Bible 4/17/25

What is psychology?

Study of mind

Personhood

Idea that we are made in the image of God (suggests dignity, value that’s not earned)

Behaviorism

Believes psychological research should be concerned with studying observable measures of behavior and not the unobservable events that take place in the mind.

Self-Actualization

The realization of one’s full of potential

Behaviorism

Behaviorism is a theory in psychology that says we should focus on observable behaviors - what people do - rather than what they're thinking or feeling inside.

Classical conditioning

Classical conditioning is a learning process where a person or animal learns to connect two things that happen together. For example, if a dog hears a bell every time it gets food, it will eventually start to salivate just from hearing the bell, even if no food comes.

Fitrah

Humans naturally submit to a god

Dualism

Humans both spiritual and physical

Psychoanalysis

Sigmund Freud’s idea where a psychologist tries to resolve a patient’s psychological problems by talking with them

Classical Conditioning

Training technique (by Ivan Pavlov) that teaches different results come from different stimuli (ring bell, dog salivates)

Marxist approach to psychology

Shifts from internal factors to external factors (economic, social) for shaping the mind. Solutions involve changing society.

The four forces of psychology

Behavioristic, psychoanalytic, humanistic, and transpersonal

Decentered self

Humans are social constructs without soul

Epiphenomenalism

Positive Psychology

Focuses on creating happiness and finding meaning, not just curing mental problem

Visualization

Act of attempting to make an outcome happen by meditating about it (meditators with military to help win war)

Epiphenomenalism

The idea that thoughts and feelings are caused by the brain, but they do not cause anything themselves.

Cognitive Behaviorism

Postmodernist Psychological

Looks at societal factors instead of personal problems for psychoanalysis