PSYC 1100 Chapter Notes - Chapter 1-2: Max Wertheimer, Operant Conditioning Chamber, Sigmund Freud

• School: UConn
• Department: Psychological Sciences
• Course: PSYC 1100
• Professor: J. Dixon

Document Summary

Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. An empirical method for acquiring knowledge is based on observation and experimentation. 1. 2 history of psychology: wundt and structuralism. Wilhelm wundt was first to be referred to as a psychologist. Introspection ( internal perception ) is a process by which someone examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible, making the human mind like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observes. Structuralism is the attempt to understand the characteristics of the mind by eliminating interpretation (studies individual parts: james and functionalism. Functionalism focuses on how mental activities help an organism fit into its environment (studies operation of the whole mind: freud and psychoanalytic theory. Psychoanalytic theory focuses on the role of a person"s unconscious, as well as early childhood experiences. Dominated clinical psychology for several decades: wertheimer, koffka, kohler, and gestalt psychology. Max wertheimer, kurt koffka, and wolfgang k hler introduced psychologists in the us to gestalt principles.