Crash Course Psychology #1

Crash Course Psychology #1 is my introduction into the world of psychology.

For context, Crash Course inspired me to learn the basics of psychology, so I’ve made it my mission to watch the entire Crash Course Psychology playlist and paraphrase each episode in my own words. This journey wouldn’t have been possible without the Crash Course team, so many thanks to them! To showcase what I learnt, here is my personal paraphrase of episode 1:

Introduction: What is Psychology?

1. The word ‘psychology’ comes from Latin for “The study of the soul“.
2. While its formal definition has evolved over the last several decades, today we can safely describe it as “The science of behaviour and mental processes“.

Early Thinkers in Psychology

1. The term wasn’t coined until around 16th century & the practice that we would actually call science today was only established in mid 18th century.
2. Some notable early thinkers in psychology were Aristotle, who pondered about human consciousness, and Muhammad ibn Zakariya al-Rhazes, who was one of the first to describe and treat mental illnesses.

Big Questions in Psychology

1. Do we have free will or are we simply driven by our environment, biology, and non-conscious influences?
2. What is mental illness? And what can we do about it?
3. What is consciousness? Or the notion of self?

Sigmund Freud

1. One of the most tremendously influential and controversial thinkers in his time.
2. His theories helped build our views on; Childhood, Personality, Dreams, Sexuality.
3. His work arose a legacy of both support and opposition.
4. Like most great scientists, Freud developed his revolutionary ideas by building on the work of others, and then more to come building off from Freud’s work.

Psychology is one of the most wildly diverse sciences in terms of;

1. The questions it proposes.
2. The methods it applies.
3. And the different schools of thought and disciplines it contains.

Psychology is a big integrated melting pot. For example, around Freud’s time, there were a lot of different schools of thought of about how the study of the human mind should be tackled. The three main ones are Structuralism, Functionalism, and Psychoanalysis.

Structuralism

Wilhelm Wundt, in Germany 1879, set up the first psychology laboratory at university of Leipzig just a few years after publishing his ‘Principles of Physiological Psychology’, which is considered the first true psychology textbook! Wilhelm and his student Edward Bradford Titchener learnt from chemists and physicists, and argued that if they could break down all matter into simple structures, the same can be done for the brain! So they tried to understand the structures of consciousness by asking patients to look inward, asking them how they felt when they registered stimuli (watched sunsets, smelled coffee, etc). However, this approach relied too much on introspection that it became too subjective since patients (1) feel different things despite registering the same stimuli and (2) can register the same stimuli differently. Additionally, psychologists can’t observe a patient’s inner thoughts and feelings through this approach, so Structuralism didn’t last.

Functionalism

1. American Physician and Philosopher William James proposed to focus on the why of things. Basically, the function of behaviour.
2. This approach was inspired by Charles Darwin’s idea that adaptive behaviours are conserved throughout the evolutionary process.
3. James published his book ‘The Principles of Psychology’ in 1890, defining Psychology as “The science of mental life”.

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud witnessed his colleague Josef Breuer treat his patient named Bertha Pappenheim by letting her talk about her symptoms, to which led to her reduced symptoms. This changed Freud forever, leading him to encourage his patients to talk freely about whatever came to mind, to free associate. This technique provided the basis for his career and an entire branch of psychology. In 1900 he published his book “The Interpretation of Dreams”, where he introduced his theory of psychoanalysis. He theorised that our personalities are shaped by unconscious motives; basically mental processes that we’re not even aware of. This seems obvious now, but this was revolutionary back in 1900.

Another important part of his theory was that the subconscious was still discoverable. Even though you weren’t aware of it, you could come to understand it through a technique that used dreams, projections, and free association to root out repressed feelings and gain self insight. Freud was essentially saying that mental disorders could be healed through talk therapy and self discovery. This was a really big breakthrough because prior to this, mental illness patients would be confined in hospitals.

Sigmund Freud’s Legacy

After the first book, Freud went on to publish over 20 more books and countless papers. While many disagreed with him, regardless, Freud’s impact on psychology was monumental. While competing theories either withered or evolved into something else, Psychoanalysis remains an important concept and practice today.

Other Schools of thought in psychology

1. Behaviourism. The study of observable behaviour. A key person contributing to this study was B.F. Skinner, where he put rats, pigeons, babies in boxes and conditioned them to perform certain behaviours. Around the time Freud escaped to England, Skinner published his ‘Behaviour of Organisms’, ushering in the era of behaviourism, which remained popular well into the 1960’s.
2. Many descendants of Psychoanalysis, collectively known as the Psychodynamic Theories. These focused on the importance of early experiences in shaping the unconsciousness and how that process affects our thoughts, feelings, behaviours, and personalities.
3. By the mid-20th century, other major schools of psychology were starting to grow, such as humanist psychology which focuses on nurturing personal growth; cognitive science and neuroscience, all of which contributed their own unique takes on the study of mind.

Conclusion of Crash Course Psychology #1

1. As mentioned in the beginning, today we can safely describe psychology as “The science of behaviour and mental processes“, and it’s a nice amalgamation that pulls from all these different schools of thought. It recognises the need for observing and recording behaviour, but it also gives credit to our mental processes: what we think and feel and believe while we are behaving the way we are.
2. Because again, the point to bring home is that psychology is an integrative science; while many still plenty disagree in this field, but the essence of the discipline is everything to do with creating different ways of asking interesting questions, and attempting to answer them through all kinds of data-gathering methods.
3. The human mind is complicated. There is no single way to effectively crack it open; it must be pried at from all sides. The human brain is by far the most complex physical object known to us in the entire cosmos.

Danniel’s thoughts on Crash Course Psychology #1

1. I’m excited to begin my journey into learning psychology, even if it’s in a non-academic way. While CrashCourse provides a fantastic introduction to the subject, I’m curious about whether this series primarily focuses on Western perspectives in psychology. If so, it makes me wonder: where can I explore alternative, yet equally valid, approaches into psychology to broaden my understanding? Perhaps the CrashCourse playlist will delve into those very approaches in the later episodes!
2. In this video at 8:11, Hank mentions that around the time Freud escaped to England, Skinner published his ‘Behaviour of Organisms’, ushering in the era of behaviourism. Could it be a coincidence? Or could it be that because Freud was preoccupied with his escape that Skinner had his window of opportunity to usher in that era of behaviourism? A question I’ll need to ask a Psych-Historian.

Enjoyed this learning of Psychology? Test your knowledge against these quick custom Kahoot! quizzes I’ve made based on the episode above: This is the easy mode and this is the hard mode for Crash Course Psychology #1.

Also, do check out what else Psychology related I’ve learnt from my Psychology blog!

Credits for Crash Course Psychology #1

Original Content & Media by Crash Course
Content Consumed and Paraphrased by Danniel Iskandar
Paraphrase Proofread by
Paraphrase Reviewed by