What is Psychology?

-Psyche means soul and logos means the study

-The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Physical state
Mental state
Environment
Behavior = outward or avert actions and reactions
Talking, facial expressions and movement
-Motor activities (Walking, speaking)
-Cognitive activities (perceiving, remembering, thinking, reasoning)
-Emotional activities (feeling happy, sad, angry, afraid)
Example-A man may be admitted to a hospital for a surgical operation (stimulus) The man feels
frightened and worries because he is uncertain what may happen next (response) This stimulus
response combination constitutes the behavior of an individual.
Mental Process = internal, covert activity
Thinking, feeling and remembering

The History of Psychology

Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) Germany
- He limited the subject matter of psychology to the study of conscious experience. The elements
of conscious experience were considered to be of two kinds. These are:
-Sensations: sights, sounds, tastes, smells and touch, which arise from stimulation of the
sense organs; -
-Feelings: love, fear, joy, and so on
-Formal research in psychology began at the university of Leipzig Germany where Wilhelm Wundt
founded the first psychological laboratory in 1879.
Father of Psychology
1 st in movement to make psychology a science
1 st true experimental lab in psychology
Structuralist - structure or basic elements of the mind
Objective introspection
 -Examining and measuring ones own thoughts and mental activities
Structuralism
-Analyze sensations, images and feelings into basic elements
- In introspection people are taught, trained to observe and report the 'content' or 'elements' of
awareness in a particular situation. For example; people are presented with stimulus such as a
sentence on a card and asked to describe in their own words their own experiences. Introspection
is detailed description and how people perceive things in the world.
William James (1842 1910)
-The American psychologist William James pioneered functionalism.
-William James was greatly influenced by Darwin. James held that the function of consciousness
was to enable humans to behave in ways that would act survival through adaptation to the
environment.
Functionalism
-Function or purpose of behavior not analysis or description
How do specific behaviors & mental processes help ADAPT to environment?
No longer a major perspective

Gestalt Psychology
- The leading proponents of the Gestalt view were the German psychologists Max Wertheimer,
Kurt Kafka and Wolfgang Kohler.
- Their belief was that the whole is different from the sum of its parts. In order to understand our
environment we have to perceive it in its totality not in its individuality. Max werthiemer said that
it is a mistake to analyze psychological events into pieces, or elements, as the strtucturalists did.
-Focus on perceptions and sensations
particularly the perception of patterns and whole figures
Max Wertheimer
Gestalt = an organized whole or configuration
People seek our patterns to make sense of things

Psychoanalysis
-The Viennese neurologist and psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) pioneered the
psychoanalytic perspective.
 - Freud said that conscious experiences are only the tip of the Iceberg. Beneath the conscious
experience is Primitive biological urges that seek expression but which are in conflict with the
norms and morality of the society.

Behaviorism
John Watson (1878-1958)
-revolutionized psychology by changing the subject matter of psychology from the study of
conscious experience to the study of behavior.
-Watson believed that the study of psychology should be about observable behavior and its aim
should be to describe, predict, understand and control behavior. He contended that psychologists
should never use the terms consciousness, mental states, introspection, imagery and the like.