What is Psychology?

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What is Psychology?

• Psychology is the scientific study of behavior
  and mental processes
• Scientific?
• Not just common sense or guesses
• Psychology uses the scientific method
• Scientific Method is careful observations and the
  experimental testing of hypothesis
• Behavior what people do on the outside
• Mental Processes What is going on inside
  someone's head. We call this cognition.
• Psychology includes the study of both humans and
  animals

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Approaches to the field of Psychology

1. Biological
2. Evolutionary
3. Behavioral
4. Cognitive
5. Psychodynamic
6. Humanistic
7. Social

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1. Biological Psychology

• Investigates the biological basis of human
  behavior, thoughts and emotions. Looks at how
  the following biological mechanisms effect your
  behavior and mental processes.
• Brain
• Neurotransmitters
• Hormones
• Drugs (both legal and illegal)
• Gender differences in brain structure and function

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2. Evolutionary Psychology

• Asks the question How did our species get to be
  the way we are?
• Language Why do we talk?
• Altruism Why are we nice to each other?
• Sexual attraction / mate selection Why are some
  people considered beautiful?
• Answers these questions by looking at what would
  most help us pass on our genetic code.
• Very concerned with reproduction!

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3. Behavioral

• This approach only studies observable human
  behavior focusing on how we learn, react and
  manipulate our environment. 
• We learn observable responses through
  conditioning or by trying to get rewards/avoid
  punishments.
• Mind is a BLACK BOX. Cant see it? Dont study
  it.
• Big names
• Pavlov Dogs
• Watson Little Albert
• Skinner Operant Conditioning

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4. Cognitive Psychology

• School of psychology that studies mental
  processes
• Thinking, feeling, remembering, making decisions
  and judgments
• Studies how we encode, process, store, and
  retrieve information.
• Studies behavior and makes inferences about the
  mental processes behind the behavior
• Thanks to new technologies like CAT scans, MRIs
  and fMRIs, we can open the black box.

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5. Psychodynamic Psychology

• Personality theory that says behavior springs
  from unconscious drives and conflicts
• Unconscious is a dynamic cauldron of primitive
  drives, forbidden desires and nameless fears
• Psychoanalysis patient lies on a couch and
  recounts dreams and conducts free association.
• Sigmund Freud

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6. Humanistic Psychology

• School of psychology that emphasizes nonverbal
  experiences and altered states of consciousness
  as a means of realizing ones full human
  potential
• Importance of love, belonging, human potential,
  and self-esteem.
• Abraham Maslow
• Not mainstream, more a cultural and spiritual
  movement.

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7. Sociocultural Psychology

• Study of how people influence one another
• Topics include
• First impressions
• Interpersonal attraction
• Attitude formation
• Prejudice
• Behavior in a group
• Obedience to Authority
• Some Applications include
• Support groups
• Family Therapy
• Sensitivity Training

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Careers in Psychology

• Clinical and counseling
• developmental
• educational
• experimental
• human factors
• industrialorganizational
• personality
• psychometric

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1. Clinical and Counseling Psychology

• About 50 of all Psychologists
• Counseling psychologists deal with normal
  problems, such as stress caused by career change
  or marital problems
• Counseling psychologists focus more on the
  psychologically healthy individual where clinical
  focuses on individuals with serious mental
  illness (e.g. schizophrenia).
• Clinical psychologists are concerned with
  diagnosis and treatment of psychological
  disorders
• Split time between treatment and researching the
  cause of psychological disorders and the
  effectiveness of different types of psychotherapy
  and counseling.

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2. Developmental Psychology

• Study of physical and mental growth from birth to
  old age
• study of changing abilities from womb to tomb
• Subfields
• Child psychology
• Adolescent psychology
• Life-span psychology

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3. Educational Psychology

• School Psychologist
• psychological evaluations
• consult with school personnel in relation to
  students learning, behavior, and environments
• they are trained to look at the effectiveness of
  academic programs, classroom agendas, and
  treatment interventions, which assists in the
  development of specific interventions.

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4. Experimental Psychology

• Design research experiments
• May or may not have a direct impact on the
  treatment of patients
• Animal subjects
• Drug trials

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5. Human Factors

• The science of understanding the properties of
  human capability (Human Factors Science).
• The application of this understanding to the
  design, development and deployment of systems and
  services (Human Factors Engineering).
• The art of ensuring successful application of
  Human Factors Engineering to a programme
  (sometimes referred to as Human Factors
  Integration).It can also be called ergonomics.

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6. Industrial and Organizational Psychology

• Study of psychological principles in industry and
  business
• Examples
• Selecting and training personnel
• Productivity improvement
• Optimizing working conditions
• Managing the impact of automation on workers

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7. Personality Psychology

• Study of how people differ from one another on
  traits such as
• Conscientiousness
• Agreeableness
• Neuroticism
• Openness
• Extraversion

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7. Psychometics

• Test creation
• Validity
• Reliablity
• Culture fair
• Statistics

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Psychiatry

• A branch of medicine dealing with psychological
  disorders
• Practiced by physicians who sometimes use medical
  (for example, drug) treatments as well as
  psychotherapy

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Licenses in Psychology

• Psychologists - Ph.D., Psy.D.
• Psychiatrists - M.D.
• Psychoanalysts - M.D. or Ph.D.
• Social Workers (M.S.W.) - LSW
• Marriage Family Therapists - M.A.