PsychologyPrinciples in Practice
Psychology
Psychology: The scientific study of human behavior and mental processes
Where do we Psychology around us?
Behavior/Cognitive
Cognitive: Mental processes including thoughts, dreams, perception, and memories
Behavior: Actions people can observe or measure
Behavior Any action people can observe or measure
Includes: Eating/Drinking Brain Activity Walking/Running Anything almost
Psychological constructs Things we can’t touch or measure
Anger, Happiness, Hurt – These are behaviors that usually can not be see or measured
-Behavior or Psych Construct? –
1. 1. You think about how much you dislike the Kardashians
2. 2. Walk to the TV to turn off Tosh.O
3. 3. You think how much you hate women’s tennis
ODE Observe, Describe, and Explain
The ODE gives us a theory
Theory: A statement that
explains your findings
Theories create Principles: A truth or law
Look around You Have you ever judged people…chances are you have
Have you ever people watched?
The Lecture Circuit:
http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3409773337/
Traditional Schools of Psychology
Structuralism
Functionalism
Psychoanalysis
Gestalt
Behaviorism
Early Beginnings Officially a science in the late 1800’s
Willhelm Wundt is considered the “father of Psychology” “Voont” applied scientific principles to studying the
mind
He did this through “objective introspection” Def: Measuring one’s own thoughts and metal activities
Wundt would place an object in front of someone and ask them what they thought
Objective Introspection Example
Look at the Chalkboard
What are you thinking about?
How does it make you feel?
What are you repressing?
What flaws does this approach have?
Structuralism Major Influence: Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Tichener
Based on Wundt’s beginnings this focuses on the structure of the mind and how it works
Focus: Each thought is believed to come from an experience or thought about something else
Each person has to think through his/her own mind to answer – This is Introspection
Functionalism Major Influence: William James; Father of American
Psychology
Focus: How the mind functions effect daily life
James argued that once you started thinking about what you were thinking about its was no longer what you would have been thinking…
Studying the conscious (what you are thinking right now) was not possible to him
Rather, he asked why do some people avoid eye contact, walk a certain way, etc
Gestalt (Gesh-Talt) German for – An organized whole
Major influence: Max Wertheimer
Focus: How the mid perceives parts and wholes
Wertheimer believed if you break things down then they are just components, no longer a whole
Example: You take apart an engine – Now you have engine parts but not an engine
Gestalt Drawings
Gestalt Cont’
Continuity: Lines are seen as following the smoothest path
Proximity: Objects near each other get grouped together
Pragnanz: We organize in the simplest way possible
Closure: Objects grouped together are seen as a whole
Similarity: Items that tend to be similar we group together
Examples Name the correct law suggested by Gestalt
Psychology:
Create You Own Take an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper and create your
own Gestalt Drawing
Be creative, take your time, make them pretty
10 Points
Psychoanalysis Major Influence: Sigmund Freud
Focus: The unconscious, repressed memories and experiences that determine behavior
Freud was the first to look beyond the now (conscious) and explore why people think/act outside conscious thought
Freud harped on childhood memories and sexual desires believing personality was formed by age 6. More on Freud later
Behaviorism Major Influence: Ivan Pavlov and John Watson
Focus: Observable behavior that is learned over time, not conscious or unconscious thought/feelings
This was a return to science and data, not thought or feeling
Ivan Pavlov: Conditioning Experiment
John Watson: Little Albert Experiment