There was no formal discipline of psychology during the time of Aristotle—and not for 2,200 years after he lived. In the 17th and 18th centuries, physics, biology, medi- cine, and other sciences accumulated enough knowledge and scientifi c methods to set them apart from other fi elds. The launching of the separate fi eld of psychology is usually credited to Wilhelm Wundt for establishing the fi rst laboratory of Psychology in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879. Some historians believe that William James deserves the honor for a less-publicized laboratory that opened in 1875 at Harvard University.
Actually, no one person “founded” psychology. Psychology was founded by many groups of scientists. Their varied interests laid the foundations for the diverse fi eld sur- veyed in this text. As you read about some of the most infl uential early psychologists,
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imagine how different their answers would be if you asked each of them: “What is the most important question that psychology must answer?”
Nature of Conscious Experience
The fi rst topic studied by psychologists was private conscious experience. What are you thinking and feeling right now? Everything that you are aware of at this moment is your private conscious experience. The fi rst psychologists wanted to understand the basic elements of consciousness and how they worked together.
Wundt, Titchener, and Structuralism. Wilhelm Wundt was a professor of biology in Germany who was fascinated by human consciousness (Wong, 2009).
His work was expanded by his student Edward Titchener, who later taught at Cornell University. Just as chemists were trying to discover the basic elements that make up physical substances, Wundt and Titchener wanted to identify the basic elements of conscious experience. Because Wundt and Titchener were interested in the basic ele- ments of the conscious experience and how those elements are organized, their view- point is known as structuralism.
Wundt and Titchener studied the elements of private consciousness using intro- spection, a method of looking inwardly at one’s own conscious experiences. Wundt and Titchener trained themselves to observe the contents of their own minds as accu- rately and unemotionally as possible in an attempt to isolate the basic elements of the mind. What does that mean exactly?
Suppose I visit your school someday, and your instructor asks me to give a guest lecture on the history of psychology. If I am in a particularly dramatic mood, I might decide to give the lecture playing the role of Edward Titchener. Imagine that I arrive wearing a fake beard and the fl owing black academic robes like the ones he always wore, and I choose you to be the subject of a demonstration of introspection. I ask you to close your eyes, and I place in your mouth a bit of apple that you have not seen.
Then I ask you to describe the raw sensations that the apple creates in your mind. You hesitate a moment, then announce with a smile: “It’s an apple!”
“ Nein! Nein! Nein! ” I shout, using the only word I can remember from German 101. “I asked you to tell me what you sense. Don’t tell me what the thing is on your tongue. Describe the sensations that you experience!”
You hesitate again, regain your composure, and say: “Sweet?”
“Yes! Yes!” I cry. “What else do you sense?”
“A little bit of sourness, a grainy texture, and a wetness.”
“Wonderful!” I shout, causing you to break into a grin. “Now you’re introspecting.
Now you’re describing the elemental contents of your mind. Sweet, sour, grainy . . . those are some the building blocks from which consciousness is structured. Every- thing that you experience in life is based on a small number of these basic elements.”
J. Henry Alston. Although Wundt and Titchener were the fi rst structural psycholo- gists to study conscious experience, other scientists soon joined the effort. One notable early structuralist was J. Henry Alston. Alston is best known for his studies of the sensations of heat and cold. He discovered that we feel cold when one kind of nerve ending in the skin is stimulated, and we feel warm when a different kind of nerve end- ing is stimulated. Most interestingly, Alston found that we feel intense heat only when both the warmth and the cold receptors in the skin are stimulated at the same time.
Very hot objects—such as a hot iron—not only stimulate the warmth receptors but also stimulate the nerve endings that ordinarily respond only when it is cold.
Alston demonstrated this fact in a simple but elegant experiment in 1920. He con- structed the apparatus shown in fi gure 1.1 (p. 6) by wrapping two water pipes together,
structuralism (struk ´ tu¯ r-al-izm) 19th-century school of psychology that sought to determine the structure of the mind through controlled introspection.
introspection (in”tro-spek ´ shun) The process of looking inward at one’s own consciousness.
Edward Titchener (1867–1927).
J. Henry Alston.
Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920).
one carrying moderately warm water and the other carrying cold water. When people grasped these pipes, they felt the sensation of intense heat! Because both the warmth and the cold receptors in the skin were stimulated by the two twisted pipes, the indi- vidual in the experiment felt the sensation of intense heat.
J. Henry Alston is also a notable fi gure in the history of psychology because he was the fi rst African American psychologist to publish a research paper in a journal of the American Psychological Association.
Max Wertheimer and Gestalt Psychology. Max Wertheimer, a professor of psychology at the University of Frankfurt in the early 1900s, was also interested in the nature of conscious experience. However, his ideas about consciousness were quite different from those of the structuralists. Wertheimer led a group of psycholo- gists known as Gestalt psychologists. Their approach to psychology was based on the G erman concept of the Gestalt, or whole. The Gestalt psychologists thought that human consciousness could not be meaningfully broken down into raw elements, as the structuralists tried to do. As they were fond of saying: “The whole is different from the sum of its parts.” To illustrate, the two examples in the left side of fi gure 1.2 are drawn from exactly the same angled lines, but their organization greatly changes our perception of them. Although the parts are the same in each example, the whole is seen as a triangle in one example and arrows in the other. Similarly, the second ele- ment in the two rows in the right side of fi gure 1.2 is exactly the same each time, but when we look at the two rows from left to right, it is perceived as a “13” in the fi rst row and as a “B” in the second.
Gestalt psychologists also used the phi phenomenon to demonstrate that the whole is different from the sum of its parts. When two lights are presented in rapid sequence, the viewer sees an apparent movement in the stimuli. That is, rather than perceiving two stationary lights, the viewer sees one light moving from one position to another. This is a highly important phenomenon to Gestalt psychologists, because what is seen—a moving light—is not present in the two parts of the stimulus at all.
Movement is a property of the whole perception—the gestalt—but movement is not part of the stimulus. Motion pictures are based on this phi phenomenon. A series of still images that change slightly in each frame is projected on the screen so quickly that the image appears to be moving. The Gestalt psychologists used such examples to make their point that perception has meaning only when it’s seen as a whole rather than as a simple collection of elements, as the structuralists implied.
Functions of the Conscious Mind
While many of the early psychologists were studying the nature of conscious experi- ence, another group was trying to understand the survival value of consciousness to us as a species. What useful functions does consciousness serve that help us survive as a species?
William James and Functionalism. In 1875, a young professor of biology and philosophy at Harvard University named William James taught the fi rst “psychology”
course, and in 1890 he published an infl uential early textbook of psychology. James was impressed with the work of biologist Charles Darwin. Darwin’s theory of evolution stated that every physical characteristic evolved in a species because it served a purpose. James suspected that the same thing could be said about the characteristics of the human mind.
He believed that thinking, feeling, learning, remembering, and other mental processes exist only because they help us survive as a species. Because we can think logically, for example, we are better able to fi nd food, avoid danger, and care for our children—all of which help the human species survive. Because of its emphasis on the survival functions of consciousness, James’ school of thought is known as functionalism.
Gestalt psychology School of thought based on the belief that human consciousness cannot be broken down into its elements.
Gestalt (ges-tawlt´) Organized or unifi ed whole.
phi phenomenon (f¯ fe-nom´e˘-nom) I Perception of apparent movement between two stationary stimuli.
Figure 1.1
When you grasp a coil made up of two twisted pipes, one carrying cold water and the other carrying moderately warm water, the sensation is one of extreme heat because the receptors for both cold and heat are stimulated.
Warm water
Cold water
Max Wertheimer (1880–1943).
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James criticized the structuralists for creating a barren approach to psychology.
He compared human consciousness to a fl owing stream; we could study that stream by isolating single molecules of water like the structuralists, but we would miss the nature and beauty of the whole stream. Moreover, studying the water molecules in a stream would tell us nothing about what the stream does —it erodes riverbanks, pro- vides a home for fi sh, carries barges, and so on. Similarly, studying the elements of the mind tells us nothing about how the mind helps us adapt to the demands of life. The functions of the mind, not its raw elements, were the subject matter of psychology to the functionalists.
Studies of Memory: Hermann Ebbinghaus and Mary Whiton Calkins.
One of the most useful mental processes is memory. In 1885, German functional- ist Hermann Ebbinghaus published a book titled On Memory. This remarkable book gave a detailed account of a series of studies spanning six years in which Ebbinghaus served both as the scientist and the only subject. He memorized lists of information and measured his memory for them after different intervals of time. To be sure that the material he was learning was not affected by his prior experience with it, Ebbinghaus invented an entirely new set of meaningless items for his experiments called nonsense syllables, such as KEB and MUZ.
Ebbinghaus found that forgetting is very rapid at fi rst but proceeds slowly there- after. Almost half of his original learning was lost within 20 minutes, and almost all of the forgetting that was going to occur had occurred within about 9 hours (see fi gure 1.3 ).
functionalism (funk´shun-al-izm) 19th-century school of psychology that emphasized the useful functions of consciousness.
Figure 1.2
The organization of the lines in these two illustrations shows that only
“whole” perceptions have meaning.
The lines do not change, but their meaning does.
William James (1842–1910).
Herman Ebbinghaus (1850–1909).
Figure 1.3
Herman Ebbinghaus published these fi ndings in 1885 showing that most forgetting of nonsense syllables occurs rapidly, with almost half of the original learning being lost within 20 minutes.
Retention (percent savings)
100
80
60
40
200 2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16 18 20 22 24 26 28 31 Immediate recall
19 minutes 1 hour 8.8 hours
Time (in days)
We now know that memories of more meaningful information are not always forgot- ten in the same way as nonsense syllables, but with his careful and detailed studies, Ebbinghaus set an important example of how rigorous experimental methods could be used to study functions of human consciousness.
Mary Whiton Calkins was another early functionalist who studied memory. She was a student of William James at Harvard University in the late 1800s. Rather than studying memory for lists of unrelated nonsense syllables, Calkins presented her sub- jects with a series of numbers, each paired with a different color. Later she showed the subjects the colors alone to see how many of the numbers they could recall. Varia- tions on Calkins’s method, called the paired associates method, dominated research on memory in the United States for more than 50 years (Madigan & O’Hara, 1992).
Cognitive Psychology. Functionalism is still important in contemporary psychol- ogy, but the terminology has changed. Rather than speaking about the functions of human consciousness, psychologists now use the term cognition. Cognition is a broad term that refers to all intellectual processes—perceiving, believing, thinking, remem- bering, knowing, deciding, and so on. Today’s cognitive psychology is a modern version of functionalism—also strongly infl uenced by Gestalt psychology and struc- turalism. Although we only briefl y mention cognitive psychology in this chapter, we return to it many times throughout the book. The chapters on sensation and perception, learning, memory, thinking and language, and intelligence are partly or wholly about key topics in cognitive psychology. In addition, the chapters on emotion, stress and health, abnormal psychology, therapy, social psychology, and other topics also refer to important topics in cognitive psychology. In many ways, cognitive psychology is the heart of modern psychology.
Behaviorism and Social Learning Theory
A third group of scientists working in the late 1890s contributed to the founding of psy- chology in different ways. Like William James, this group was infl uenced by Charles Darwin to study psychological processes that are useful in survival. Unlike James, they were not interested in the adaptive functions of consciousness. Their approach is known as behaviorism because they believed that it was not possible to study con- scious experience scientifi cally. Instead, the behaviorists studied the adaptive value of learning from experience.
Ivan Pavlov. Russian biologist Ivan Pavlov and his coworkers were conducting research on digestion in dogs when they noticed a curious thing. They had surgically implanted tubes in the cheeks of the dogs to study the refl exive secretion of saliva during eating. Pavlov noticed that when they saw food being brought to them, not just when the food was placed in their mouths. He recognized that the dogs had learned to associate the sight of the food being brought with the food itself. Because the sight had immediately preceded the food on many occasions, the dogs came to respond to the sight of food by salivating. He demonstrated that this interpretation was correct by conducting experiments using a clicking metronome instead of the sight of food and small quantities of powdered meat. When the metronome and the meat powder were presented together, the dogs quickly learned to salivate to the metronome alone.
Although teaching dogs to salivate to the sound of the metronome is not important in its own right, Pavlov’s accidental discovery was of tremendous importance to the new fi eld of psychology. He had identifi ed a simple form of learning—or condition- ing, to use his term—in which an inherited refl ex (salivating) comes to be triggered by a stimulus that has nothing to do with that refl ex (the metronome). Pavlov had shown that even inherited refl exes could be infl uenced dramatically by learning experiences.
cognition (kog-nish ´ un) Mental processes of perceiving, believing, thinking, remembering, knowing, deciding, and so on.
cognitive psychology Viewpoint in psychology that emphasizes the importance of cognitive processes, such as perception, memory, and thinking.
behaviorism (be-ha¯v ´ yor-izm) School of psychology that emphasizes the process of learning and the measurement of overt behavior.
social learning theory Viewpoint that the most important aspects of our behavior are learned from other persons in society—family, friends, and culture.
unconscious mind All mental activity of which we are unaware.
Mary Whiton Calkins (1863–1930).
Ivan Pavlov (1849–1936).
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Pavlov thought that conditioning was so important to the survival of species that he abandoned his research on digestion, for which he won the Nobel Prize, and spent the rest of his career studying conditioning.
John B. Watson and Margaret Floy Washburn. Pavlov’s research and theo- ries were not immediately accepted in the United States, but in the 1910s and 1920s the concepts were taken up in the writings of behaviorists John B. Watson and Marga- ret Floy Washburn. They agreed with Pavlov that the importance of conditioning went far beyond salivating dogs and that most human behavior was learned through classi- cal conditioning. Until his death in 1990, B. F. Skinner of Harvard University was the leading exponent of behaviorism.
Social Learning Theory. Most contemporary behavioral psychologists endorse a broader version of behaviorism that integrates the study of behavior with the study of cognition. Albert Bandura of Stanford University is the leading spokesperson for this broader viewpoint, often referred to as social learning theory. This viewpoint states that the most important aspects of our behavior are learned from other persons in s ociety—we learn to be who we are from our family, friends, and culture. The social learning viewpoint, which integrates aspects of behaviorism and the cognitive perspective, continues to be an important theoretical perspective today.
Nature of the “Unconscious Mind”
While most of the founders of psychology were focusing on the structure of the brain, or on conscious mental processes or overt behavior, others were moving in yet another different direction. They believed that the most important aspect of human psychology was neither the mental processes nor the behavior that we are aware of but, rather, the mental processes of which we are unaware. That is, this group of founders of psychol- ogy focused on the “unconscious” mind.
Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis. Sigmund Freud was an Austrian physi- cian who practiced neurology, the treatment of diseases of the nervous system. Unlike the other founders of psychology, he was responsible for the day-to-day care of a large number of patients, many of whom had serious psychological problems. This fact, perhaps more than anything else, explains the enormous differences between his view of psychology and those of the other founders.
Beginning in the 1890s, Freud wrote a series of papers in which he argued that conscious mental processes were of trivial importance compared with the workings of the unconscious mind. Freud believed that the roots of the psychological problems he tried to treat were innate motives, particularly sexual and aggressive ones that reside in an unconscious part of the mind. He believed that these unconscious motives, and the confl icts that surround them, infl uence us, even though we do not know they exist.
Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis has been revised numerous times since his death. Modern psychoanalysts still adhere to Freud’s view that confl icts in the uncon- scious mind are the chief source of psychological problems. Few modern psychoana- lysts accept all of Freud’s ideas, however. Most believe that Freud made an important contribution in calling our attention to the role often played by unconscious sexual and aggressive motives in our emotional confl icts. Nonetheless, they think that other motives, such as the need to feel adequate in social relationships, are of even greater importance (Westen, 1998). Research continues on the possibility that sometimes peo- ple are unaware of their motivations (Winkelman & Berridge, 2004), but the psycho- analytic perspective has not been a dominant force in North American psychology for many years (Robins & others, 1999).
motives Internal states or conditions that activate behavior and give it direction.
psychoanalysis (s¯´´ko¯-ah-nal ´ i-sis)I
Technique of helping persons with emotional problems based on Sigmund Freud’s theory of the unconscious mind.
John B. Watson (1878–1958).
Margaret Floy Washburn (1871–1939).
B. F. Skinner (1904–1990).