First Psychological

Laboratory was established at the University of Leipzig (Germany) in 1879 Founder: Wilhelm Wundt

Structuralism
Proponents Wilhelm Wundt

Edward Titchener Basics: Analyze the mind and its part by studying conscious mental experience What is consciousness? Method: Analytic Introspection, Introspective Analysis

The Three basic element of consciousness

Sensations
Images Feelings

 The method that Wundt developed is a sort

of experimental introspection: The researcher was to carefully observe some simple event -- one that could be measured as to quality, intensity, or duration -- and record his responses to variations of those events. (Note that in German philosophy at that time, sensations were considered psychological events, and therefore internal to the mind, even though the sensation is of something that is outside the mind. Hence what we might call observation was called by Wundt introspection!)

experimental version of introspection -- the careful observation of ones perceptions -and outlined some pretty specific details to the method: 1. The observer must know when the experience begins and ends. 2. The observer must maintain "strained attention." 3. The phenomenon must bear repetition. 4. And the phenomenon must be capable of variation -- i.e. experimentation.

The scientific psychology of Helmholtz and Wundt had a

profound effect on James when he visited Germany in 1867. James joined the faculty of Harvard University where he opened a laboratory in 1875.

Functionalism

Proponents William James

Basics: Function of the organisms behavior

and consciousness in his adaptation to his environment What is consciousness for? Method: How the mind affects what people do

 Functionalism as a psychology

developed out of Pragmatism as a philosophy: To find the meaning of an idea, you have to look at its consequences (see where it leads). So truth is what is useful, practical, pragmatic. This led James and his students towards an emphasis on cause and effect, prediction and control, and observation of environment and behavior, over the careful introspection of the Structuralists.

Pragmatism Validation of knowledge in terms of its consequence, values of utility

Structuralism and Functionalism

The Conscious and the

Unconscious

Psychoanalysis
Proponents Sigmund Freud Basics: Unconscious Mind What are your past childhood experiences Method: Free association, Dream Analysis, Projective Test, Hypnosis

The Unconscious
Basic but unacceptable

(forbidden, punished) wishes of childhood get driven out of awareness The Iceberg

Free Association
Couch Therapy
(

under the guidance of analyst) ways of helping unconscious wishes

Dream Analysis
Dreams are the royal road to

unconscious Interpretation of Dreams

Projective Test
Draw A Person
Inkblot Test

Hypnosis
Altered state of consciousness

Both Wundt and James were empiricists, and considered their psychologies experimental. Neither liked the rationalistic systems prevalent in the philosophy of their

day. However, neither were anything like what most people understand as experimentalists today, because neither of them were materialists or reductionists.

Behaviorism
Proponents John B. Watson, Ivan

Pavlov, BF Skinner, Thorndike Basics: Stimulus Response Observable Behavior that are measurable Method: Experimental Method (Laboratory)

Behaviorism
School of psychology rejected the study of mind and mental

experiences to explain human behavior as explained by the structuralist, functionalist and psychoanalyst

Behaviorism Emphasis on prediction and control of behavior

3 important characteristics
Emphasis on condition reflexes as the building blocks of behavior Emphasis on learned behavior
Emphasis on animal behavior

Behaviorism denied the

existence of instinct

Gestalt Proponents Max Wertheimer,

Wolfgang Kohler, Kurt Koffka Basics: The whole is different from the sum of its part What is the essence or unity of human behavior? Method: Phenomenology, study of conscious experience

Gestalt
German word meaning

Form Shape Organization Configuration

The Organizing Ability of the

human mind

Phenomenology
Studying phenomena as

perceived by the subject

Phi phenomenon
The mind organizes stimuli into

related wholes so that perception or the mental processing of information is more than a series of individual sensations.

Gestalt
Dreams are royal road to

integrity

 They did not protest against the

concept of conscious experience and introspection in any form. Instead they objected the idea of mental chemistry that complex conscious experience could be broken down by introspective observation into its component elements. Once this is done, they maintained, the unity of phenomenon being studied is destroyed