INTRODUCTION

- psyche // soul + logos // study = psychology [Greek origin]

- psychology - scientific study of mind + behavior
- mind - inner experience of perceptions, thoughts, memories, + feelings; flow of consciousness
- behavior- observable humans/animals actions
1. What are the bases of perceptions, thoughts, memories, + feelings / our subjective sense of self?
- external stimuli → electrochem activities in the brain → create subjective experiences
- ie. fMRI (fxal magnetic resonance imaging) - detect parts of brain active when performing certain activities
- pro pianist → less brain activity than novice = extensive practice → ↑ brain efficiency
2. How does the mind usually allow us to function effectively in the world?
- psychological processes = adaptive = promote welfare + reproduction
- ie. perception = recognize fam; language = organize thought; memory = avoid same sitch; emotion =
react + form strong bonds
3. Why does the mind occasionally function so ineffectively in the world?
- Mind functions on “autopilot” = well/bad-learned habits done w/o thinking/focus
- Lapses, errors, + mistakes → insight on how brain normally operates

PSYCHOLOGY’S ROOTS: THE PATH TO A SCIENCE OF MIND

Greece: - Plato believed in nativism - types of knowledge are innate Commented [1]: their differing views touch upon
- Aristotle believed in philosophical empiricism - knowledge acquired thru experience; start with tabula rasa - controversy of nature v. nurture

blank slate
France: - Rene Descartes believed dualism - mental activity coordinated w/ physical behavior; mind + body separate Commented [2]: if they're 2 different substances, then
- suggests body = material is physical container of the soul = spiritual; fx thru pineal gland how do they interact? (not possible)

- Thomas Hobbes believed mind = what brain does; mind + body together
- Franz Joseph Gall believed phrenology - specific mental abilities + characteristics localized in specific brain
regions (so controlled by size, instead of by gland) = FALSE
- thought bumps/indents on skull → reflect region’s size → can conclude level of brain fx
Germany: - Hermann von Helmholtz tested for speed of nerve impulse on frog’s leg then human toe
- applied stimulus - sensory input from envt → recorded reaction time - time to react to
specific stimulus
- compared diff toe + thigh reaction → mental processes don’t occur instantaneously
- 1st to use reaction to study psych & physiology - study of human biological processes
- Wilhelm Wundt → taught 1st psych course; opened 1st psych lab
- focused on consciousness - subjective experience of the world + the mind
- founded structuralism - analysis of the basic elements that constitute the mind (structure)
- includes introspection - subjective observation of one’s own experience Commented [3]: different interpretations, no replicable
observation, so method faded
U.S: - Edward Titchener → Wundt’s student; focused on mind’s basic elements instead of just relationship btwn
those elements of consciousness; brought structuralism to U.S.
- William James → founded functionalism - study of the purpose mental processes serve in enabling people to
adapt to their environment (fx); dominant 1920s
- influenced by Charles Darwin’s theory: natural selection - organism’s feat. that help it survive + Commented [4]: suggests mental abilities must evolve
to adapt + solve new problems, so can increase
reproduce are more likely to be passed onto future generations than other feat. chance of survival.
- G. Stanley Hall → set up 1st American psych lab, journal, + professional org (APA); studied development + edu
from evolutionary perspective
- believed mental capacities repeat evolutionary history → ppl now develop same way as ancestors

THE DEVELOPMENT OF CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY

- hysteria - temp loss of cognitive or motor fx, usually due to emotionally stressful experiences
- studied by French scientists Jean-Martin Charcot & Pierre Janet
- symptoms (ie. blind) disappeared when under hypnosis - altered state of consciousness characterized by
suggestibility but reappeared when returned to normal state → act like 2 diff people
- Sigmund Freud → studied hysteric patients w/ Charcot
- revealed presence of unconscious - part of mind that operates outside of conscious awareness but influences
conscious thoughts, feelings, + behavior
- developed psychoanalytic theory - approach that emphasizes the importance of unconscious + past childhood
experiences in shaping feelings, thoughts, + behaviors
- formed therapy: psychoanalysis - brings unconscious material into conscious to understand psych disorder
- explored sexual experiences + desires → became controversial bc deemed too racy
- Critiques about Freud
- suggest we’re slaves to our past + sexual impulse → dark, (-) view vs. (+) one that’s like the life after WWII
- can’t be tested → limited use in scientific field if have no empirical evidence
- what overpowered psychoanalytic in 1960s was humanistic psychology - emphasizes (+) potential in humans
- led by Abraham Maslow & Carl Rogers
- viewed humans as free agents that need to grow, develop, + find full potential → blossoming spirit
- put therapist + client (unlike Freud’s patient) on equal terms → more understanding/accepting

THE SEARCH FOR OBJECTIVE MEASUREMENT: BEHAVIORISM

- behaviorism - focus on objectively observable behavior (what ppl experience vs. what they do); dominated 1920s
- led by John Watson (classical conditioning = association)→ studied rats in mazes + pigeons by behavior +
performed “Little Albert” experiment
- influenced by Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov → dog + bell experiment → stimulus-response psychology
- response - action physiological change elicited by stimulus
- B.F. Skinner (operational conditioning = consequence) - expanded on Pavlov’s idea by finding how organisms learn to
act rather than be affected by environment
- built Skinner box (lever, food, button) → rat learn to press button to get more food
- reinforcement - consequences of behavior determine whether it will be more/less likely to occur again Commented [5]: if pleasant results, then behaviors are
- didn’t believe in free will bc choice is based on how rewarding it was in the past, so idea is an illusion repeated; if negative, then they're avoided

RETURN OF THE MIND: PSYCHOLOGY EXPANDS

- Cognitive psychology - sci study of mental processes, including perception, thought, memory, + reasoning (1950s) Commented [6]: replaced behaviorism, which
1. ignored mental processes (ie. how children learn
- Max Wertheimer studied illusion - perception, memory, or judgment error → own experience diff from reality language)
- explores how mind construes stimuli → not quantifiable 2. evolutionary history (ie. why rats associate nausea
w/ food faster than with light)
 - Expt: 2 separate flashing lights → shorten time btwn each flash → looked like 1 moving light
- Gestalt psychology - emphasizes perception as a whole rather than the sum of its parts Commented [7]: in other words, the mind likes to
- German Hermann Ebbinghaus tested how quickly + well he could memorize 3-letter nonsense syllables (memory test) organize what it senses so it may not appear as what
the experimenter is actually presenting
- British Sir Frederic Bartlett expanded on test for memory
- gave stories → ppl remember what should’ve or they expected to happen + not what actually happened
- indicates memory ≠ photographic reproduction, but influenced by knowledge, belief, desire, hopes, etc
- Swiss Jean Piaget studied cognitive development in children
- German Kurt Lewin discovered not the stimulus but the way ppl construe/interpret stimulus → behavior
- Tech + Development of Cognitive Psychology
- became popular with the emergence of the comp bc human + comp have similar info-processing systems
- required to study mental processes in order to improve radar operators’ accuracy + speed during WWII
- British Donald Broadbent observed pilots must actively move their focus from one instrument to other (1992)
- limited capacity to process incoming info = basic feat of human cognition + explain errors we make
- American George Miller discovered humans can only memorize about 7 pieces of info (1956)
- American Noam Chomsky argued mental rules help ppl understand + form new words + sentences (1928) Commented [8]: refuted Skinner + other behaviorists'
- Cognitive Psychology - landmark book by Ulric Neisser (1967) that reflected its popularity in the 1960s explanations of language acquisition, which credited
reinforcement
- The Brain Meets the Mind: The Rise of Cognitive Neuroscience
- Behavioral neuroscience - links psych processes to the body processes (ie. nervous system)
- Karl Lashley tried to remove parts of rat’s brain + time how long it could finish maze to see where
learning occurred (1960) → just did worse as more of brain removed → learning doesn’t occur in 1 spot of brain
- Brain scanning - noninvasive method to view brain activity while person does certain task (1980s)
- Cognitive neuroscience - attempts to understand the links btwn cognitive processes + brain activity
- The Adaptive Mind: The Emergence of Evolutionary Psychology
- Evolutionary psychology - explains mind + behavior in terms of adaptive value of abilities that are Commented [9]: refuted behaviorist idea of tabula
preserved over time by natural selection rasa bc brain is not entirely blank

- John Garcia found rats associate nausea w/ food instead of light (1981) → in rat’s + its ancestors’
learning history
- Sociobiology by E.O. Wilson → presented evolutionary thinking as important role in psych Commented [10]: suggests brain can't easily learn
everything but has been adapted to learn certain basic
skills easily while other specialized ones are harder
BEYOND THE INDIVIDUAL: SOCIAL + CULTURAL PERSPECTIVES
- Social psychology - study of causes + consequences of sociality
- Norman Triplett observed bikers perform diff when with others → others’ presence influence performance
- rise of Nazi (1930s) → German refugees like Asch + Kurt Lewin → conduct expt to test social theories
- Lewin → field theory - internal (personality, beliefs) + external (culture) forces = social behavior (1936)
- Solomon Asch found ppl combined small info about 1 person to make a full impression of personality (1946)
- Asch expt → 3 ppl + 3 lines → conformity Commented [11]: the processes that help us
categorize elements is the same as those erroneously
- during Holocaust, problems of conformity + obedience influencing others to behavior irrationally rose to attention categorizing entire groups
- Gordon Allport studied stereotyping, prejudice, + racism Commented [12]: culture = shared values, traditions, +
- suggested prejudice = inevitable error in perception (1954) beliefs among a group of ppl
1. Race/ethnicity
- The Emergence of Cultural Psychology 2. age (youth culture)
3. sexual orientation (gay culture)
- Cultural psychology - study of how cultures reflect + shape the psych processes of ppl (1980s/90s) 4. religion (Buddhist culture)
5. occupation (academic culture)
 - try to understand which phenomena are universal, which vary by time or area
- Margaret Mead + Gregory Bateson traveled the world + discovered practices that would be shocking
+ bizarre to us but are normally done by the indigenous ppl (1965)
- Absolutism - culture makes little/no difference on human behavior phenomena Commented [13]: now psych phenomena can be
- Relativism - psych phenomena vary across culture so should only be studied based on cultural context categorized under both bc some are 1. completely
determined by culture
- most universal phenomena are closely associated w/ human bio, while least is associated with social practices/cultures 2. somewhat affected by it
3. completely unaffected
- Social + cultural psychology expand discipline by examining not just individuals but groups of ppl + their interactions

THE PROFESSION OF PSYCHOLOGY: PAST + PRESENT

- American Psychological Association (APA) → by G. Stanley Hall, William James, + 5 others (1892)
- now has 150,000+ members, including those not just from academic setting but also clinical/health ones too
- Association for Psychological Science (APS) created to focus on academic psychology only (1988)
- now has ~ 12,000 psychologists; serves as a resource for psychologists carrying out research
- People in psychology reflect diversity in America
- exclusive to white male (1892) → more than half of APA are women + a lot of minorities (now)
- Mary Calkins - 1st female APA president (1905); studied self as a single unit
- Kenneth Clark - 1st minority APA president (1970); studied psych harm of racial segregation
- What Psychologists Do: Research Careers
- psych is linked to many other disciplines + careers, so don’t need to be a psychologist if psych major
- class + research to get PhD → postdoctoral research or research/faculty position
- often become clinical psychologists → private/medical setting; prescribe med → focus on specific
disorders/populations
- can be counseling psychologists → PhD/MA in that major → help ppl deal with common crises (ie. work)
- can be school psychologists → give guidance to students, parents, + teachers
- can be industrial/organizational psychologists → focus on bettering the workplace (ie. improve
productivity)

Cognitive dissonance - the state of having inconsistent thoughts, beliefs, or attitudes to behavior + attitude change
- Festinger + Carlsmith → $1 and $5 expt

ADDITIONAL ORGANIZED NOTES

1. Wundt + Titchener → Structuralism
2. James → Functionalism
3. Watson + Skinner → Behaviorism (1920s)
4. Freud → Psychoanalysis (1940s)
5. Cognitive Psych (1950s)
6. Maslow + Rogers → Humanistic (1960s)