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Period: 400 BCE to 500 BCE
Greeks
Began to study human behavior,
Decided people’s lives were dominated by their own minds,
Set the stage for the development of the sciences through observation -
Period: Feb 19, 1473 to May 21, 1543
Nicolaus Copernicus
Published the idea that the sun is the center of the universe,
AKA the heliocentric system, -
Period: Feb 15, 1564 to
Galileo Galilei
Used a telescope to confirm predictions about star position and movement based on Copernicus' work,
Discovered the 4 most massive moons of Jupiter. -
Period: to
René Descartes
Proposed a link existed between mind and body
Reasoned that the mind controlled body’s movements, sensations, & perceptions. -
Period: to
Dualism
The idea that the mind and body act separately & distinctly,
Popularized by seventeenth-century philosophers. -
Period: to
19th Century Discoveries
Scientists discovered cells as the building blocks of life,
Periodic table developed,
Scientists studied complex phenomena by reducing them so simpler parts,
Psychology was formed,
History of psychology = history of alternative perspectives. -
Period: to
Sir Francis Galton
Traced famous ancestors of various eminent people & concluded that genius is a hereditary trait,
Invented procedures for directly testing the abilities & characteristics of a wide range of people,
Published the 1st study of individual differences in 1883 (Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development). -
Period: to
Phrenology
The practice of examining bumps on a person’s skull to determine that person’s intellect & character traits,
Encouraged the study into the role of the brain in human behavior -
Period: to
William James
Taught the 1st class in psychology at Harvard University in 1875,
The "father of psychology,"
Wrote the 1st textbook of psychology- published in 1890,
He was a functionalist- he studied how animals & people adapt to their environments. -
Period: to
Ivan Pavlov
Charted another new course for psychological investigation,
He rang a tuning fork each time he gave a dog some meat powder. The dog would salivate when the powder reached its mouth.
After Pavlov repeated the procedure several times, the dog salivated when it heard the ring of the tuning fork, even if no food appeared.
It had been conditioned to associate the sound with the food.
He was a behaviorist- a psychologist who stresses investigating observable behavior. -
Period: to
Sigmund Freud
Believed that there are primitive biological urges in conflict with the requirements of society & morality in the unconscious mind & that those urges are responsible for most human behavior,
Used free association- a patient said everything that came to mind, while a psychoanalyst sat and listened,
Also believed dreams are expressions of the most primitive unconscious urges- used dream analysis,
Took extensive notes & used those case studies to make a theory of personality. -
Period: to
John B. Watson
Believed psychology should concern itself only with the observable facts of behavior.
Further maintained that all behavior is the result of conditioning, & occurs because the appropriate stimulus is present in the environment. -
Period: to
German Psychologists
Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Köhler, & Kurt Koffka.
Argued that perception is more than the sum of its parts- it involves a "whole pattern'- a Gestalt,
Studied how sensations are assembled into perceptual experiences. -
Period: to
B.F. Skinner
Popularized the concept of changing behaviors through repeated rewards or punishments.
Published Walden Two in 1948, portraying his idea of Utopia—a small town in which conditioning, through rewarding those who display behavior that is considered desirable, rules every conceivable facet of life. -
Period: to
Cognitivists
Jean Piaget, Noam Chomsky, & Leon Festinger.
Focus on how we process, store, retrieve, and use info & how this info influences thinking, language, problem-solving, & creativity.
Belief that behavior is more than a response to a stimulus- it's influenced by a variety of mental processes.
Today it's known as behavioral neuroscience. -
Period: to
Humanists
Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, & Rollo May.
Described human nature as evolving & self-directed.
Doesn't view humans as being controlled by exterior events or unconscious forces.
Emphasizes that each person has a unique individual identity & can develop fully -
Period: to
Psychobiologists
Psychobiologists- study how the brain, nervous system, hormones, & genetics influence behavior.
They use PET, CT, fMRI & MEG/MSI scans.
Found that genetic factors influence a wide range of human behaviors.
Discovered a link between chemicals in the brain and behavior.
Behavior is the result of our physiological makeup. -
Period: to
Sociocultural Psychologists
Studies how our knowledge & ways of thinking, feeling, & behaving depend on the culture we belong to.
Leonard Doob- illustrated the cultural implications of a sneeze.
Study the impact & integration of the millions of immigrants who come to the US yearly.
And the attitudes, beliefs, values, & social norms & roles of these racial & ethnic groups & methods to reduce intolerance & discrimination.
Also concerned w/ gender & socioeconomic status- these factors impact human behavior & mental processes.