Evolution of Psychology

1. Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychological research lab in 1879
2. G. Stanley Hall established Americas first research laboratory in psychology at Johns Hopkins University in 1883.
3. G. Stanley Hall also established the American Psychological Association(APA)

1. Structuralism

   Nota:

   • To analyze consciousness into basic elements such as sensations, feelings, vision, hearing, sound and images.
   1. Functionalism

      Nota:

      • Based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or purpose of consciousness, rather than its structure.
      1. William James
         1. psychology should investigate the functions rather than the structure of consciousness
   2. Eward Titchener
      1. Introspection

         Nota:

         • self-observation to one's own conscious experience

Nota:

• scientific psychology should study only observable behavior

1. John B. Watson
   1. proposed that psychologists abandon the study of consciousness and focus exclusively on behaviours that could be observed directly
2. Stimulus

   Nota:

   • Any detectable input from the environment. ranges from light, sound waves, words in a book, and advertisements on TV.
   1. the behavioural approach is often referred to as stimulus response (S-R) psychology
      1. Behaviourism's S-R approach contributed to the rise of animal research in psycholoy

1. Freud treated mental disorders, psychological problems such as irrational fears, obsessions, and anxieties with psychoanalysis
   1. Freud made suggestions that people were not masters of their own minds. He also proposed that behaviour is greatly influenced by how people cope with their sexual urges.
2. Unconscious

   Nota:

   • Contains thoughts, memories, and desires that are well below the surface of conscious awareness but that exert a great influence on behaviour
3. Psychoanalytic theory

   Nota:

   • explain personality, motivation, and mental disorders by focusing on unconscious determinants of behavior
   1. widely known around the world by 1920
      1. by the 1940s, Psychoanalysis wasa becoming so popular that it threatened to eclipse psychology entirely

1. organisms tend to repeat responses that lead to positive outcomes and they tend to not repeat responses that lead to neutral or negative outcomes
   1. Skinner showed he could control the behaviour of animals by manipulating the outcomes of their responses. He was able to train animals to perform unnatural behaviours
      1. Behavioural principles are now widely used in factories, schools, prisons, mental hospitals, and more
2. free will is an illusion
   1. Skinner asserted that all behaviour is fully governed by external stimuli. According to Skinner, people are controlled by their environment

1. in 1950's behaviourism and psychoanalytic were "dehumanizing"
   1. Humanism

      Nota:

      • theoretical orientation that emphasizes the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom and their potential for personal growth
      1. Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow understood that in order to fully understand peoples behaviour, psychologists must take into account the fundamental human drive towards personal growth. People have a basic need to continue to evolve as human beings and to fulfill their potential.
         1. To date, humanist's greatest contribution to psychology has probably been their innovative treatments for psychological problems and disorders.

1. Applied psychology

   Nota:

   • psychology concerned with everyday, practical problems.
   1. clinical psychology

      Nota:

      • Branch of psychology concerned with the diagnosis and treatment of psychological problems and disorders
      1. During World War 2, many academic psychologists were pressed into service as clinicians. They treated soldiers suffering from trauma. Many veterans returned to seek post war treatment in hospitals for their psychological scars.
         1. Within a few years, about half of the new Ph.D.s in psychology were specializing in clinical psychology and most went on to offer professional services to the public.

1. Cognition

   Nota:

   • Refers to the mental processes involved in acquiring knowledge. Involves thinking or conscious experience.
   1. Jean Piaget (1954) focused increased attention on the study of children's cognitive development
   2. Noam Chomsky (1957) elicited new interest in the psychological underpinnings of language
   3. Around the same time as Noam Chomsky, Herbert Simon and his colleagues began influential research on problem solving that eventually lead to a Nobel Prize.
   4. Cognitive Perspective

      Nota:

      • Manipulations of mental images influence how they behave.
      1. Cognitive theorists have argued that psychology must study internal mental events to fully understand behaviour.
         1. Psychologists investigating decision making, reasoning, and problem solving have shown methods can be devised to study cognitive processes scientificially
2. Donald Hebb argued that the locus of behaviour should be sought in the brain.
   1. Cell assembly

1. Advances in communication, travel, and international trade have "shrunk" the world and increased global interdependence bringing more North Americans and Europeans into contact with people from non-western cultures
   1. Ethnic makeup of the Western world has become an increasingly diverse multicultural mosiac
      1. Canada's foreign-born residents make up over 20 percent of the total population
2. Psychologists today are broadening their horizons and incorporating cultural factors into their theories and research. They are working to increase knowledge of how culture is transmitted through socialization and how culture colours one's view of the world.
   1. Psychologists are striving to understand the unique experiences of culturally diverse people from the point of view of those people.

1. Evolutionary psychology

   Nota:

   • examines behavioural processes in terms of their adaptive value for members of a species over the course of many generations
   1. Natural selection favours behaviours that enhance organisms' reproductive success.

1. Psychology at universities in Canada became more common In the 1850's beginning then at McGill University in Montreal and the University of Toronto
   1. The Canadian Psychological Association (CPA) was formed in 1939. Majority are women.
      1. Women now make up the majority or undergraduate M.A students at Canadian Universities and are in the majority in undergraduate programs in the social and behavioural sciences, in law, and graduate programs in psychology.