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PSYCHOLOGY
Late 19th century
Early 20th century
Approximately late 17th century
Branch of philosophy until 1870's where it then became an independent science who don't need no man
Researchers believed that to be a true science they needn't assume things so they turned to study overt behaviour and disregarded mental processes and therefore psychology became known as
The name 'psychology' originated from two Greek words: 'psyche' and 'logos.'
Psyche: soul or mind
Logo: study or knowledge
"The study of the soul or mind"
"The study of mental life"
"The scientific study of behaviour"
Late 20th century (1970's)
VCE Psychology
Thanks to the technology breakthrough in the 70's, new technologies such as scanning devices made it clear to psychologists that in order to fully understand behaviour they needed to know about mental processes and vice versa. From that realization, the definition of psychology changed once again and is still the definition for it today.
In VCE, we like to break it down and make it a bit more precise and specific so therefore we need to know the definition of psychology as:
"The systematic study of the mind and behaviour"
"The scientific study of mental processes and behaviour in animals and humans"
What is it and what does it do?
Functionalism vs Structuralism
In 1890, William James proposed functionalism as an alternative approach to look at consciousness, a different perspective than that of structuralism
Wilhelm Wundt
William James
It looks at how the mind/consciousness functions and adapts in a continuously changing environment, how it allows us to survive, what the purpose is of our mental processes.
Focuses on understanding and explaining consciousness
Focuses on purpose/function of mental processes in relation to environment adaptability
"A never-ending constantly changing stream of thoughts, feelings and sensations."
Importance of introspection
and experimentation
Broke down into basic elements
Defined psychology as 'the
study of consciousness'
Described as a stream of consciousness
Asks what and where
Asks why and how
Basic stuff
German discovery
His beliefs
Example: If we see a bear, do we run because we are afraid or are we afraid because we're running?
American discovery
Study through direct observation
Didn't like or believe in the divided or structured ways of science
1842-1910, 68 years old, NYC
Lacked a single framework, never forced anything, would bring up both sides to question and accept contradictions
American psychologist, philosopher and trained physician.
Refused to be tied down to a restricted system of thoughts
"Father of American Psychology"
Not based on controlled experiments
Theories provided little predictive ability
Charles Darwin - Origin of Species (inspiration)
Height of industrial revolution - relates to functionalism, humans like machines (influence)
Interests
Methods
How does this relate to us today?
Why we're learning about him
Psychology
Art
Psychology we're learning today would not be as
developed.
Helped create psychology
Science
Influential
Created new research methods such as questionnaires, physiological measures and mental tests.
Introspection - participants look inwards and report about a particular topic. Not a valid technique for modern psychology. Place in clinical.
Experimental research - testing a cause and effect relationship
Comparative method - studying and comparing one thing to another
eg) comparing variations in behaviour between animals and humans or children and adults
Medicine
Religion
Helps the way the way we look at things in science.
Proposed a different perspective and is known for developing the approach of functionalism
Philosophy