Psychological thought has evolved from philosophical inquiry to scientific research. Describe the value of different perspectives in the field and the need for the subdivisions in your own words

2017/5/27 PSY101 - Module 1.2 https://www .riolearn.or g/content/psy/psy101/PSY101_INTER_0000_v8/lessons/module01-02.shtml 1/8 M o d u le 1 .2 : H is t o r y o f P s y c h o lo g y The earliest psychologists that w e know about are the G reek philosophers Plato (428–347 BC) and Aristotle (384–322 BC). These philosophers asked m any of the sam e questions that today's psychologists ask; for instance, they questioned the distinction betw een nature and nurture and the existence of free w ill. In term s of the form er, Plato argued on the nature side, believing that certain kinds of know ledge are innate or inborn, w hereas Aristotle w as m ore on the nurture side, believing that each child is born as an "em pty slate" (in Latin a tabula rasa) and that know ledge is prim arily acquired through learning and experience (Introducing Psychology, 2012). French philosopher René D escartes (1596–1650) also considered the issue of free w ill, arguing in its favor and believing that the m ind controls the body through the pineal gland in the brain (an idea that m ade som e sense at the tim e but w as later proved incorrect). D escartes also believed in the existence of innate natural abilities. A scientist as w ell as a philosopher, D escartes dissected anim als and w as am ong the ﬁrst to understand that the nerves controlled the m uscles. H e also addressed the relationship betw een m ind (the m ental aspects of life) and body (the physical aspects of life). D escartes believed in the principle of dualism : that the m ind is fundam entally different from the m echanical body. O ther European philosophers, including Thom as H obbes (1588–1679), John Locke (1632–1704), and Jean-Jacques Rousseau (1712–1778), also w eighed in on these issues. E a rly S c h o o ls o f P s y c h o lo g y G radually in the m id-1800s, the scientiﬁc ﬁeld of psychology gained its independence from philosophy w hen researchers developed laboratories to exam ine and test hum an sensations and perceptions using scientiﬁc m ethods. The ﬁrst tw o prom inent research psychologists w ere the G erm an psychologist W ilhelm W undt (1832–1920), w ho developed the ﬁrst psychology laboratory in Leipzig, G erm any in 1879, and the Am erican psychologist W illiam Jam es (1842–1910), w ho founded an Am erican psychology laboratory at H arvard U niversity. U se the slideshow below to read about the early schools of psychological thought, beginning in the 19th century and continuing to contem porary tim es. Click the arrow s to m ove from one school of thought to the next. Access an accessible copy of this slideshow Print This Page Stru ctu ralism 2017/5/27 PSY101 - Module 1.2 https://www .riolearn.or g/content/psy/psy101/PSY101_INTER_0000_v8/lessons/module01-02.shtml 2/8 T im e lin e – E a rly M o d e rn a n d M o d e rn E ra Below is a tim eline listing various dates. The dates are birth years for several notable psychologists. Click a year to reveal the nam e of a notable psychologist and his or her school of thought, an interesting fact, or w hat he or she is fam ous for. Access an accessible copy of this slideshow Date Psychologist(s) Description 428 - 347 O riginated in the early 19th century and is no longer an active school of psychological thought. Im portant ﬁgures in structuralism include W ilhelm W undt (pictured at right) and Edw ard B. Titchener. Structuralism used introspection (or internal perception) to observe the m ind and identify the basic elem ents or "structure" of psychological experiences, such as reaction tim e betw een seeing a light ﬂash and pushing a button in response to that stim ulus. In W undt's experim ents, trained observers experienced an external stim ulus, then im m ediately observed and reported their reactions. The experim ent w as designed so that the stim ulus w as repeatable and w ould alw ays produce the sam e reaction, elim inating "interpretation" in the reports of the subjects. D espite W undt's efforts to train his subjects, the process rem ained highly subjective. 2017/5/27 PSY101 - Module 1.2 https://www .riolearn.or g/content/psy/psy101/PSY101_INTER_0000_v8/lessons/module01-02.shtml 3/8 384 - 322 1588 - 1697 1596 - 1650 1632 - 1704 1712 - 1778 1801 - 1887 1809 - 1882 1832 - 1920 1849 - 1936 1850 - 1909 1856 - 1939 1867 - 1927 2017/5/27 PSY101 - Module 1.2 https://www .riolearn.or g/content/psy/psy101/PSY101_INTER_0000_v8/lessons/module01-02.shtml 4/8 1878 - 1958 1886 - 1969 1896 - 1980 1904 - 1990 1926 - 1993 20th and 21st century 20th and 21st century T h e C o g n itiv e R e v o lu tio n 2017/5/27 PSY101 - Module 1.2 https://www .riolearn.or g/content/psy/psy101/PSY101_INTER_0000_v8/lessons/module01-02.shtml 5/8 Behaviorism 's em phasis on objectivity and focus on external behavior had pulled psychologists' attention aw ay from the m ind for a prolonged period of tim e. The early w ork of the hum anistic psychologists redirected attention to the individual hum an as a w hole, conscious, and self- aw are being. By the 1950s, new disciplinary perspectives in linguistics, neuroscience, and com puter science w ere em erging, and these areas revived interest in the m ind as a focus of scientiﬁc inquiry. This particular perspective has com e to be know n as the cognitive revolution (M iller, 2003). Although no one person is entirely responsible for starting the cognitive revolution, N oam Chom sky w as very inﬂuential in the early days of this m ovem ent. Chom sky (1928–), an Am erican linguist, w as dissatisﬁed w ith the inﬂuence that behaviorism had had on psychology. H e believed that psychology's focus on behavior w as short-sighted and that the ﬁeld had to re-focus on m ental functioning if it w ere to offer m eaningful contributions to understanding behavior (M iller, 2003). F e m in is t P s y c h o lo g y Early psychology developed w ith the biases of the W estern, w hite, and m ale academ ics w ho dom inated the ﬁeld, w hich often had negative consequences for w om en, people of color, and LG BT persons. M em bers of these dem ographics had diﬃ culties entering the ﬁeld of psychology and had little inﬂuence on its early developm ent. They also suffered from the attitudes taken tow ard them by w hite, m ale psychologists, w ho w ere not im m une to the nonscientiﬁc attitudes prevalent in the society in w hich they developed and w orked. U ntil the 1960s, few w om en w ere able to practice psychology, so they had little inﬂuence on w hat w as studied. In addition, the experim ental subjects of psychology w ere usually m en, a result of underlying assum ptions that gender had no inﬂuence on psychology and that w om en w ere not of suﬃ cient interest to study. An article by N aom i W eisstein, ﬁrst published in 1968 (W eisstein, 1993), stim ulated a fem inist revolution in psychology by presenting a critique of psychology as a science. She also speciﬁcally criticized m ale psychologists for constructing the psychology of w om en entirely out of their ow n cultural biases and w ithout careful experim ental tests to verify any of their characterizations of w om en. O ne such exam ple cited by W eisstein com es from Bruno Bettleheim , a prom inent psychologist of the 1960s: ". . . w e m ust start w ith the realization that, as m uch as w om en w ant to be good scientists or engineers, they w ant ﬁrst and forem ost to be w om anly com panions of m en and to be m others." W eisstein's critique form ed the foundation for the subsequent developm ent of a fem inist psychology that attem pted to be free of the inﬂuence of m ale cultural biases on our know ledge of the psychology of w om en and, indeed, of both genders. M u ltic u ltu ra l P s y c h o lo g y Culture has im portant im pacts on individuals and social psychology, but this area is under-studied. There is a risk that psychological theories and data derived from w hite, Am erican settings could be incorrectly assum ed to apply to individuals and social groups from other cultures (Betancourt & López, 1993). 2017/5/27 PSY101 - Module 1.2 https://www .riolearn.or g/content/psy/psy101/PSY101_INTER_0000_v8/lessons/module01-02.shtml 6/8 O ne w eakness in the ﬁeld of cross-cultural psychology is that, in looking for differences in psychological attributes across cultures, there rem ains a need to go beyond sim ple descriptive statistics (Betancourt & López, 1993). In this sense, it has rem ained a descriptive science, rather than one seeking to determ ine cause and effect. For exam ple, a study of characteristics of individuals seeking treatm ent for a binge eating disorder in H ispanic Am erican, African Am erican, and Caucasian Am erican individuals found signiﬁcant differences betw een groups (Franko et al., 2012). The study concluded that results from studying any one of the groups could not be extended to the other groups, and yet potential causes of the differences w ere not m easured. This history of m ulticultural psychology in the U nited States is a long one. The role of African Am erican psychologists in researching the cultural differences betw een African Am erican individual and social psychology is but one exam ple. In 1920, Cecil Sum ner w as the ﬁrst African Am erican to receive a PhD in psychology in the U nited States. Sum ner established a psychology degree program at H ow ard U niversity, leading to the education of a new generation of African Am erican psychologists (Black, Spence, and O m ari, 2004). M uch of the w ork of early African Am erican psychologists (and a general focus of m uch w ork in the ﬁrst half of the 20th century in psychology in the U nited States) w as dedicated to testing and intelligence testing in particular (Black et al., 2004). That em phasis has continued, particularly because of the im portance of testing in determ ining opportunities for children, but other areas of exploration in African-Am erican psychology research include learning style, sense of com m unity and belonging, and spiritualism (Black et al., 2004). The Am erican Psychological Association has several ethnically based organizations for professional psychologists that facilitate interactions am ong m em bers. Since psychologists belonging to speciﬁc ethnic groups or cultures have the m ost interest in studying the psychology of their com m unities, these organizations provide an opportunity for the grow th of research on the im pact of culture on individual and social psychology. 2017/5/27 PSY101 - Module 1.2 https://www .riolearn.or g/content/psy/psy101/PSY101_INTER_0000_v8/lessons/module01-02.shtml 7/8 Directions: M atch the person on the right with his or her theory or contribution on the left by clicking on the contribution and dragging it to the appropriate spot. GET KEYBOARD TIPS RESET ALL QUESTIONS C h e ck Y o u r K n o w le d g e W ho’ s W ho? THEORIST Naomi W eisstein J. Piaget Carl Rogers W illiam James Sigmund Freud W ilhelm W undt Cecil Sumner B.F . Skinner Aristotle Charles Darwin CONTRIBUTION Criticized male psychologists for constructing the psychology of women Looked for causes and consequences of behaviors and mental processes Behavior is shaped by unconscious thoughts and feelings Humanist psychologist Developed an important theory of cognitive development in children Created the first psychology laboratory Established a psychology degree at Howard University Argued for the role of nurture in psychological development Behaviorist psychologist Theory of natural selection influenced functionalism 2017/5/27 PSY101 - Module 1.2 https://www .riolearn.or g/content/psy/psy101/PSY101_INTER_0000_v8/lessons/module01-02.shtml 8/8 M odule 1.1 M odule 1.3