Chapter 1 Introduction to Psychology

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Chapter 1Introduction to Psychology

• WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?

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Definition of Psychology
Psychology the science of behavior and mental
processes.
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Goals of Psychology (4)
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Two types of research help psychologists
accomplish the four goals

• Basic Research

• Applied Research

• Research conducted to seek new knowledge and to
  explore and advance general scientific
  understanding.
• Explores such topics as the nature of memory,
  brain function, motivation and emotional
  expression.

• Research conducted specifically to solve
  practical problems and improve the quality of
  life.
• Focuses on finding methods to improve memory or
  increase motivation, therapies to treat
  psychological disorders, ways to decrease stress,
  and so on.
• Influence because it specifies ways and means of
  changing behavior.

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• The first formal school of thought in psychology,
  aimed at analyzing the basic elements, or
  structures, of conscious mental experience
• School of psychology that sought to determine the
  structure of the mind through controlled
  introspection.

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Wilhelm Wundt Structuralism

• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) is generally thought of
  as the father of psychology.
• Established the first psychological laboratory at
  the University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879, an
  event considered to mark the birth of psychology
  as a formal discipline.
• Wanted to identify the basic elements that make
  up conscious experience (pure sensations such as
  sweetness, coldness, or redness) and form
  perceptions.
• They used the process of introspection to look
  inward at ones own consciousness.

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Edward Titchner Structuralism

• Edward Titchner (1867-1927) was Wundts student
• He took the field to the United States, where he
  set up a psychological laboratory at Cornell
  University.
• He gave the name structuralism to this school
  of thought.
• Thought that consciousness could be reduced to
  its basic elements just as water (h2o) can be
  broken down into its constituent
  elements---hydrogen (h) and oxygen (o).

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Introspection

• Even though these skydivers share the same
  sensations---the feeling of falling, the rush of
  the air on their faces as they fall, and the
  sudden lurch of their parachutes opening---their
  reported introspections of the experience would
  probably differ.
• Criticism its not objective but rather
  subjective.

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Functionalism

• Functionalism An early school of psychology that
  was concerned with how humans and animals use
  mental processes in adapting to their
  environment.
• Influence by Charles Darwin about ideas of
  evolution and the continuity of species.
• William James (1842-1910) taught the first
  Psychology course in 1875 taught that mental
  processes are fluid and have continuity, rather
  than fixed/rigid (structuralists suggested)
• He viewed mental processes as existent only on
  the basis of their requirement for our survival
  as a species.
• The functions of the mind, not its raw elements,
  were the subject matter of psychology for the
  functionalists.

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Contemporary Psychological Perspectives

• The view of modern psychologists are frequently
  difficult to categorize into traditional schools
  of thought.
• Psychological Perspectives general points of
  view used for explaining peoples behavior and
  thinking, whether normal or abnormal.

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Contemporary Psychological Perspectives

• Behaviorism
• Psychoanalysis
• Humanistic Psychology
• Cognitive Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychology
• Biological (Physiological) Psychology
• Sociocultural Approach

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Behaviorism

• Behaviorism The school of psychology that views
  observable, measureable behavior and emphasizes
  the key role of the environment as a determinant
  of a behavior.
• Ivan Pavlov (behaviorist) Started the idea of
  conditioning, where an inherited reflex comes to
  be triggered by a stimulus that has nothing to do
  with that reflex. He showed that even inherited
  reflexes could be influenced dramatically by
  learning experiences.
• John Watson (1878-1958) postulated that concepts
  such as the mind, consciousness, and feelings are
  neither objective or measurable.
• B. .F Skinner (1904-1990) argued that these
  concepts are not needed to explain behavior. One
  can explain behavior, he claimed, by analyzing
  the conditions that are present before a behavior
  occurs and then analyzing the consequences that
  follow the behavior. (operant conditioning
  reinforcement)

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Psychoanlysis

• Psychoanalysis technique of helping people with
  emotional problems based on Freuds theory of the
  unconscious mind (based on case studied of his
  pts)
• Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) believed that
  individuals do not consciously control their
  thoughts, feelings and behavior these are
  instead determined by unconscious forces.
• Unconscious Mind all mental activity of which we
  are unaware.
• He believed that the roots of psychological
  problems were innate motives, internal states
  that activate behavior, particularly sexual and
  aggressive ones.
• He believed that these motives and the conflicts
  surrounding them influence us, even though we do
  not know they exist.
• Motives internal state or conditions that
  activate behavior and give it direction.

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Humanistic Psychology

• Humanistic Psychology The school of psychology
  that focuses on the uniqueness of human beings
  and their capacity for choice, growth and
  psychological health.
• Carl Rogers (1902-1987) believe that while the
  unconscious mind can defeat the efforts of the
  conscious mind, the conscious mind of human
  beings are more likely to determine their own
  fate.
• They believe that self-concept is the key element
  in decision making. Society, however, makes it
  difficult to have an accurate self-concept.
• People are capable of making conscious rational
  choices and are innately good and possess free
  will.

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Cognitive Psychology

• Cognitive Psychology the school of psychology
  that studies mental processes such as memory,
  problem solving, reasoning, decision making,
  perception, language, and other forms of
  cognition.
• Gestalt Psychology The school of psychology that
  emphasizes that individuals perceive objects and
  patterns as whole units and that the perceived
  whole units is more than the sum of its parts.
• Information-Processing Theory An approach to the
  study of mental processes that uses the computer
  as a model for human thinking.

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Gestalt Psychology

• Led by Max Wertheimer who based his approach to
  psychology on the German concept of the Gestalt,
  or whole, form, pattern.
• Perception has meaning only when its seen as
  whole rather than as a simple collection of
  elements, as the structuralists implied
• Phi Phenomenon the perception of apparent
  movement between two stationary stimuli.

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What do you see?

• 1. the white silhouette  figures of two heads
• 2. a black chalice?

• image of a womans face
• 2. the profile of a jazzman saxophone player

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Gestalt Phi Phenomenon

• Two light bulbs are placed a short distance apart
  in a dark room. The 1st light is flashing the
  lights on and off just as the 2nd light is
  flashed on. As this pattern of flashing lights on
  and off continues, an observer sees what appears
  to be a single light moving back and forth from
  one position to another.
• For example motion pictures are based on phi
  phenomenon, a series of still images that change
  slightly in each frame is projected on screen so
  quickly they appear to move
• http//www.yorku.ca/eye/balls.htm

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Information-Processing Theory

• According to this view, the brain processes
  information in sequential steps, similar to a
  computer does serial processing, that is, one
  step at a time.
• Parallel processing managing multiple bits of
  information at once.

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Evolutionary Psychology

• Evolutionary Psychology The school of psychology
  that studies how human behaviors required for
  survival have adapted in the face of
  environmental pressures over the long course of
  evolution.
• Influence by Charles Darwins theory which
  asserts that individual members of a given
  species who possesses characteristics that help
  them survive are the most likely to pass on the
  genes underlying those characteristics to
  subsequent generations (survival of the fittest)

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Biological (Physiological) Psychology

• Biological (Physiological) Psychology The school
  of psychology that looks for links between
  specific behaviors and equally specific
  biological processes that often help explain
  individual differences.
• Study the structures of the brain and central
  nervous system, the functioning of the neurons,
  neurotransmitters and hormones, and heredity.

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Evolutionary Psychology versus Biological
Psychology

• Evolutionary Psychology provides explanations of
  how certain biologically based behaviors came to
  be common in an entire species focuses on
  universals, traits that exist in every member of
  a species.
• By contrast, biological psychologists look for
  links between specific behaviors and particular
  biological factors that often help explain
  individual differences.

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Sociocultural Approach

• Sociocultural Approach emphasizes social and
  cultural influences on human behavior and
  stresses the importance of understanding those
  influences when interpretating the behaviors of
  others.
• Cultural relativity promotes the view that
  different cultures, ethnic groups, genders, and
  sexual orientations are simply different from,
  rather than inferior to, others.

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Which school of psychology is correct?

• Psychologists do not limit themselves to just one
  perspective or approach, but rather take an
  eclectic approach, choosing a combination of
  approaches.
• For example, a childs unruly behavior in school
  may be seen as maintained by teacher attention (a
  behavioral explanation) but as initially caused
  by an emotional reaction to a family event such
  as divorce (a psychoanalytic explanation).

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Basic Areas of Modern Psychologytend to
specialize in the study of a single psychological
process

• Biological Psychology study the ways in which
  the nervous system and other organs provide the
  basis for behavior and mental processes. They
  also study nonhuman animal behavior, both to
  compare it with human behavior and to gain a
  better understanding of other species.
• Sensation and Perception concerned with how the
  sense organs operate and how to interpret
  incoming sensory information.
• Learning and Memory the ways in which we learn
  and remember new information and new skills.
• Cognition study thinking, perceiving, planning,
  imagining, creating, dreaming, speaking,
  listening, and problem solving.

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Basic Areas of Modern Psychologytend to
specialize in the study of a single psychological
process

• 5. Developmental Psychology concerned with
  changes that take place in people during their
  life span, as we grow from birth through old age.
• 6. Motivation and Emotion study the needs and
  states that activate and guide behavior, such as
  hunger, sex, and the need for achievement, and
  the need to have relationships with others.
• 7. Personality focuses on the relatively
  consistent ways of behaving that characterize our
  individual personalities.
• 8. Social Psychology study the influence of
  other people on our behavior interpersonal
  attraction and intimate relationships and
  attitudes and prejudice toward others.

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Applied Areas of Modern Psychologysubspecialties

• Clinical Psychology try to understand and treat
  serious emotional and behavioral problems.
• Counseling Psychology help people with personal
  or school problems and with career choices.
• Educational Psychology concerned with the ways
  children learn in the classroom and with the
  construction of psychological/educational tests.
• 3. School Psychology consult with teachers
  about children who are experiencing learning or
  behavioral problems and test children to see
  whether they could benefit from special
  educational programs.

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Applied Areas of Modern Psychologysubspecialties

• 4. Industrial and Organizational Psychology
  focuses on ways to match employees to jobs, to
  train and motivate workers, and to promote job
  satisfaction and good relationships among
  workers.
• 5. Health Psychology focus on the ways in which
  stress and other factors influence our health.
  They seek to prevent health problems such as
  heart disease by teaching people to relax,
  exercise, control their diets, and stop high-risk
  behaviors, such as smoking.

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Relationship between Psychology Psychiatry

• Psychiatrist completed medical school and
  obtained a M.D. (doctor of medicine) degrees and
  completed residency training in psychiatry.
  Prescribe medication.
• Clinical Psychologist completed graduate school
  and obtained a degree of PsyD (doctor of
  psychology) or PhD (doctor of philosophy), and
  completed an internship in clinical psychology.
• As of January 2009, properly trained and
  qualified, licensed psychologists in New Mexico
  and Louisiana are authorized to prescribe certain
  medications for the treatment of mental health
  disorders. In addition, there are many efforts
  within the field to expand this authority.

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The True Nature of Humans

• 1. Human beings are biological creatures.
• 2. Every person is different, yet all people are
  much the same.
• 3. People can be understood fully only in the
  context of their cultures and other social
  influences.
• 4. Human lives are a continuous process of
  change.
• 5. Behavior is motivated.
• 6. Humans are social animals.
• 7. People play an active part in creating their
  experiences.
• 8. Behavior can be adaptive or maladaptive.

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Your School of PsychologyStrongly Disagree
12.3.4..5.6.7 Strongly Agree

• People are free spirits, and science will never
  be able to really understand what causes
  behavior.
• Our personalities are shaped and determined by
  things that happen to us during our lives.
• Most of the time we do what we do in order to
  defend ourselves against threats that come from
  inside our own brains.
• Most peoples personalities are set by the time
  they are five or six years old. People really
  dont change much after that.
• 5. All that talk of deep-rooted forces seems like
  bunk. We should just worry about what people
  actually do.

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Your School of Psychology
Strongly Disagree 12.3.4..5.6.7
Strongly Agree

• 6. Science makes a mistake when it tries to take
  everything apart. If you want to understand a
  person, you have to look at the whole, not the
  parts.
• 7. The best thing about people is that we are
  free to make choices and direct our lives.
• 8. Strong drives such as sex cause people to
  behave in certain ways.
• 9. I think that anyone could grow up to be a
  criminal of he or she were raised in the wrong
  environment.
• 10. I think people are not really conscious of
  the kinds of forces that direct their behavior.
• 11. Someday we will be able to explain behavior
  in the same way that we can explain events in
  biology and chemistry.
• 12. Thinking and feeling are the most important
  causes of behavior.

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Results

• Psychoanalytic Score add the scores from 3, 4,
  8, 10
• Behaviorism Score add the scores from 2, 5, 9,
  11
• Humanistic Score add the scores from 1, 6, 7, 12
• __________________________________________________
  ____
• The psychoanalytic approach understands us from
  the point of view of the unconscious and early
  childhood experiences (id, ego, superego).
• The behavioralist approach measures observable
  behaviors.
• The humanist approach emphasizes the study of the
  whole person (free will).