PSYCHOLOGY

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PSYCHOLOGY

• What is Psychology?
• Psychology is a word deriving from Greek roots
• Psyche soul or mind, Logos word
• Psychology is the systematic study of behavior
  and experience

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Psychologists Goals

• Psychologists engage in the study of psychology
  in order to understand, explain, and predict
  behavior

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The Major Philosophical Issues

• Free will versus determinism are causes of
  behavior knowable? Is behavior predictable?
• Free will belief that behavior is caused by
  ones independent decision making
• Determinism assumes that everything that happens
  has a cause or determinant

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Major Philosophical Issues

• Which perspective holds that behavior is fully
  predictable?
• A determinist assumes everything that happens has
  a cause that can be known
• free will assumes that even with complete
  information, predicting human behavior can never
  be fully accurate

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Major Philosophical Issues

• The mind-brain problem How is experience related
  to the organ system called the brain?
• Dualism belief that the mind is separate from
  the brain but controls the brain and through it
  also the rest of the body
• Monism conscious experience is generated by and
  thus is inseparable from the brain

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Major Philosophical Issues

• The mind-brain problem

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Major Philosophical Issues

• The nature-nurture issue
• How do differences in behavior relate to
  differences in heredity and environment?

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Major Philosophical Issues

• The nature-nurture issue
• Others assume that most differences are a result
  of aspects of the environment such as culture,
  expectations, and resources

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What Psychologists Do

• Psychology is an academic, non-medical discipline
  that includes many branches and specialties
• A masters degree, or a Ph.D./Psy.D. (doctor of
  psychology) are common

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Figure 1.2
Figure 1.2 More than one-third of psychologists
work in academic settings. The remainder find
positions in a variety of settings (based on the
data of Chamberlain, 2000).
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What Psychologists Do

• There are many specialties in the broad science
  of psychology. Psychologists practice within
  their chosen specialty in 3 main areas
• Teaching and research
• Service providers to individuals
• Service providers to organizations

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What Psychologists Do

• Teaching and research
• Most teaching psychologists work in colleges and
  universities
• Most psychologists who teach also engage in
  research and writing
• Some psychologists are employed in full-time
  research positions

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What Psychologists Do

• Major categories of psychological research
  Developmental psychology
• Developmental psychologists study the behavioral
  capacities typical of different ages and how
  behavior changes with age
• What do people do or know as adults that they do
  not know as children? Was the change due to
  biological changes, increased experience, or a
  combination of these?

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What Psychologists Do

• Major categories of psychological research
  Learning and motivation
• These psychologists study how behavior depends on
  outcomes of past behaviors and on current
  motivations
• Do frequent, consistent rewards for desired
  behaviors produce better learning than less
  frequent, less predictable rewards?

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What Psychologists Do

• Major categories of psychological research
  Cognitive psychology
• Cognitive psychologists stud processes of
  thinking and acquiring knowledge
• What do experts in a field know or do that sets
  them apart from other people?

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What Psychologists Do

• Major categories of psychological research
  Biological psychology or neuroscience
• Biopsychologists try to explain behavior in terms
  of biological factors (i.e., anatomy, nervous
  system, drug effects, hormones, genetics and
  evolutionary pressures)
• How does brain damage from drug abuse change
  nervous system functioning behavior?

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What Psychologists Do

• Major categories of psychological research
  Evolutionary psychology
• Evolutionary psychologists try to explain
  behavior in terms of natural selection pressures
  promoting behaviors that lead to success in
  reproduction and survival
• What forces led to selection for human language
  abilities?

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What Psychologists Do

• Major categories of psychological research
  Social psychology
• social psychologists study how one influences and
  is influenced by others
• To what degree do the demands of authority
  figures influence our behavior? How strong is the
  tendency to conform? 

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What Psychologists Do

• Major categories of psychological research
  Cross-Cultural psychology
• A cross-cultural psychologist compares the
  behavior of people from different cultures
• How does culture affect taste preferences? Which
  cultures place more emphasis on group interests
  and how does that affect behavior? 

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to individuals
• There are many types of psychotherapists,
  professionals with training in psychology who
  specialize in helping people with psychological
  problem.

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to individuals
• Clinical psychologists have advanced degrees in
  psychology, with a specialty in understanding and
  helping people with mental and emotional problems
• Receive training in intellectual psychological
  testing used in diagnosis and treatment

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to individuals
• Psychiatrists are trained as medical doctors
• They learn the principles of psychology, and are
  educated in how to use medication to treat
  psychological distress

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to individuals
• Psychiatric nurses receive standard nursing
  education plus additional training in the care of
  emotionally troubled individuals
• They usually work in medical clinics and hospitals

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to individuals
• Psychiatric and clinical social workers combine
  training in traditional social work with
  specialized knowledge of how to treat emotionally
  disturbed people and advocate for their
  well-being within the larger community

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to individuals
• Counseling psychologists have an advanced degree
  in psychology and help people with educational,
  vocational, marriage, health, and other important
  life decisions. They receive training in therapy
  and some types of psychological testing

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to individuals
• Forensic psychologists provide advice and
  consultation to those who work in the criminal
  justice system

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to organizations
• Industrial/Organizational psychologists study
  peoples behavior in the workplace using a
  combination of social, cognitive, and
  motivational psychology principles, and often
  employ psychological tests

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to organizations
• Industrial/Organizational psychologists
• Workers in two departments at an aerospace
  engineering firm have started to withhold
  information from each other. This has been
  detrimental to morale and productivity. How can
  this behavior be stopped without terminating or
  reassigning any employees?

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to organizations
• An ergonomist, or human factors specialist,
  attempts to facilitate machinery use and
  appliances so the average user can operate them
  as efficiently/safely as possible
• How can the design of a clerical workstation be
  improved to minimize the possibility of
  repetitive stress related injuries?

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to organizations
• A school psychologist specializes in the
  psychological condition of the students, (usually
  at kindergarten-secondary levels)
• Use combination of developmental, learning, and
  motivational principles, and use educational and
  psychological tests to assist with educational
  planning for individual students

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What Psychologists Do

• Service providers to organizations
• School psychologists
• Does a fourth-grade student whose grades have
  been declining over the past two years have an
  identifiable learning disability, or is there an
  issue related to the students emotional
  well-being affecting his performance?

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Majoring in Psychology

• Should you major in psychology?
• Jobs listed specifically for people with
  bachelors degrees. Examples
• Personnel or human resources specialist
• Halfway or transitional home staff or supervisor
• Community or social services outreach worker

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Majoring in Psychology

• Should you major in psychology?
• Psychology will be useful in non-psych related
  careers and in your life
• Psychology can help you to
• more effectively evaluate evidence presented to
  you in a variety of situations
• improve your learning and retention  
• be aware of the power of social influence and
  cultural context

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Majoring in Psychology

• Should you major in psychology?
• It is also an excellent major for those who are
  contemplating further professional education in
  areas such as business, law, or divinity

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Majoring in Psychology

• Should you major in psychology?
• If you want to become a psychologist
• You may need a doctorate (Ph.D./Psy.D.)
• You will be in school for up to 8 more years
• You should have an interest in working in health
  care or educational settings or in a private
  practice or consulting role

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Psychology Then and Now

• The early era and the roots of psychology
• William Wundt, a physician who did research on
  the workings of the senses, established the first
  psychology laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, in
  1879
• first laboratory devoted exclusively to the
  activities of psychological research

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Psychology Then and Now

• The early era and the roots of psychology
• Wundts basic question was, What are the
  components of experience, or mind?
• He presented his subjects with a variety of
  stimuli, and asked them to look within
  themselves, to introspect. He tried to measure
  the changes in their experiences as the stimuli
  changed

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Psychology Then and Now

• The early era and the roots of psychology
• Wundt did experiments in a wide range of areas
  related to psychology
• He showed that it was possible to perform
  meaningful experiments in psychology

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Psychology Then and Now

• The early era and the roots of psychology
• Edward Titchener was a student of Wundt who
  immigrated to the US in 1892
• Developed structuralism, an approach that
  describe the structures of the mind and its
  sensations, feelings and images

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Psychology Then and Now

• Titchener presented a stimulus to subjects and
  asked them to analyze its separate features
• No feasible way to check the accuracy of
  subjects observations his methods were
  eventually abandoned
• Researchers became more interested in
  describing/analyzing observable behaviors

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Psychology Then and Now

• The early era and the roots of psychology
• William James wrote The Principles of Psychology
  (1890)
• interested in what the mind does, rather than the
  elements of mind
• Rejected methods of Wundt and Titchener
• studied how the mind produces behaviors. Called
  his approach functionalism

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Psychology Then and Now

• The early era and the roots of psychology
• Typical questions from a functionalist
  perspective include
• How does a person recall the answer to a
  question?
• How does a person inhibit an undesirable impulse?
• Can a person attend to more than one task at a
  time?

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Psychology Then and Now

• The early era and the roots of psychology
• The works of Darwin had an enormous impact The
  Origin of Species (1859) The Descent of Man
  (1871) 
• forced scientists to consider the basic features
  held in common by many or all animals, such as
  thinking and intelligence

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Psychology Then and Now

• The early era and the roots of psychology
• Francis Galton studied to what extent heredity
  influenced variations in human cognitive
  abilities
• found that sons of famous talented men were
  more likely to be accomplished and explained this
  as due to heredity
• tried (but failed) to develop an intelligence test

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Psychology Then and Now

• Alfred Binet devised the first useful
  intelligence test in 1905, to identify children
  in the public school system who might be in need
  of special services
• His test was template for many IQ and other
  psychological tests

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Psychology Then and Now

• While structuralism was abandoned, behaviorism
  focuses on observable, measurable behaviors and
  not mental processes

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Psychology Then and Now

• In presenting psychoanalytic theory, S. Freud
  proposed existence of an unconscious mind
• Although much of psychoanalytic theory has been
  rejected as unscientific, psychology is still
  influenced by Freuds ideas about treatment of
  psychological distress

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Recent Trends in Psychology

• Modern clinical psychology.
• Behaviorists used rewards and principles of
  learning to treat psychological distress
• Other fields of psychology that made
  contributions to therapy as 20th century
  progressed include humanistic and cognitive
  psychology

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Recent Trends in Psychology

• Cross-cultural psychology and human diversity
• scientists have become more conscious of cultural
  context
• Psychologists recognize that mental illness to be
  partly culturally and socially defined
• Behaviors are considered adaptive in context of
  the culture in which one is raised