustrates psychology’s origins in many disciplines and countries.

- Until the 1920’s, psychology is defined as “the science of mental life” - 1920s- John B. Watson and B.F Skinner labeled psychology “scientific study of observable behavior.- 1960s- Care Rogers and Abraham Maslow emphasized the importance of current environmental influences

on our growth potential, and the importance of meeting our needs for love and acceptance.- Cognitive revolution supported ideas developed by earlier psychologists, such as the importance of

considering internal thought processes, but it expanded upon those ideas to explore scientifically the way we perceive, process, and remember information.

Humanistic psychology– Historical significant perspective that emphasized the growth potential of healthy people used personalized methods to study personality in hopes of fostering personal growth.

Contemporary Psychology- The American Psychological Association is the largest organization of psychology with

160,000 members world‐wide, followed by The British Psychological Society with 34,000 members.

Psychology’s big debate – Nurture V.S Nature- Nature-Nurture issue – the longstanding controversy over the relative

contributions that genes and experience make to the development of psychological traits and behaviors.

- Darwin stated that nature selects those that best enable the organism to survive and reproduce in a particular environment.

- Plato – Assumed that character and intelligence are largely inherited and that certain ideas are also unborn.

- Aristotle – countered that there is nothing in the mind that does not first come in from the external world through the senses.

- Locke – Mind is blank sheet. Environmentally influenced.- Descartes – Believe that some ideas are innate. - Charles Darwin – Argued that natural selection shapes behaviors as well as bodies.

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 generation.

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Psychology’s three main levels of analysis.

Levels of analysis– The differing complementary views, from biological to psychological to social-cultural, for analyzing any giving phenomenon.Biopsychosocial approach– An integrated perspective that incorporates biological, psychological, and social-cultural levels of analysis.

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Behavior or mental process

Social- Cultural influences: - Presence of others

- Cultural, societal, and family expectations

-peer and other group influences- compelling models (such as the

media)

Biological influences:- Genetic predispotitions

- Genetic mutationsNatural selection of adaptive

physiology and behaviors- Genes responding to the

environmentPhychological influences:

- learned fears and other learned expectations

-emotional responses-cognitive processing and

perceptual interpretations

Psychology’s Current Perspectives

Perspective Focus Sample Questions

Neuroscience How the body and brain enables emotions?

How are messages transmitted in the body? How is blood chemistry linked with moods and motives?

Evolutionary How the natural selection of traits promotes the perpetuation of one’s genes?

How does evolution influence behavior tendencies?

Behavior genetics How much do our genes and our environments influence our individual differences?

To what extent are psychological traits such as intelligence, personality, sexual orientation, and vulnerability to depression attributable to our genes? To our environment?

Psychodynamic How behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts?

How can someone’s personality traits and disorders be explained in terms of sexual and aggressive drives or as disguised effects of unfulfilled wishes and childhood traumas?

Behavioral How we learn observable responses?

How do we learn to fear particular objects or situations? What is the most effective way to alter our behavior, say to lose weight or quit smoking?

Cognitive How we encode, process, store and retrieve information?

How do we use information in remembering? Reasoning? Problem solving?

Social‐cultural How behavior and thinking vary across situations and cultures?

How are we — as Africans, Asians, Australians or North Americans – alike as members of human family? As products of different environmental contexts, how do we differ?

Different perspectives - Neuroscience – body and brain enabling sensory experience and memories- Evolutionary – Traits influence behavior through natural selection

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- Behavior Genetics- Genes and environmental influences- Psychodynamic – Unconscious conflicts spurs behavior- Behavioral – Observe responses- Cognitive – Process, store and retrieve information- Social- Cultural – Behavior caries within different cultures

Psychology’s subfields- Biological psychologist – links between brain and mind- Developmental psychologist – abilities from birth to death- Cognitive – How do we think? Solve problems?- Personality – Traits - Social – Viewing and affecting each other

Basic research – Pure science that aims to increase the scientific knowledge base. Applied research – Scientific study that aims to solve practical problems.

- Clinical psychology – a branch of psychology that studies, assesses, and treats people with psychological disorders.

- Counseling psychology – a branch of psychology that assist people with problems in living (often related to school, work or marriage) and in achieving greater well-being.

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.

Psychologist What she doesClinical Studies, assesses, and treats people with

psychological disordersCounseling Helps people cope with academic,

vocational, and marital challenges.Educational Studies and helps individuals in school and

educational settingsIndustrial/Organizational

Studies and advises on behavior in the workplace.

Clinical Psychology vs. PsychiatryA clinical psychologist (Ph.D.) studies, assesses, and treats troubled people with psychotherapy.

Psychiatrists on the other hand are medical professionals (M.D.) who use treatments like drugs and psychotherapy to treat psychologically diseased patients.

Close up – Your study of psychology Survey, Question, Read, Review, and Reflect (SQ3R)

- Survey: What you are about to read, including chapter outlines and section heads.- Question: Ask questions. Make notes.- Read: Make sure you read outlines, sections and chapters in entirety.- Review: Margin definitions. Study learning outcomes.- Reflect: On what you learn. Test yourself with quizzes.

Additional study tips- Distribute your time.

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- Listen actively in class.- Over learn.- Be a smart test‐taker.

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