Overview
This lecture provides a comprehensive history and overview of psychology, tracing its roots from philosophy and literature to modern scientific approaches, and exploring major schools, key concepts, and influential figures.
Origins and History of Psychology
- Psychology originated as the study of the mind (psyche) within philosophy and literature.
- Ancient Greeks (e.g., Hippocrates, Galen) developed humorism to explain personality types.
- Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle discussed happiness, virtue, and levels of pleasure.
- In India, the Upanishads focused on the self, consciousness, and self-actualization.
- Islamic scholars blended Greek and Indian psychological ideas with religious philosophy.
- The Enlightenment saw psychology separate from philosophy as science questioned religion.
Major Approaches and Schools
- Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt): Breaks consciousness into parts—representation, willing, feeling.
- Functionalism (William James): Views consciousness as a fluid, adaptive process.
- Behaviorism (Pavlov, Thorndike, Watson, Skinner): Studies behavior as conditioned by environment; emphasizes learning through reinforcement.
- Psychoanalysis (Freud, Jung): Focuses on conscious, subconscious, and unconscious processes; Freud on individual unconscious, Jung on collective unconscious.
- Cognitive Psychology: Focuses on perception, memory, attention, and intelligence; compares the mind to a computer.
- Humanistic and Existential Psychology: Emphasize meaning, fulfillment, self-actualization (Rogers, Maslow, Frankl).
- Social Psychology: Studies influence of society and group conformity on the individual.
Key Concepts and Topics
- Nature vs. Nurture: Debate over genetic vs. environmental determinants of behavior.
- Consciousness: Divided into conscious, subconscious, and unconscious layers.
- Attachment Theory: Early bonds influence personality and emotional health (Bowlby, Ainsworth).
- Memory: Influenced by emotion, meaning, and retrieval cues; can be unreliable (Ebbinghaus, Tulving, Loftus).
- Personality and Intelligence: Traits shaped by biology and environment; intelligence is fluid and dynamic.
Psychology of Sexes and Development
- Males and females differ in biological drives, mating strategies, and cognitive tendencies.
- Child psychology explores stages of cognitive and moral development (Piaget, Vygotsky, Kohlberg).
- Autism and differences in empathy vs. systematizing brains are noted (Baron-Cohen).
Limitations and Paradoxes
- Psychology faces the paradox of being both observer and observed, making objective measurement difficult.
- As society changes, psychological theories struggle to keep pace (Zeno’s Paradox).
- Criticism exists over psychiatric diagnoses and over-reliance on medication.
Key Terms & Definitions
- Humorism — Ancient theory linking body fluids to personality types.
- Structuralism — Breaking consciousness into components for study.
- Functionalism — Studying consciousness by its adaptive functions.
- Behaviorism — Psychology focusing on observable behavior.
- Psychoanalysis — Study of unconscious motives and mental disorders.
- Cognitive Psychology — Science of mental processes and information handling.
- Attachment Theory — How early relationships shape development.
- Nature vs. Nurture — Roles of genetics vs. environment in behavior.
- Collective Unconscious — Jung’s term for shared inherited memories.
Action Items / Next Steps
- Review major schools and influential psychologists mentioned.
- Compare structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism.
- Reflect on which psychological approach resonates most.
- Prepare for exam questions on key figures, definitions, and debates (nature vs. nurture, consciousness).