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-Scientific study of behavior and mental processes, not just on
peoples action but also on their biological activities, feelings,
perceptions, memory, reasoning, and thoughts.
-Study --> careful observation
-Routine, structure and methodical
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Beginning of Psychology:
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Wilhelm Wundt:
-Wanted to study the building blocks of his mind
-Considered psychology to be the study of conscious experience
Structuralism:
-Focus of uncovering the fundamental mental components of
consciousness and other mental activities.
Introspection:
-Focus on the structure of the mind in subjects
-subjective
-opinion-based
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William James:
-Rejected structuralism and the idea that the mind is made up of
building blocks
-Proposed Functionalism which is concentrated on what the
mind does, function of mental activity, the role of behavior in
allowing people to adapt to their environments.
-Consciousness is continuous "Stream of consciousness"
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John B. Watson:
-Rejected introspection
-Needs to study what you can observe (behaviors or behaviorism)
-Behaviors are affected by Environmental encounters (stimuli)
-Influenced by Pavlov's work
-All behaviors could be reduced to stimulus-response
-All behavior is learned
-- you can make a child anything you want
-- a child comes into the world as a -- tabula rasa -- or a blank
slate
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Freud:
-Probing the mind of patients
"Unconscious ideas or thoughts motivate us, forces that drive
behavior"
-Ideas that are out of our awareness
-Used the method of free association to recall events
-Dreams--> something from our unconscious needs to reveal
itself.
Ex. Falling --> powerlessness
-Gave the patient a word or idea and asked for a response
-He suggested that recalling evens and accepting them leads to
anxiety reduction.
-Behavior is motivated by past events
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What type of behavior are studied?
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-Variations within the same individual
-- how does the individual behave as a result of context?