INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

• what is psychology?
  • study of people’s thoughts, feelings & behavior
  • focuses on the development of human personality, brain development and how individuals perceive information from their senses
  • also examines mental disorders
  • is the scientific study that seeks to describe, explain, predict & control behavior & mental processes
• questions from psychologists
  • what is the mind
  • what is its relation to the brain
  • if the mind and the brain are not the same thing but are somehow related, how do you study what you cannot see?
  • what roles do biology (nature) and the environment (nurture) play in complex human behaviors?
  • how does the mind develop and change over time?
  • who am i? why do i behave the way i do?
  • why do humans have such similar ways of thinking and acting?
  • how do changes (technological, societal, political, etc) affect our individual and collective perceptions?
• what psychologists do
  • studies of individuals as well as groups
  • counseling
  • addictions
  • psychosis
  • neurosis
  • animal psychology
  • experimentation
• there are two styles of practice
  • experimental psychology: conducts research, develops theories and tests the theories
  • clinical psychology: applying the disciplines of scientific knowledge to help people, organizations and communities function better
• biological psychology - studies the role of biological processes & heredity in explaining behavior
• evolutionary psychology - studies the role of inherited tendencies that have proven adaptive in humans
• psychology is comprised of six main areas
  • structuralism
  • functionalism
  • psychoanalysis
  • behaviorism
  • humanism
  • cognitive psychology
• each type represents a different perspective on how we can best understand human behavior
• structuralism
  • founded by william wundt
  • tries to observe the inner workings of the mind
  • does this by conducting experiments on;
  • sensation
  • perception
  • attention
  • subjects were asked to examine their thoughts and describe everything they went through their minds (introspection)
  • in short: structuralism is the analysis of basic elements that create the mind
• functionalism
  • founded by william james
  • was impressed by how people adapted their behavior to the needs of their surroundings
  • example: behaving professionally during interviews
  • believed that mental characteristics developed and allowed people to survive by solving problems
  • functionalism studies the function of the mind and the development of children
  • it looks at;
  • how the mind operates
  • how the mental processes promote adaptations
  • how learning and education could be improved
  • how men and women behave differently
• psychoanalysis
  • develop by sigmund freud
  • examination of patient’s inner mind
  • attempts to understand a person’s unconscious mind
  • the unconscious mind continues to influence our behavior and experience even though we are unaware of these underlying influences
  • is a process designed to uncover patients’ unconscious thoughts by encouraging them to discuss their background, feelings and experiences with a trained psychologist
  • major argument: behavior is determined by unconscious conflicts based on childhood events
  • this is less common now
• behavioral psychology
  • founded john watson
  • argue that since the mind itself cannot be observed
  • behavior was the only thing that can be observed and recorded
  • therefore behaviorism is the study of how humans and animals react to the environment
  • behavior is learned as a consequence of the effects of environment (punishment and rewards)
• humanism
  • was a reaction to behaviorism and psychoanalysis
  • developed in the 1950s
  • emphasizes on the unique qualities of human beings
  • focusing on the freedom and potential for personal growth
  • behavior is a function of “free will” and striving towards self actualization
  • humans make choices, people control their lives
• cognitive psychology
  • is the study of the mental processes involved in memory, learning and thinking
  • studies how people;
  • perceive and deal with their environment
  • how people learn and remember
  • how humans reason and make decisions
  • cognitive activities include emotions, feelings, thoughts, dreams, perceptions and memories
• types of defense mechanisms
  • repression - removing anxiety by pushing it into the unconscious
  • ex. can’t remember a traumatic event that happened in your life
  • denial - blocking external events from awareness; refusing to accept it
  • ex. denying that you have an addiction to something
  • regression - reverting to a less mature way of handling stress or feelings
  • ex. you’re roommate and you get into a fight so you stomp off into another room and pout
  • projection - attributing your own unacceptable thoughts or feelings to someone else or something else
  • ex. you’re jealous of your best friend, but claim that your best friend is jealous of you
  • displacement - channeling a feeling or thought from its actual source to something or someone else
  • ex. you get mad at your sister, so you throw your glass of milk at the wall
  • reaction formation - adopting beliefs, attitudes, and feelings contrary to what you really believe
  • ex. when you say you're not angry when you really are
  • altruism - handling your own pain by helping others
  • ex. after your partner dies, you keep yourself busy by volunteering with your community
  • humor - focusing on funny aspects of a painful situation
  • ex. you break up with your ex and you laugh at how much time you wasted with them
  • sublimation - redirecting unacceptable, instinctual drives into personally and socially acceptable channels
  • ex. intense rage redirected in the form of participation in sports such as boxing or football
• sigmund freud
  • is the father of psychoanalytic theory of development
  • born in 1856, in the austro-hungarian empire
  • his father was a small time merchant
  • his mother was the second wife his father
  • had 2 half brothers 20 years older
  • his family background identified as jewish but he was an avowed atheist
  • as a jewish man,his only career options were medicine and law
  • he chose medicine and specialized in neurology
  • in 1886; he married, moved to vienna austria, opened a practice specializing in nervous and brain disorders
  • in 1900 he introduced the world to freud freudian slips
  • he described it as slips of the tongue where the thoughts of the unconscious mind were revealed
  • the unconscious self
  • it is so large and we are only aware of the conscious
  • this theory can be compared to an iceberg
  • the vast majority is buried beneath the water’s surface
  • the water would represent everything that;
    • we are not aware of
    • have not experiences
    • what has not been integrated into our personalities
    • referred to as the nonconscious
  • psychoanalytic theory
  • stated that the mind is divided into 2 parts
  • the conscious - the part of which we are aware
  • the unconscious - the part of which we are not aware
  • the unconscious mind has more influence than the conscious has on our personality & behavior
  • the unconscious is further divided into 3 parts:
    • the id - encourages us to seek physical satisfaction
    • the superego - prompts us to do the moral thing, not the one that feels the best
    • the ego - referees between the id and the superego, and deals with external reality (our conscious self)
  • freud believed that these 2 parts affect our personality development and individual behavior
  • our early childhood experiences are stored in our unconscious mind
  • psychosexual theory
  • believed that individual sexual satisfaction or frustration was the kew element in personality development
  • also stated that the sex drive was the greatest shaper of personality
  • claimed that sexuality was even present in infants
  • oral stage;
    • duration: from birth to 1 year of age
    • pleasure zone: mouth, lips, tongue
    • main characteristics: main concern is with immediate gratification of urges dominated by the id
    • tasks to achieve: satisfactory feeding & weening
  • anal stage;
    • duration: from 1-2 years of age
    • pleasure zone: below area
    • main characteristics: controlling the bowels and bladder, the ego starts to control the id
    • tasks to achieve: potty and toilet training
  • phallus stage;
    • duration: from 2-6 years of age
    • pleasure zone: below area
    • main characteristics: oedipus and electra complexes, id demands, ego tries to satisfy id, superego tries to impose moral choices
  • latency stage;
    • duration: from 6-11 years of age
    • pleasure zone: none
    • main characteristics: oedipus and electra complexes are resolved
    • Identification with the same sex parent occurs
    • loss of interest in the opposite sex
    • superego continues to compete
    • tasks to achieve: none
  • genital stage
    • duration: from 11 years on
    • pleasure zone: genitals
    • main characteristics: concerned over physical looks and general attraction, considering a love interest/relationship with others
    • tasks to achieve: good relationships with both sexes
  • oedipus complex
    • little boys have a sexual attraction towards their mothers
    • a sense of jealousy and hatred towards their fathers
  • electra complex
    • little girls have a sexual attraction towards their fathers
    • a sense of jealousy and hatred towards their mothers
  • freud says that these complexes are not resolved through murder
  • they’re resolved through gradual identification with the same sex parent
  • they assume the goals, ambitions, mannerisms, and other personality traits
  • fixation;
    • a person can become stuck or fixated at any stage and may not progress beyond it
    • they will continue to find pleasure in the pleasure zone associated with that stage
    • ex. gum chews, pencil biters, smokers are said to be fixated at the oral stage
• carl jung
  • famous psychologist
  • not as famous as sigmund freud
  • early supporter of freud
  • he had similar ideas of the unconscious
  • jung disagreed with;
  • the oedipus complex
  • freud’s emphasis on infantile sexuality
    • libido
    • sexual energy
  • freud and jung ended up splitting up
  • came up with his own theory of psychoanalysis
• differences between jung and freud

• jung also believed that the mind has three parts
  • he has his own theory of the unconscious
  • the ego (conscious aka tip of the iceberg);
  • composed of thoughts, memories, emotions
  • you are aware of these
  • it is responsible for feelings of identity
  • personal unconscious (first layer of the unconscious)
  • forgotten information
  • repressed memories
  • thoughts, feelings, attitudes
  • known as complexes that focus on a single concept
  • one complex can be about an event that happened
  • ex. the birthday party on the weekend
  • collective unconscious (second layer of the unconscious)
  • biggest difference between freud and jung
  • a level of unconscious that is shared with other humans
  • these are memories from our ancestral and evolutionary past
  • ex. fear of dark or snakes or spiders
  • jung believes the collective unconscious contains images and knowledge that are shared with all humans
  • alled these images and pieces of knowledge and they can be seen in religious scriptures, mythologies, folk tales etc.
  • jung called these images archetypes because they have universal meaning across all cultures
  • ex. every culture has a concept of mother, father, good, evil
  • archetypes - images and thoughts which have universal meanings
  • they show up in our dreams, literature, art or religion
  • inborn tendencies which shape human behavior
  • there are four main archetypes
  • persona/mask
    • the persona you show to the world
    • this mask conceals your real self
    • is the public face or a role a person shows others
    • ex. fathers adopt traits that portray them as typical fathers; serious and disciplining
    • not a true reflection of ourselves
    • is an idealized image of how you think you should act/think and behave
    • the persona develops as a social mask to contain all the;
    • primitive urges
    • impulses
    • emotions
    • anything not considered socially acceptable
    • allows people to adapt to the world around them
    • lets people fit in with the society in which they live
  • anima/animus
    • represents our true self
    • not your mask
    • is the mirror image of our biological sex
    • the unconscious female side in males
    • the male side of women
    • amina = males having a female behavior
    • males may repress parts of their personality they think is too feminine like showing empathy
    • animus = women having male behaviors
    • these are idealized impressions of the male and female
  • the shadow
    • the animal side of our personality (like the ID)
    • elements of ourselves that we consider negative
    • we do not show this side to the outside world
    • it can be a source of shame or anxiety
    • the shadow tends to disobey rules
    • we often deny the shadow and project it onto others
    • it can appear in dreams/hallucinations
  • other archetypes
    • the wise old man
    • represents the power of peaceful contemplation
    • is seem as quiet and foresees the future or offers guidance
    • the great mother
    • represents ideal qualities of the mother figure
    • caring, compassionate, dependable and loving
    • may also offer guidance
    • the father - authority figure, stern, powerful
    • the child - longing for innocence, rebirth, salvation
    • the hero - champion, defender, rescuer
    • the maiden - innocence, desire, purity
    • the trickster - deceiver, liar, trouble-maker
  • jung used mandalas in psychotherapy
  • according to freud “a mandala is the psychological expression of totality of the self
  • drawing /coloring mandala helps people know their place within relationships
  • the mandala is a template for the mind and a state peace
  • it is a way to connect with inner self and deal with stress and anxiety
  • when you dream about circles, its a symbol for your search for completeness or self unity
• what are dreams?
  • a succession of images, thoughts, or emotions passing through the mind during sleep
  • dreams can be extraordinarily vivid or very vague
  • filled with joyful emotions or frightening imagery
  • focused an understandable or unclear and confusing
  • there is no consensus out there to explain why we dream
  • some say there is no real reason
  • others say that dreams allow us to sort through our days events, struggles and problems
  • repetitive dreams
  • they carry a message
  • if you have had the same dream since young may indicate a problem that you have been having
  • could also signify a current problem or preoccupation
  • predictive dreams
  • these types of dreams are treated with great caution
  • many people are skeptics of predictive dreams
  • they are hard to prove, it is more of a belief
  • nightmares
  • are a result of some waking anxiety which is so predominant
  • childhood is full of such anxieties
  • after you had a nightmare already, it is rare you will have another the same night
  • nightmares can be recurring which signals you needing to figure out what the waking problem is
  • lucid dreaming
  • defined as dreaming while knowing that you are dreaming
  • usually begins in the middle of the dream
  • the dreamer realizes that the experiences that are occurring are not that of the physical reality but rather the creation of a dream
  • high level lucidity - when the dreamer knows that everything being experienced is a creation of the mind
  • low level lucidity - dreamer not fully aware that they are dreaming, dreamer is allowed to fly but is still scared of threats to their body
  • flying is the most typical type of lucid dream
  • dream symbolism - freud
  • included dream interpretation in psychoanalysis
  • dreams are key to the theoretical understanding of the subconscious
  • we are never able to fully disappear from our environment
  • we can sleep in a dark room with comforters to maintain our comfort level and limit the amount of stimuli in our environment
  • what we dream is not merely coincidental, there is a reason for it
  • freud begins to analyze dreams in order to understand aspects of personality as the relate to pathology
  • dream symbols are more or less sexual
  • our urges and impulses must be released in someway
  • dreams are the perfect outsource for this
  • these are suppressed by the superego when were are awake
  • your guards are down when you sleep
  • you find it difficult to remember your dreams
  • this is cause your super ego tries to protect your conscious mind from disturbing images and desires
  • dreams always have a manifest and latent (hidden) content
  • manifest - what the dream seems to be saying, which is often bizarre
  • latent - what the dream is really trying to say
  • images in our dreams get classified into five categories;
    • displacement - the desire for one thing or person is symbolized by something else
    • projection - the dreamer propels their wants onto another person
    • symbolization - dreamer’s repressed urges or suppressed desires are acted out metaphorically
    • condensation - the dreamer hides their feelings or urges by underplaying it into a brief dream image or event, the meaning may not be obvious
    • rationalization - the dreaming mind organizes a confused dream into one that is more clear and logical
• what is memory?
  • the capacity to acquire and recall knowledge and skills
  • there are different kinds of memory
  • episodic (remembering events from the past)
  • semantic (knowledge of how world/things work)
  • procedural (how to do things)
  • in addition to kinds of memory, there are also 3 levels of memory
  • sensory
  • short term
  • long term
  • each level performs a distinct and necessary function
  • sensory memory
  • receives information from the environment through each of the senses
  • records info from these senses for only a few seconds
  • enables you to hold info long enough to record what is necessary from the environment
  • selects what should be retained from all the sensory info you receive
  • short term memory
  • what is going on in your conscious mind right now
  • holds info for up to 15-20 seconds that is either discarded or stored as long term memory
  • info is stored in several ways
    • sound
    • mental picture
    • associating it with personal meaning
  • in the frontal cortex and parietal lobe
  • long term memory
  • items that are important and having meaning to you are stored here
  • can retain as much info as we want for as long as we want
  • we cannot always recall it at will
  • there are several ways to improve the ability to recall long-term memory
    • ascribing some personal meaning to the memory
    • use efficient methods to retrieve memories
    • recall memories regularly
    • rest or sleep between study sessions as new learning interferes with memory retention
    • easier to recall if organized & related to other info
  • memory and the brain
  • hippocampus: part of a network of regions in the brain important for memory
  • humans have 2 hippocampi on either side of the brain
  • important for converting short term memory to more permanent memory
  • recalling spatial relationships in the world

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