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Did they read all the descriptions before they began? Did they find the decisions easy to make? Did they
change their mind several times?
. How would they explain their behavior?
What rules do they believe they used to match up the couples? Were they most concerned about
age? About occupations? About leisure activities? Did they use some combination of all three
descriptions? What inferences did they make in their decisions, such as perceived gender? What
does the factor(s) that they used most say about them personally and their selection of a partner?
. How might their explanation allow them to predict which real-world relationships would succeed?
Suppose that based on their day-to-day observations of relationships, they focused on occupations
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while doing their matchmaking. Are they willing to generalize from the predictions they made on
this task to predictions in the real world? Can they begin to imagine the types of research they
might carry out to test those predictions?
. Does their explanation allow them to control or improve their own relationship-seeking behavior or
to give better advice to others?
Have they learned from this exercise what matters most to them in a relationship? What more
would they like to learn from research?
. Could they learn something that would allow them to improve the quality of their own or other
people’s lives?
If their research reveals the factors that help determine which relationships, in general, will endure,
they should be able to improve the quality of people’s lives.
BIOGRAPHICAL PROFILES
Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)
Born in Neckarau, Germany, Wilhelm Wundt was the fourth child of a Lutheran minister. Despite coming
from a family that boasted numerous scholars, scientists, and physicians, Wundt initially was not a good
student. After he dropped out of one high school, a teacher suggested that a reasonable goal for Wundt
would be a career in the postal service. Wundt’s scholastic abilities improved, however, and in 1855 he
graduated at the top of his class in medical school. Wundt then went to Berlin to study physiology with
Johannes Müller, and he subsequently decided to become an experimental physiologist himself. Wundt
then returned to the University of Heidelberg, where he worked as an assistant for Herman von Helmholtz.
It was at Heidelberg that Wundt taught his first course in psychology. The year was 1862.
In 1879, at the University of Leipzig, where he held a chair in philosophy, Wundt established the Institute
for Experimental Psychology, the first laboratory whose formal purpose was the scientific investigation of
the human mind. Wundt is one of the most prolific contributors to the field of psychology ever. It is
estimated that between the years of 1853 and 1920, Wundt wrote 53,735 pages of text. Wundt was not only a
voracious writer; he was also responsible for training numerous researchers, some of whom, such as
Edward Titchener, brought versions of Wundt’s psychology to America.
Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)
Sigmund Freud was born in Pribor, Czechoslovakia, in 1856. Although Freud was a gifted student, it took
him eight years to finish his medical degree at the University of Vienna, partly because he was interested in
so many topics. Freud first pursued a career as a neurologist, but financial concerns forced him into general
medical practice. In cooperation with his friend Joseph Breuer, Freud began to treat hysterical women. This
is unusual, because at the time there was no known cure for hysteria, which is now known as a conversion
disorder. Through trial and error and feedback from his clients, Breuer and Freud developed the technique
known as psychoanalysis. Its fundamental rule is honesty; clients must relay all thoughts and feelings
uncensored to the analyst. Clients then follow their stream of thought wherever it may lead, a process
known as free association. In the course of free association, clients often uncover traumatic events in the
past, and, upon reliving these events, often experience relief from their symptoms. Freud’s first major work,
The Interpretation of Dreams (1900) detailed the process of dream interpretation, which he felt was the “royal
road to the unconscious.” Although it took six years to sell the first 600 copies printed, this work was
reprinted eight time during Freud’s lifetime.
Although the technique of psychoanalysis is perhaps Freud’s most important legacy, he made many other
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substantial contributions to psychology. These include the recognition of the importance of sexuality and
unconscious processes, a fully developed system of personality, and an appreciation for the conflict
between individual desires and the constraints of society. His work has influenced so many aspects of our
thinking that he is often not given full credit for the development of his ideas. Freud’s many detractors are
quick to point out that his theories are not based on empirical research. While this is true, just because they>
lack empirical evidence does not mean that they are wrong, only that they are less likely to be right. Because
of the breadth of his intellectual contributions, he remains the most cited psychologist in Psychology and
Life, 16th Edition, and most comparable texts.
William James (1842–1910)
William James, often considered the father of American psychology, was born in New York City, but spent
much of his childhood traveling between the United States and Europe, where he attended several private
schools. James’ interest in such varied fields as philosophy, religion, and science were cultivated at home in
an enriched environment shared with his brother Henry James, the famous author. William James struggled
to find a vocation that mated his various interests, trying his hand at art (his paintings have appeared on
the cover of recent editions of the American Psychologist), chemistry, and, finally, medicine. He received his
M.D. from Harvard in 1868.
In 1872, James began teaching physiology at Harvard, but was preoccupied by his ongoing and deep
interest in such philosophical issues as free will and determinism. Though James considered himself a
temporary dabbler in the discipline of psychology, his two-volume textbook, Principles of Psychology (1890),
stood as the field’s definitive textbook through the first half of this century. It is still considered one of the
best-written texts on psychology and a source of many original ideas. James’ contributions to psychology
include the notion of a stream of consciousness, the importance of habit and instinct, a complex theory of
the self, theory of emotion, and opening the boundaries of psychology to include topics such as religious
beliefs.
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CHAPTER 1: THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN YOUR LIFE
TIMELINE
Yea Event
r
1781 Immanuel Kant published Critique of Pure Reason.
1811 Charles Bell and Francois Magendie discovered that there are two types of nerves: sensory and
motor nerves.
1827 Ludwig von Beethoven died.
1838 Johannes Müller articulated his “Doctrine of Specific Nerve Energies.”
1846 Ernst Weber derived the quantitative relationships between subjective experience and physical
stimulation, known as Weber’s Law.
1848 Marx and Engels published the Communist Manifesto.
1859 Charles Darwin published On the Origin of Species by Natural Selection, a culmination of his
research and thinking about evolution via natural selection.
1860 Gustav Fechner published Elements of Psychophysics, which outlined the experimental study of the
relationship between subjective experience and physical stimulation.
1861 Paul Broca discovered that damage to a specific area of the left hemisphere of the brain impairs
language abilities.
18611865
The American Civil War was fought.
1872 Claude Monet painted Impression—Sunrise, Le Havre, the painting that lent its name to the
Impressionist movement.
1879 Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology laboratory at the University of Leipzig, Germany.
1883 The first psychology laboratory in the United States was established at Johns Hopkins University
by G. Stanley Hall.
1885 Hermann Ebbinghaus published his empirical research on memory.
1890 William James published the Principles of Psychology, a two-volume text that became the standard
reference for psychology students.
1892 The American Psychological Association was founded by G. Stanley Hall, who subsequently
became its first president.
1896 Thomas Edison invented the motion picture.
1898 Edward Thorndike conducted the first systematic experiments on animal learning.
1905 Alfred Binèt and Theodore Simon developed the first useful intelligence test.
1906 Charles Sherrington published Integrative Actions of the Nervous System, which set forth the basic
principles and terminology used today, to describe the structure and function of the nervous
system.
1913 John Watson published “Psychology as the Behaviorist Views It,” sometimes referred to as the
Behaviorist Manifesto, an influential paper asserting that psychology should restrict its subject
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matter to observable behavior.
19141918
World War I was fought.
1917 Wolfgang K.hler published The Mentality of Apes, a report of his research on the problem-solving
abilities of non-human primates.
1928 Ivan Pavlov published Lectures on Conditioned Reflexes, a survey of his research on classical
conditioning.
1938 B. F. Skinner published Behavior of Organism. An Experimental Analysis, which outlined the basic
principles of operant conditioning.
19391945
World War II was fought.
1946 The American Psychological Association was reorganized to include practitioner psychologists as
well as research psychologists.
1950 William Estes published “Toward a Statistical Theory of Learning,” a classic paper outlining a
mathematical approach to learning.
1957 Noam Chomsky published Syntactic Structures, inaugurating an era of productive collaboration
between psychologists and linguists. Psycholinguistics soon became a flourishing field of
psychology.
1957 Herbert Simon published Administrative Behavior: A Study of Decision-Making Processes in
Administrative Organizations, detailing the dynamics of decision-making under conditions of
uncertainty.
1962 David Hubel and Thorston Weisel published their research on how specific features of visual
stimuli excite specific neurons in the visual cortex.
1963 John F. Kennedy was assassinated in Dallas.
1981 Roger Sperry received the Nobel Prize for his pioneering work on the split-brain phenomenon.
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CHAPTER 1: THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY IN YOUR LIFE
SUGGESTIONS FOR FURTHER READINGS
American Psychologist, 47 (2), Special Edition: The History of American Psychology. American Psychological
Association, February 1992. This entire volume is dedicated to the history of the discipline, with articles
on James, Wundt, Lewin, Skinner, and the establishment of the discipline in the United States.
Bordens, K. S., & Abbott, B. B. (1988). Research Design and Methods: A Process Approach. Mountain View, CA:
Mayfield. Applies the research process to both theoretical and practical problems.
Evans, R. I. (1980). The Making of Social Psychology. New York: Gardner Press. Interviews with some of the
more influential figures in social psychology, including Philip Zimbardo, Albert Bandura, Stanley
Milgram, and Gordon Allport.
Hergenhahn, B. R. (1997). An Introduction to the History of Psychology, 3rd Edition. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth
Publishing. A very thorough undergraduate text on the history of psychology, including its roots in
classical thought and philosophy.
Psychological Review, 101 (2), Special Issue: The Centennial Issue of the Psychological Review. American
Psychological Association, 1994. Contains reprints of the most influential articles ever to appear in
Psychological Review. It is an invaluable archival document for all psychologists.
Scarborough, E., & Forumoto, L. (1987). Untold Lives: The First Generation of Women Psychologists. New York:
Columbia University Press. A compelling portrayal of the lives and contributions of early women
psychologists.
Schwartz, S. (1986). Classic Studies in Psychology. Palo Alto, CA: Mayfield. Presentation of fifteen of the most
significant studies in psychology in condensed but clear summaries.
Van Doren, C. (1991). A History of Knowledge. The Pivotal Events, People, and Achievements of World History.
New York: Ballantine Books. An excellent review of the important ideas, events, and people throughout
history, written by an ex-editor of Encyclopedia Britannica.
DISCOVERING PSYCHOLOGY
PROGRAM 1: PAST, PRESENT, AND PROMISE
Overview
An introduction to and an overview of psychology, touching on a range of issues from the origins of
psychology as a science to psychopathology; from the biochemistry of the brain to applied research.
Key Issues
Public versus private behavior, the nature of prejudice, the P300 brain wave, the biology of racism,
molecular versus molar levels of analysis, and the origins of psychology.
Archival Demonstrations
Demonstration of a client with Multiple Personality Disorder.
Candid Camera clip demonstrating the difference between public and private behavior.
Archival Interviews
Emanuel Donchin examines the relationship between P300 brain waves and surprise.
Robert Rosenthal discusses body language.
New Interviews
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Christine Ijima Hall considers the nature of prejudice.
FILMS AND VIDEOS
Career Encounters in Psychology (1991). American Psychological Association, 30 minutes
Several psychologists from diverse subfields discuss their work and careers.
Landmarks in Psychology
Highlights the contributions of Freud, Jung, Adler, Pavlov, Sullivan, Homey, Maslow, Watson, and
Skinner. Using historical narrative and case study dramatizations, the interpersonal, behavioral,
humanistic, and existential approaches to psychology are explored.
CASE STUDY LECTURE LAUNCHER
Case Study Lecture Enhancers originally appeared in Psychology and Life, 13th Edition as openings for
each chapter. They were subsequently omitted from the 14th edition to save space. The best of them are
included here, because both instructors and students expressed an interest in using them again. This
material is ideal for starting a lecture or for use as a major transition within a lecture.
As the runners lined up to start the 1986 NCAA 10,000-meter championship, Kathy O. was the odds-on
favorite. She had broken high school track records in three distances and recently set a new American
collegiate record for the 10,000-meter race. Her parents, who were always supportive fans, watched from the
sidelines. Kathy got off to a slow start, but was only a few paces behind the leaders. Her fans knew she
could soon catch up. However, this time Kathy did not bolt to the lead as she had done before. Instead, she
veered away from the other runners. Without breaking her stride, she ran off the track, scaled a 7-foot fence,
raced down a side street, and jumped off a 50-foot bridge. Ten minutes later, her coach found her on the
concrete flood plain of the White River. She had two broken ribs, a punctured lung, and was paralyzed from
the waist down. Not only would she never run again, she might never walk again.
What happened to Kathy?