Introduction to Psychology

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Introduction to Psychology

• Mrs. Etter
• Psychology

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What weve talked about so far

• Personality
• A solid core of traits reflecting the unique
  essence of a particular human being
• That core of thoughts and feelings inside you
  that tells you how to conduct yourself.
• Your personality is more than just an attitude.
  It is what causes you to act and react the way
  you do.

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What weve talked about so far

• The Color Code Test
• Red Power
• Blue Intimacy
• White Peace
• Yellow - Fun
• Reds and Blues spend their lifetimes trying to
  control others.
• Whites and Yellows spend their lifetimes refusing
  to be controlled.
• This year 85 of employees who lose their jobs
  can attribute it personality conflict.

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Strengths Weaknesses For each color

• Red
• Leader, focused, responsible, committed
• Blue
• Loyal to people, sincere, honest, moral
• White
• Tolerant, patient, cooperative, good listener
• Yellow
• Positive, friendly, optimistic, open

• Red
• Arrogant, bad listener, tactless, critical of
  others
• Blue
• Judgmental, unforgiving, suspicious, irrational
• White
• Timid, lazy, dependent, directionless
• Yellow
• Uncommitted, inconsistent, self-centered,
  rebellious

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What weve talked about so farBirth Order

• Oldest/Only
• Treated like an adult, given more responsibility,
  an example, independent.
• Middle
• Peacemaker, work hard for attention, calm and
  even-tempered, good/average student.
• Youngest
• Spoilt, strives for attention, matures quickly,
  easy-going about school, irresponsible

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Chapter One Introduction, History, and Research
Methods

• What is psychology?
• The science of behavior and mental processes.
• Science because psychologist use scientific
  research in their studies to understand more.
  They collect data and analyze it.
• Behavior mental processes the scope of what
  psychologists study is so vast.
• All observable behaviors can be studied as well
  as mental processes including thoughts, feelings
  and dreams.

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Psychologys founding fathersWilhelm Wundt

• The Father of psychology.
• 1879 first lab devoted to psychological
  experiments.

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Psychologys founding fathers

• 1892 G. Stanley Hall founds the American
  Psychological Association (APA).
• 1905 Mary Whiton Calkins becomes first woman
  President of APA.
• 1905 Alfred Binet develops the first
  intelligence test.

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Can any one psychological perspective answer all
of psychologys questions?
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Psychological Perspectives

• Psychological perspectives, schools of thought,
  and psychological approaches are all synonyms for
  ways psychologists classify collections of ideas.
• Ex Look at this real life possibility Do you
  help the person who spilled their bags of
  groceries? Why do some people help when others
  dont?
• Each perspective has an explanation.
• And there are six different ones

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1 The Cognitive Perspective (pg. 11)

• Popular since the 1960s.
• School of thought that focuses on how we take in,
  process, store and retrieve information.
• Focuses on how people think!
• People involved James and Piaget
• Ex Helping the person with the groceries is a
  function of how we think about or interpret a
  situation.
• We may choose to help the shopper because we
  think it will make us look good to others or
  wont because we think helping might make us look
  silly.

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Psychology's founding fathersWilliam James

• 1st American psychologist.
• 1st psych textbook author 1890.
• Functionalism
• Goal of psychology was to study the functions of
  consciousness, the ways consciousness helps
  people adapt to their environment.

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Psychologys founding fathersJean Piaget

• Worked on how children develop their thinking
  abilities.
• Developmental and cognitive psychologist.

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2 Biological Perspective

• School of thought to focuses on the physical
  structures and substances underlying a particular
  behavior, thought, or emotion.
• People involved
• Ex Could remind us that levels of a naturally
  occurring feel good chemical in our brain that
  could affect helping behavior.
• Those lacking in this element could feel
  depressed and not help the person with their
  groceries.

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3 Socio-cultural Perspective

• School of thought that focuses on how thinking or
  behavior changes in different settings or
  situations.
• People involved
• Ex Helping is more likely to occur if youre
  with a couple of friends and 50 feet from your
  front door and less likely if youre in a
  crowded, big-city movie theatre lobby where few
  faces are familiar.

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4 Behavioral Perspective

• School of thought that focuses on how we learn
  observable responses.
• Believe people learn certain responses through
  rewards, punishments, and observation.
• People involved Pavlov and Watson
• Ex a person who helps has previously observed
  someone being rewarded for helpful behavior.
• Like yall and bonus cards?

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Psychologys Founding FathersIvan Pavlov

• 1906 Pavlovs dogs
• He studied animal learning and fueled a move in
  psych toward interest in observable behavior and
  away from the self-examination of inner ideas and
  experiences.

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Psychologys founding fathersJohn B. Watson

• Launched behaviorism
• Dominant perspective of the 20th century.
• Behaviorist perspective
• Studied only observable and objectively
  describable acts.
• Dont waste time studying unconsciouscant see
  it!
• Made science more objective and scientific.
• Today behaviorism focuses on learning through
  rewards and observation.

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5 Humanistic Perspective

• School of thought that focuses on the study of
  conscious experience, the individuals freedom to
  choose, and capacity for personal growth.
• Healthy people strive to reach their full
  potential.
• People involved Maslow and Rogers
• Ex A person who has met their safety/physiologica
  l needs (hunger, thirst, shelter) would be able
  to reach out socially and help another person in
  need.

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More on Humanistic

• Humanistic psychology (1960), 3rd force.
• Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers
• Emphasized conscious experience as the proper
  focus for psychology.
• Humans have free will and will strive for full
  potential by making smart decisions.
• Rejected that humans are controlled by rewards
  and reinforcements.
• Maslows Hierarchy ?

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6 Psychodynamic Perspective

• Contemporary name formerly known as
  psychoanalytic perspective.
• School of thought that focuses on how behavior
  springs from unconscious drives and conflicts.
• People included Freud
• Ex Helpful behavior results from an unfulfilled
  childhood wish to have ones mother accept ones
  offer to help.

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Psychologys Founding FathersSigmund Freud

• Stereotypic therapist, with a pen and pencil
  listening to a patient on the couch.
• 1900, introduced first complete theory of
  personality psychoanalysis.
• Publishes The Interpretation of Dreams.

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Freuds Psychoanalytic Perspective

• Focused on abnormal behavior, which Freud
  attributed to unconscious drives and conflicts,
  often stemming from childhood.
• Relied on personal observation and reflection
  instead of controlled laboratory experimentation
  as its means of discovery.

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Problems with Psychoanalysis

• Claimed to be scientific, but relied on
  self-reported reflectionsnot scientific methods.
• Died in 1939, many theories have since been
  disproved and some out of date.
• But some of his ideas are still with us
• Freudian slip
• Anal-retentive
• Psychodynamic Theory
• Our unconscious thoughts, inner conflicts, and
  childhood experiences significantly affect our
  personality and behaviors.

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New Areas of Psychology!

• Behavior Genetics
• Focuses on how much our genes and our environment
  influence our individual differences and
  behavior.
• Combo of biology and behaviorism.
• A psychologist interested in behavior genetics
  might ask two questions Is there a helpfulness
  trait? If so, is it triggered into action by
  growing up in a family that promotes and values
  helping those in need?
• Yes? and you have the trait and a family that
  promotes it, you will be helpful.
• Thus, helping behavior is a product of learning
  and an inherited genetic trait.

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New Areas of Psychology!

• Evolutionary Psych
• Study behaviors that helped our ancestors survive
  long enough to reproduce successfully.
• Positive Psych
• Focus to study and promote original human
  functioning.
• Martin Seligman
• Promotes building positive qualities of people,
  not repairing the worst things.

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Careers in Psychology

• Basic research
• Pure science or research
• Research for the sake of finding new information
  and expanding the knowledge base of psychology.
• Clinical Psychologies
• Diagnose and treat patients with psychological
  problems.
• Largest number of professional psychologists.

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Careers in Psychology

• Applied Research
• Research designed to solve specific practical
  problems.
• Marriage counselors, education counselors,
  organizational counselors, etc.

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