Chapter one, Sections 1-4

Nicolle Rojas
   


                                                          What is psycology?

Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental process. What is behavior? Behavior is any action that other people can observe or measure. Psychologists study human behavior. They want to observe and describe the mental processes to have a better understanding. If they achieve this goal, psychologists will be able to explain, predict, and control human behavior. Psychology is the social science, and also has a foundation of natural science. People, since beginning of times, has always share a common interest, the human behavior. During the middle ages, psychologists believed that confusion and agitation were some signs of demonic possession, and it wasn’t until the birth of modern science in the 1500´s, 1600´s, and 1700´s that psychologists made great scientific advances.  Also, Socrates, believed we can learn about ourselves by examining our thoughts. They call this method of learning introspection, also Aristotle outlined the laws of association, which people are still learning about this theory more than 2000 years later.  

                                              

                  

                                                     The seven school of psychology

                                                    

                                                     Wilhem Wundt and structuralism

Wilhem Wundt founded a field of experimental psychology that came to be known as structuralism. Structuralism was based on discovering the basic elements of consciousness. It was split into two categories:

1.       Objective Sensation: it include sight and taste

2.       Subjective feeling: included emotional response and mental images.

       Structuralism believe that the human mind worked by mixing the basic elements of experience.            

                                                 William James and functionalism

                William James was one of the founders of the school of functionalism. Functionalism was concentrated with how mental process help any other kind of organism adapt to the environment. Functionalism and structuralism are different in more than one way. Structuralism is only based on introspection, and the methods in functionalism have behavioral observations in the laboratory, and it does also proposed that behavior patterns are learned and maintained because they are successful. Due to this idea, they got to the conclusion that adaptive action are repeated and eventually they become habits.

                                                        John B. Watson and behaviorism

                John B. Watson believed that it was unscientific to study or build the consciousness. He saw the unconsciousness as a private even that can only be lived, known, and understood for each individual. He was the founder of the school of behaviorism. Watson said that psychology is the scientific study of the observable behavior.

                                                         B. F. Skinner and reinforcement

                B. F. Skinner added information and ideas to the behaviorist tradition by including the idea of reinforcement. With his idea, he demonstrated that when an animal is reinforced when he\she has done an action, it will be more likely to be perform again in the future with better results or just as good as the first time. Behaviorist have taught animals to push buttons, turn in circles, climb ladder, and lots of many other things. They also believe that human learn the same way that animals learn.

                                                                The Gestalt School

                The perception of something of something is affected by the context in which it occurs. A German psychologist, Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler were intrigued by the ways in which the context influences people way to interpret the information.

                                          Sigmund Freud and the school of Psychoanalysis

                Sigmund Freud, was one of the most famous of the psychologists. He founded a school of thoughts called psychoanalysis which was concentrated in the importance of unconscious motives and internal conflicts in determining human behavior. Sigmund Freud theory was also called psychodynamic thinking.

 

                                          

 

                                                                 The Biological Perspective

                Biological perspective emphasizes the influence of biology on our behavior. Psychologists assume that our mental processes are made possible by our nervous system. Biological psychologist are more into the influences of hormones and genes. Biological psychologists study the influence of genes on personality traits, psychological health, and various behavior patterns.

                                                                The evolutionary perspective

                The evolutionary perspective focuses on the evolution of the human behavior and the mental processes. Charles Darwin theorized that the organism have a better chance of survival when they can reproduce. This means that people who are immune to some of the diseases are more likely to give their genes to future generation. A lot of psychologist believe that behavior patterns, like aggression and depression are hereditary.

                                                                The cognitive perspective

                Cognitive perspective  highlights the role that thoughts play a determining behavior.

Cognitive psychologist study mental processes to understand human nature. Another aspect of the cognitive perspective includes information processing. My cognitive psychologist have been influenced by computers science.

                                                                The humanistic perspective

Humanistic perspective shows that the human capacity for self-fulfillment and the importance of the conscious and self-awareness are the capacity to make choices. Consciousness is seen as the force that shapes human personality.

                                                                Psychoanalytic perspective

                Psychoanalytic perspective shows the influence of the unconscious power over the human behavior. The unconscious process are affected by our early childhood experience.

                                                          The learning perspective

                Learning perspective shows the effects of the experience on the human behavior. Social- learning theory comments that people can change their environment or create new ones, it also holds that people can learn intentionally by watching other people or things.

                                                                The social cultural perspective

                The social cultural perspective studies the influence of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status and behavior in the mental process. When they take this in account, psychologists can better understand the way people think and act.