Topic I: History and Approaches
Psychology has evolved markedly since its inception as a discipline in 1879. There have been significant changes in the theories that psychologists use to explain behavior and mental processes. In addition, the methodology of psychological research has expanded to include a diversity of approaches to data gathering. AP students in psychology should be able to do the following:
• Recognize how philosophical and physiological perspectives shaped the development of psychological thought.
• Describe and compare different theoretical approaches in explaining behavior: — structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism in the early years; — Gestalt, psychoanalytic/psychodynamic, and humanism emerging later; — evolutionary, biological, cognitive, and biopsychosocial as more contemporary approaches.
• Recognize the strengths and limitations of applying theories to explain behavior.
• Distinguish the different domains of psychology (e.g., biological, clinical, cognitive, counseling, developmental, educational, experimental, human factors, industrial–organizational, personality, psychometric, social).
• Identify major historical figures in psychology (e.g., Mary Whiton Calkins, Charles Darwin, Dorothea Dix, Sigmund Freud, G. Stanley Hall, William James, Ivan Pavlov, Jean Piaget, Carl Rogers, B. F. Skinner, Margaret Floy Washburn, John B. Watson, Wilhelm Wundt).