PART I: Psychology’s History and
Approaches
UNIT 1: Scientific Foundations of Psychology
Learning Targets
1-1 Explain why psychology is a science and why the “rat is always right.”
1-2 Describe the three key elements of the scientific attitude and how they support scientific inquiry.
1-3 Explain how critical thinking feeds a scientific attitude and smarter thinking for everyday life.
1-4 Describe how psychology developed from early understandings of mind and body to the beginnings of modern science.
1-5 Explain how critical thinking feeds a scientific attitude and smarter thinking for everyday life.
1-6 Explain how behaviorism, Freudian psychology and humanistic psychology furthered the development of psychological science.
How is psychology a science?
Psychology uses the tools of science to
describe
explain
predict
control
behavior and mental processes.
Facts speak for themselves
Researchers have to accept the results of the study even if the hypothesis has been proven wrong.
Why is the “rat always right”?
TRY IT
Can these questions be answered using science?
What is one key element of the scientific attitude?
Curiosity:
asking questions
What is another key element of the scientific attitude?
Skepticism:
sifting reality from fantasy and demanding evidence
What is a third key element of �the scientific attitude?
Humility:
accepting incorrect predictions
What is critical thinking?
Examining assumptions
Appraising the source
Discerning hidden biases
Evaluating evidence
Assessing conclusions
�How would you think critically about the following statement? �
Climate change is a real and pressing danger.
TRY IT
What did philosophers wonder �about the mind?
How does our mind work?
How does our body relate to our mind?
How much of what we know is innate? How much comes from our experiences?
The Greeks
Socrates
Plato
Aristotle
René Descartes
The French
Francis Bacon
John Locke
The British
The idea that knowledge is the result of experience and that scientific knowledge is developed through observation and experimentation.
What is empiricism?
What were important milestones in psychology’s early development?
Wilhelm Wundt
(1832-1920)
Wundt’s experimental design question
What did he test?
What was he curious about?
In two separate trials, subjects were asked to press a
telegraph key as soon as…
Wundt’s experimental design results
What did he find?
What were the results?
What were important milestones in psychology’s early development? Cont.
Edward Bradford Titchener (1867-1927)
What is structuralism?
Early school focused on identifying the elements of thought and mind (structures) the way early chemists developed the periodic table to classify elements.
What is introspection?
The process of looking inward to directly observe one’s own psychological processes.
Describe what you sense when you…
Chew a piece of spearmint gum.
Smell the fries cooking in the cafeteria.
Sit in the chair at your desk.
TRY IT
Self-reflective introspection about the elements of experience best describes a technique used by which school of thought in psychology?
1. What Would You Answer?
What were other important milestones �in psychology’s early development?
Charles Darwin
(1809-1882)
What were some important milestones �in psychology’s early development?
William James
(1842-1910)
What is functionalism?
Functionalism assumes a purpose…
smelling and thinking must have helped us evolve….
structures of consciousness must serve a function.
smelling is what the nose does
thinking is what the brain does
but…WHY?
structuralism or functionalism?
Why do some people have strong willpower and others do not?
Describe the characteristics of the pencil you are holding.
How does eye color limit our ability to see in the dark?
TRY IT
What were additional important �milestones in psychology’s early development?
Mary Whiton Calkins
(1863-1930)
What were important contributions to psychology’s early development?
Margaret Floy Washburn (1871-1939)
By seeking to measure “atoms of the mind”, who established the first psychology laboratory?
2. What Would You Answer?
How did behaviorism further the development of psychological science?
B.F. Skinner
(1904-1990)
John B. Watson
(1878-1958)
What is behaviorism?
How did Freud further the �development of psychological science?
Sigmund Freud
(1856-1939)
What is Freudian �(or psychoanalytic) psychology?
Unconscious forces and
childhood experiences
affect our behavior and
mental processes.
How did humanism further the �development of psychological science?
Abraham Maslow
Carl Rogers
What is humanism?
psychoanalytic psychology
With which of the following statements would John B. Watson most likely agree?
3. What Would You Answer?
Learning Target 1-1 Review
How is psychology a science,
and why is it
the “rat is always right”?
Psychologists:
Learning Target 1-2 Review
What are the three key elements
of the scientific attitude, and how
do they support
scientific inquiry?
The scientific attitude encourages us to be:
in testing ideas that don’t agree with ours.
Learning Target 1-3 Review
How does critical thinking feed a
scientific attitude
and smarter thinking for everyday life?
Critical thinking puts ideas to the test by:
Learning Target 1-4 Review
How did psychology develop from
early understandings of mind and body
to the beginnings of modern science?
Learning Target 1-5 Review
What were some important
milestones in
psychology’s early development?
Learning Target 1-6 Review
How did behaviorism, Freudian
psychology, and humanistic
psychology further the development
of psychological science?