PSYC 1001 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: James Mckeen Cattell, American Psychological Association, Murder Of Reena Virk
16 Jun 2018
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Psychology Chapter 1 Notes
Intro to chapter case study:
- Reena Virk was a bullied 14-year-old
- Reena had wanted to be a part of Kelly Ellards group and was lured to be with member of
the group
- That night she was swarmed by the group and repeatedly beaten and burned with
cigarettes
- Her body was found a week later
- Warren glowatski and Kelly Ellard were convicted of second degree murder
- Rehtaeh parsons was also the victim of bullying (cyberbullying)
- Photographs of her sexual assault where posted online
- Passed away via suicide
Bullying in Canadian School yards
- Pepler and Craig
- Naturalistic method
- Participants: 34 teacher nominated socially competent children who has been videotaped
on the school playground during unstructured lunch and recess activities
- Age of children: 9.9 years
- 300 bullying episodes identified in 48 hours of taping
- Boys were involved in bullying at a rate about double that of girls
- Bullig does’t see to take plae in an isolated social setting: peers were involved to
some extent
- Recent research in bullying has focused on girls because there is evidence to suggest that
the rate of violence involving females seems to be increasing at a faster rate than that for
males
Philosophy, physiology, psychology
- Psychology comes from psyche = soul and logos = the study of a subject
- Literally meaning is the study of the mind
- The developments in philosophy and physiology influenced the course of early psychology
- Aristotle’s theor of eor suggest that eories are the result of three priiples of
association l similarity, contrast, and contiguity
- Descartes and dualism of mind and body (the mind and the body were separate and
fundamentally different, with the mind (soul) being immaterial and the province of god.)
- Also believed that processes and functions such as memory, perception, dreaming, and
emotions where properties of the body and therefore open to being understood in
naturalistic terms
- Willia Hare’s (1682) demonstrated that blood circulation was a function of the
operations of the heart, (Robert Whyte, Franz Gall, Paul Broca, Johannes muller) show
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that important insights could be gained into the workings of the body and brain through
the applications of systematic empirical methods
Wilhelm Wundt
- 1832-1920
- Psholog’s parets here the disciplines of philosophy and physiology
- German professor
- Campaign to make psychology and independent discipline
- 1879: established the first formal laboratory for research in psychology at the university
of Leipzig
- 1879 is the date of birth of psychology
- 1881: established the first journal devoted to publishing research on psychology
- Known as the founder of psychology
- Declared that the new psychology should be a science modelled after fields like chemistry
and physics
- Psychologies primary focus was consciousness (the awareness of immediate experience)
G.H Stanley
- Wudt’s studet
- 1846-1924
- Growth of psychology in the united states
- Established Americas first research laboratory in psychology at john Hopkins university in
1883
- 1887: launched the first psychology journal in the united states
- 1892: driving force behind the established on the American psychological association
(APA) and was elected its first president
Structuralism
- Structuralism (Edward Titchener): based on the notion that the task of psychology is to
analyze consciousness into its basic elements and investigate how these elements are
related
- Wanted to identify and examine the fundamental components of conscious experiences
such as sensations, feelings and images
- Structuralist depended on the method of introspections (the careful systematic self-
observation of oe’s own conscious experience
- Limitations associated with the use of introspection were a factor that contributed to the
demise of structuralism
- Since there is no independent objective evaluation of that claim
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Functionalism
- Functionalism: based on the belief that psychology should investigate the function or
purpose of consciousness rather than its structure (William James (1842-1910))
- William James had formal training in medicine
- William James had the book principles of psychology (1890) William James like the
concept of natural selection he believed that consciousness consists of a continuous flow
of thoughts
- Known as the stream of consciousness
- Functionalists cared about how people adapt their behavior to the demands of the real
world around them
- Functionalist: James McKeen Cattell and john Dewey
- Investigated mental testing, patterns of development in children and the effectiveness of
educational practices and the behavioral differences in between the sexes
- May have played a role in attracting the first females into the field of psychology
- Most historians agree with functionalism
- Fostered the development of two descendants that have dominated modern psychology:
behaviorism and applies psychology
Behaviorism
- John B Watson (1878-1958)
- Occurred in the early 19’s
- Theoretical orientation based on the premise that scientific psychology should study only
observable behavior
- Watson proposed that psychologist should abandon the study of consciousness
altogether and focus exclusively on behavior that could be observed directly
- To Watson the power of the scientific method rested on the idea of verifiability
- If psychology were to be a science, it would have to give up consciousness as its subject
matter and became instead the science of behavior
- Behavior: any over (observable) response or activity by an organism
- Can study whatever people do or say but ould’t stud sietifiall the thoughts, ishes
and feelings that might accompany these observable behaviors
- Nature vs nurture: whether behaviors is determined mainly by genetic inheritance
ature or eiroet ad eperiee urture
- Watson argued that one is made not born (behavior is governed primarily by the
environment
- gie e a doze health ifats, ell-formed and my own specified world to bring them
up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of
specialist I might select- doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant chief and yes ever behavior man
and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, observations and race
of his ancestors. I am beyond my facts and I admit it, but so have the advocates of the
contrary and they have been doig it for a thousad s of ear
- Stimulus is any detectable input from the environment
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