After the last course from highbrow I joined this couse.

Episode 1: Structuralism

Origin

1. Developed by Wilhelm Wundt in the 1800s.
2. The first school of thought in psychology.
3. Edward B. Titchener is also strongly associated with this school of thought.

Thought

1. Structuralists wanted to examine the adult mind in its smallest possible understandable pieces. Then they would determine how those pieces fit together to create thoughts and ideas.
2. It utilized the process of introspection, which involved trained observers’ careful descriptions in controlled conditions. The people involved were trained in how to describe their experiences using a very specific set of vocabulary.
3. Informal introspection is where an individual personally reflects on their own thoughts and feelings, but structuralists favored a more formal approach.
4. Wundt’s and Titchener’s versions were slightly different—Wundt looked at the whole experience while Titchener was focused on breaking down the process into smaller pieces.

Titchener’s Thought: Titchener argued that an experience should be considered a “fact,” which exists without considering the significance or value of the experience. He also argued that the only means of describing the conscious experience is based on these experiences – sensation and feeling (affection). The thought process was a result of those sensations, developed by experiencing a similar occurrence previously.

As a science, however, critics argue that it is not very reliable because it is so subjective—especially its introspection methods.

This study brought up the understanding of difference between Sensation and Perception.

Episode 2: Functionalism

Origin

1. Functionalism was a competing school of thought that arrived shortly after Structuralism developed.
2. Influenced by the work of both Charles Darwin and William James. John Dewey, Harvey Carr, and John Angell were involved.

Thought

1. While Structuralists considered the elements of consciousness, Functionalists focused on the underlying purpose of behavior and consciousness.
2. They concentrated their efforts on empirical, rational thought instead of an experimental approach, questioning the capabilities of the human mind instead of how they got those capabilities.
3. Functionalists argued that there was no basic structure to consciousness because it is constantly changing. That also meant, they argued, that attempting to “map consciousness” was a pointless endeavor.
4. Most scientists later agreed that the focus should be more on thought instead of attempting to build a common structure.
5. William James argued that the mind and consciousness would not exist unless they had some kind of adaptive purpose (showing the influence of Charles Darwin’s evolutionary theories). He argued, much like Darwin, that the mind developed because it served adaptive, practical purposes. That also meant, he argued, that psychology should focus on the practical implications of thought.
6. Functionalism also focused on individuals by assuming that everyone approaches thinking and problems differently. This idea laid the groundwork for more individualized education approaches.
7. It also led to the behaviorist school of thought later. Functionalists like John Dewey argued that thought creates behavior, so people should focus on studying behavior instead of trying to observe consciousness, which is extremely difficult to study.

Episode 3: Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud founded psychoanalysis. He believed that people could deal with many of their mental ailments by bringing out repressed memories. That is, he wanted to make unconscious thoughts and feelings conscious so that people could deal with them. This process is commonly used to deal with anxiety and depression. He placed a great deal of focus on childhood memories and dreams because these were, he thought, manifestations of the unconscious mind.

Psychoanalysis operated upon several assumptions.

1. the theory assumes that all psychological problems have their origins in the unconscious mind.
2. symptoms are caused by these hidden disturbances in the unconscious mind.
3. the causes are usually related to repressed trauma or unresolved issues that occurred during childhood development.
4. Lastly, treatment’s focus is to bring out these repressed memories so that the person can deal with them in his or her conscious mind.

Freud would have his patients lie on a couch and discuss their childhood and dreams. He sat behind them taking notes, and he let them discuss openly. Freud attempted to be a listening figure and only contributed when needed. He did not share personal information with his patients and did not pass judgment. Classic psychoanalysis takes an extremely long time; Freud recommended between 2 to 5 sessions per week for a period of several years. Part of the reason that psychoanalysis was such a time-consuming process was that most people used defense mechanisms to deal with conflict. Example defense mechanisms include things like repression, denial, projection, displacement, and sublimation. Freud was not focused on a reduction of symptoms; he wanted to find and bring out the underlying problem. The similarities between Freud’s approach and modern therapy are fairly apparent.

Psychoanalysis can also involve the use of the Rorschach inkblot tests. This is a test where the subject is shown pictures of ink blots that are not supposed to any real picture, but the subject is asked what the inkblot resembles to them. It supposedly helps analysts determine what is in the subject’s unconscious thought processes.

Episode 4: Evolutionary Psychology

1. Evolutionary psychology combines the concepts of natural selection and psychology.
2. It was strongly influenced by the work of Charles Darwin, it is sometimes referred to as Psychological Darwinism.
3. Evolutionary psychology is a way of thinking about psychology; it is not an area of study, like reasoning, social behavior, or vision would be.

Darwin believed that animals and humans evolved in a way that has allowed them to adapt to their environment. When the psychology portion is added in, the theory assumes that useful mental processes like memory, language, and perception were developed because they served a useful and adaptive purpose. Part of Darwin’s theory is that those who do not develop these traits will die out, and eventually only those organisms with the trait will survive. That concept is carried over into evolutionary psychology as well.

The focus in evolutionary psychology, then, is on determining the practical purpose of thought processes and using them in the best way possible. How has evolution shaped the mind and behavior over time? Technically, evolutionary psychology could be used on animals as well, but most of the research is on the development of humans.

Concepts of “instincts” and “human nature” have their roots in evolutionary psychology. While most believe that humans have lost the majority of their “natural instincts,” those instinctive thought process may still be in the unconscious mind, causing automatic or reflexive action in certain situations—particularly in dangerous situations. William James, a founding father of psychology, would argue that humans actually have more instincts, which allow them to thrive so much better than other animals. He argues that we may not realize that we have them because they work so well that they are virtually unnoticeable.

Episode 5: Biological Psychology

1. biology + psychology.
2. It is a perspective to the study of psychology rather than a science in and of itself.
3. It is tied into the work of Charles Darwin and his observation of animals.
4. There are three methods that biological psychologists use to help learn about the human mind and human behavior.
   1. Comparative method: This method implies that certain species of animals can be studied and compared, but it also works on humans—that is, studying various individuals and then comparing their responses can help psychologists understand more about human behavior.
   2. Physiology is the study of how the nervous system and hormone functions affect human behavior. Physiology also considers how the brain works and how altering these functions or the structure of the brain can affect behavior.
   3. It consider how genetics or inheritance affects behavior or intelligence.
5. Lab experiments were extremely common, and they were often geared toward finding correlations between two comparable subjects. Because of this, researchers held twin studies frequently.
6. The work in this area helped develop comparative psychology as a field, and its basic methods were highly applicable in other areas of science.
7. Critics of the approach were concerned that too much reliance on humanism (development based on evolution as a human) meant that free will was virtually non-existent.
8. The school does not recognize cognitive processes and simply focuses on “natural” adaptations.
9. There was also some concern that this type of thought made very complex ideas (including physical systems) very simplistic, so much so that some had concerns about whether results generated by the method could be trusted.

Episode 6: Gestalt Psychology

1. Founded in the 20th century and laid the foundation for modern studies of perception.
2. It argues that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts. That means that one cannot understand the parts of something to understand the thing as whole.
3. The word “Gestalt” is German, and it means the way the thing has been put together.
4. Came from Austria and Germany as an argument against more traditional schools of psychology.
5. Gestalt psychologists, particularly Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, used phenomenology as a part of Gestalt’s initial development. >Phenomenology is a method that allows the subject to describe their psychological experience without restriction.
   Using this tactic allowed them to add a more humanistic spin on psychology, as opposed to the more formalistic methods in other schools of thought.
6. Gestalt psychology’s founding is usually credited to Max Wertheimer’s publishing a German book discussing the ideas in 1912. The title of the book in English translates to “Experimental Studies of the Perception of Movement.”
7. Early Gestalt studies emphasized visual perception, particularly by using the phenomenon of illusion. One of the first optical illusions studied was a picture where the objects seemed to move downward in rapid succession. Wertheimer termed this occurrence a phi phenomenon. Under old assumptions, this experience was virtually unexplainable, but Gestalt psychology could explain it using the underlying assumptions for the theory—Wertheimer realized that the motion only appeared when the subject considered the picture as a whole. Looking at just one of its parts would not have the same effect.
8. This line of thinking challenged and altered psychological thought at the time, and it specifically called the usefulness of structuralism into question (structuralism argued that if someone could understand the parts, then they could understand the whole).

#Episode 7: Behaviorism

1. Behaviorism was the predominant approach to psychology between about 1920 and 1950, and as its namesake suggests, it focused on the study of behavior instead of attempting to study thoughts.
2. A lot of its development had to do with the fact that it was (and continues to be) much easier to study behavior than it is to study inner mental processes.
3. Behaviorism is based on a number of underlying assumptions. a. Psychologists realized that in order for psychology to have any weight as a science, researchers must have an empirical way to study processes. Behaviorism attempted to satisfy this requirement by conducting behavior-related experiments. Behaviorists argued that internal events like thinking should be explained in a behavioral way for them to be considered valid, or they should be ignored altogether. b. Many of their experiments focused on animals because they believed (and most still continue to believe) that thought processes in animals are very similar to those in humans. c. People have no free will and that a person’s environment will determine his or her behavior. d. Humans are born with their minds like a blank slate (“tabula rasa”), and the environment begins to add to the mind the second that we are born.
4. The most famous behaviorists are probably Ivan Pavlov and B.F. Skinner. Both men experimented with animals, but Pavlov was really interested in studying digestion when he made his discovery regarding conditioning. He discovered he could “train” dogs to salivate on command by pairing their food with a neutral stimulus like a bell noise. Skinner’s experiments related to training by using techniques like reinforcement and punishment.

#Episode 8: Humanistic Psychology

1. Humanistic psychology focuses on the whole person, and this school of thought recognizes that each individual is unique and people’s thought processes may be different from one another.
2. This viewpoint is also unique in that it not only observes the individual’s behavior, it also considers that individual’s perspective of the situation.
3. Like other schools, humanistic psychologists maintain that a person’s behavior is connected to their inner feelings and ideas of themselves.
4. However, this type of psychology is often considered a rejection of both the behaviorist theories and the psychodynamic approach. It was particularly popular in the 1970s and 1980s.
5. One of the focuses of humanistic psychology is that individuals have free will, and therefore they have the ability to make their own choices and determine their own paths in life. Humanistic psychologists refer to this concept as “personal agency.”
6. They also assume that all humans are basically good and that they have an innate desire to make the world (and themselves) better.
7. The emphasis is on the person’s perception of their self-worth, creativity, and overarching human values.
8. They place little value on objective reality and focus instead on the person’s perception of their environment and how it affects them.
9. Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow are both well-known psychologists who practiced humanistic psychology. a. Maslow’s hierarchy of needs is very famous, focusing on the human desire to achieve all of one’s mental and emotional needs. b. Rogers describes this process of achievement as attempting to reach self-actualization. Only if the individual reaches this stage will they have true fulfillment and happiness in life.
10. Humanistic psychology completely rejects some of the more formal science-based methods of study. Instead, researchers use processes like journaling, open-ended questions, interviews, and observations to enhance their studies.
11. They do not compare humans to animals in the way that other schools of thought have done. This focus on the individual has furthered education and workplace development in a very significant way.

Episode 9: Cognitive Psychology

1. Coined by Ulric Neisser in 1967, although the phrase was likely around in the 1950s as well.
2. This school focuses on knowing and understanding the internal processes of the mind. In particular, cognitive psychologists want to know more about the mental activities required to acquire and use knowledge. They are interested in how the stimuli ultimately produce a reaction, not just the reaction itself.
3. It focuses on the areas of perception, language, thinking (processing information), memory, and attention.
4. They believe that the cognitive approach is scientific, so their focus is on experiments and case studies; in fact, part of this view’s development was happened during the new age of the computer. Psychologists were interested in comparing the human mind to how a computer processed information. They theorized that the brain, like a computer, inputs knowledge, stores that information, and accesses it when needed. This concept did have its critics, however. a. Some argued that comparing the human brain to a computer takes out a “human” element of thought that a computer cannot possibly have. b. Arguably, it also reduces the process to be much simpler than it should be.
5. One particularly famous cognitive psychologist is Jean Piaget. Piaget was one of the first psychologists to study cognitive development in a systematic way. While most of his research focused on children, many of his ideas applied to adults as well. He developed what he referred to as “schemata” (plural of schema). Schemata allow individuals to organize knowledge “units,” similar to how a computer would file information into folders or specific processes. Piaget theorized that as children developed, they created more and more schemata, which allowed them to process information faster.
6. The comparison to computers also allowed psychologists to realize how much more complex the human mind is when compared to something that is simpler and better understood. They realized just how much of a role emotion plays in decision-making.

Episode 10: Cross-cultural Psychology

1. Cross-cultural psychology considers how cultural factors influence human behavior.
2. Developed in the late 1960s, but it was made official with the development of the International Association of Cross-Cultural Psychology’s establishment in 1972. Since that time, this branch of psychology has continued to grow in importance.
3. Culture refers to a number of human attributes, including attitudes, customs, values, and behaviors. It does not stop at race or religion; it also includes social class and geographic location. These ideas are transmitted from one generation to the next.
4. While humans as a species share many traits and similar thoughts, how those thoughts are expressed is directly affected by their culture.
5. Cross-cultural psychology considers universal behaviors and cultural behaviors to identify specific ways that culture affects how an individual acts. This also extends to how other aspects of human life are affected by culture, including social experiences, education, and family life, for example.
6. In one study, researchers found that people who saw different architectural shapes or designs on a daily basis developed different perceptions. People who live in the United States are exposed to lots of 90-degree angles, and they are susceptible to different types of optical illusions than those who live in rural African villages, where they rarely ever see similar geometric shapes.
7. There are two basic approaches to cross-cultural psychology. One considers how the cultures are similar (atic approach) while the other considers how the cultures are unique (emic approach).
8. While other schools of thought in psychology may consider immediate family and general upbringing, this school of thought is the only one to extend that consideration to cultural norms and traditions.
9. Cross-cultural psychology focuses on a few specific topics: child development, language acquisition, emotions, personality, social behavior, family life, and social relationships.
10. It is particularly useful for developing learning and teaching methods when the student and the teacher are not members of the same culture.
11. With the increase in the concept of a “global society,” understanding how other cultures express emotions, for example, will likely be helpful in communicating and cooperating with other cultures around the world.

References:

1. Major Schools of Thought in Psychology
2. Two Early Approaches Functionalism and Structuralism