INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY (MODULE 1)

-is the scientific study of behavior and mental process

-it seeks to describe, explain, predict, and

control behavior and mental processes

Psychology

it came from the two Greek words "PSYCHE" which means __________ and "LOGOS" which means study.

Breathe or Soul

-a set of hypothesized statements about the relationships among events.

- propose reasons for relationships among events

ex. Perception of threat can arouse feelings of anxiety.

Theories

allow us to derive explanations and predictions.

many psychological theories combine statements about:

behavior (eating/aggression)

mental processes (attitudes)

biological processes (effect of the drug on

the body)

Theories

seeks to understand the factors that influence behavior and apply this knowledge for the public good (ex. helping individuals cope with mental health problems).

can engage in research, practice and teaching.

Psychologist

research conducted without concern for immediate applications

Pure Research

research conducted in an effort to find solutions to particular problems

Applied Research

help people with psychological disorders adjust with the demands of life.

Clinical Psychologist

help clients with adjustment disorders

Counseling Psychologist

helps in identifying and assisiting students who have problems that interfere with learning

School Psychologist

focus on course planning and instructional methods for a school system rather than individual children

Educational Psychologist

study physical, cognitive,social, and emotional changes that occur throughout life span

Developmental Psychologist

identify and measure human traits and determining influences on humans thoughts, feelings and behavior

Personality Psychologist

concerned with the nature and causes of individuals' thoughts, feelings and behavior is social situations

Social Psychologist

ways that people and the environment influence one another

Environmental Psychologist

conducts experiments

Experimental Psychologist

focus on the relationship between people and work

Industrial Psychologist

study the behavior of people in organizations such as businesses

Organizational Psychologist

make technical systems like automobile dashboards and computer keyboards more friendly

Humans factor Psychologist

study the behavior of shoppers in an effort to predict and influence their behavior

Consumer Psychologist

study the effects of stress on health problems like headaches, cardiovascular disease and cancer

Health Psychologist

helps athletes concentrate on their performance and not on the crowd

ex. using positive visualization

Sports Psychologist

ways between crime and justice system

Forensic Psychologist

an expert in how brain injuries and conditions affect your behavior, mood and thinking skills

Neuropsychologist

Suggested that we rely on rational thought and introspection (careful examination of one’s own thoughts and emotions- to gain self knowledge)

People are social creatures who influenced one another.

"Know thyself"

Socrates

Wrote a treatise in psychology where he argued that human behavior, like the movements of the stars and the seas, is subject to rules and law

He delved into his subject matter topic by topic :

a.Personality

b.Sensation and perception

c.Thought

d.Intelligence

e.Needs and motives

f.Feeling, emotions, and memory

Aristotle

One of the first to raise a question about free choice

Suggested that we could think of behavior in terms of body and mind.

Pointed out that our behavior is influenced by external stimulation

Democritus

Published his landmark book Elements of Psychophysics

The book showed that physical events (lights and sounds) stimulate psychological sensations and perceptions and their effect can be scientifically measured.

Gustav Theodor Fechner

The school of psychology argues that the mind consists of three basic elements (sensations, feelings, and images) that combine to form experience.

The mind functions by combining objective and subjective elements of experience.

What are the pieces that make up thinking and experience?

Structuralism

The proponent of structuralism

Known as the founder of Modern Psychology

Founder of Experimental psychology

Used introspection to discover the basic element of experience.

Wilhelm Wundt

__________ Adapted Charles Darwin’s theory and proposed that adaptive behavior patterns are learned and maintained

Maladaptive behavior patterns tend to drop out and only the fittest behavior patterns survive

Functionalism

Emphasizes the uses of functions of the mind rather than the elements of experience.

___________ looked at how our experience helps us function more adaptively in our environments

Ex. How habits help us cope with common situations

We do not create an individual plan to eat with a spoon

Functionalism

“habit is the enormous flywheel of society.”

William James

The proponent of functionalism.

Major figure in the development of psychology in the United States

Focused on the relationship between conscious experience and behavior

William James

The stream of consciousness is fluid and continuous.

Introspection convinced him that experience cannot be broken down into objective sensations and subjective feelings.

William James

Defines psychology as the study of observable behavior and studies relationships between stimuli and responses.

Behaviorism

Observable

refers to behaviors that are observable by means of special instruments such as heart rate, blood pressure, and brain waves.

These are public behaviors that can be easily measured and different observers would agree about their existence and feature

Behaviorism

Founder of Behaviorism

Was asked to consider the contents of the rat mind as one of his requirements for his Doctorate degree

He believed that psychology must limit itself to observable and measurable events or behavior alone

John Broadus Watson

believed that organisms learn to behave in certain ways because they have been REINFORCED for doing so, consequently, their behavior has a positive outcome.

B.F. Skinner

a stimulus that follows and increases the frequency of response.

REINFORCEMENT

means a pattern or organized whole

Emphasizes the tendency to organize perceptions into wholes and to integrate separate stimuli into meaningful patterns.

Gestalt

psychologists focused on perception and how perception influences thinking and problem-solving.

They argued that we can't understand human nature by focusing only on overt behavior

Gestalt

learning is accomplished by insight, not by mechanical repetition

Gestalt

Max Wertheimer (1880-1943)

Kurt Koffka (1886-1941)

Wolgang Kohler (1887-1967)

Gestalt founders

founded by Sigmund Freud

emphasizes the importance of unconscious motives and conflicts as determinants of human behavior.

serve as both theory of personality and method of psychology

Psychoanalysis

in therapy, the aim is to help patients gain insights into their conflicts and find acceptable ways in expressing wishes and gratifying needs

Psychoanalysis

Seek the relationships between the brain, hormones, heredity, and evolution, on the one hand, and behavior and mental processes on the other.

assume that thoughts, fantasies, and dreams—and the inborn or instinctive behavior patterns of various species—are made possible by the nervous system and especially by the brain

Biological Perspective

(Person) species tend to evolve in adaptive directions.

Evolutionary psychologists suggest that much human social behavior, such as aggressive behavior and mate selection, has a hereditary basis.

Charles Darwin

having to do with mental processes such as sensation and perception, memory, intelligence, language, thought, and problem solving

study those things we refer to as the mind.

Roots: Socrates' "Know thyself", structuralism, functionalism, and Gestalt psychology,

Cognitive Perspective

introduced the term cognitive psychology

which he defined as the study of the processes behind the perception, transformation, storage, and recovery of information

Ulric Neisser

The _________ perspective is cognitive in flavor, yet it emphasizes the role of subjective (personal) experience.

seeks to give clients a greater awareness of how their constellation of pleasures, worries, thrills and anxieties all come together to form their experience of living

Humanistic-existential

stresses the human capacity for selffulfillment and the central roles of consciousness, selfawareness, and decision making

self-awareness, experience, and choice permit us, to a large extent, to “invent ourselves” and our ways of relating to the world as we progress through life.

Humanistic

our sense of being in the world—is seen as the

force that unifies our personalities

Consciousness

views people as free to choose and as being responsible for choosing ethical conduct

Existentialism

helped introduce existential psychology

His primary aim was to understand the underlying mechanisms and reality behind human suffering and crises combine humanism to psychology

Rollo May

Person-centered therapy believed that for a person to “grow”, they need an environment that provides them with genuineness (openness and self-disclosure), acceptance (being seen with unconditional positive regard), and empathy (being listened to and understood

Carl Rogers

S.E.L.S.P (HIerarchy of Needs)

Abraham Maslow

emphasizes environmental influences and the learning of habits through repetition and reinforcement.

BEHAVIORISTS’ VIEW

Suggests that people can modify and create their environments.

note that people engage in intentional learning by observing others

SOCIAL COGNITIVE THEORY

focuses on the roles of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status in behavior and mental processes.

addresses many of the ways that people differ from one another

Sociocultural Perspectives

is an organized way of using experience and testing ideas to expand and refine knowledge

Scientific Method

specific statement about behavior or mental processes that is tested through research

Hypothesis

collect information about individuals and small groups

Case study

a large sample of people answer questions about their attitudes or behavior

Survey

organisms are observed in their natural environment

Naturalistic observation

a mathematical method of determining whether one variable increases or decreases as another variable increases or decreases

Correlation

scientific method that seeks to confirm cause-and-effect relationships by introducing independent variables and observing their effects on dependent variables

Experiment