PsychologyAn Introduction

Aristotle • Psyche – essence of life

• Psychology – study of life

Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes.

• Science – careful, controlled observation

• Behavior-The actions that others see in you.

• Mental processes – private thoughts, emotions, feelings, motives that others cannot directly observe

What Is Psychology

Describe Predict Understand Influence

What Is Psychology

What Is Psychology

• Wilhelm Wundt • First laboratory in psychology, 1879

• William James• Lab in Harvard University, 1875

• Many people founded psychology

Wundt and Titchner• Introspection

Observe contents of own mind Describe sensations

• Structuralism Structure of mind

J. Henry Alston• Studies of sensations of heat and cold

What Is Psychology

Max Wertheimer

• Gestalt psychology

• Gestalt – the whole

• Phi phenomenon – the whole is different from the sum of its parts

What Is Psychology

William James• Functionalism

• Interested in what the mind could do

• Influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution

• Critical of structuralist view

What Is Psychology

Hermann Ebbinghaus• Measurement of memory

Meaningful and nonsense information

Mary Calkins• Functionalist• Memory and related bits of information• Paired associates method

What Is Psychology

Cognitive psychology• Modern version of functionalism

• Strongly influenced by Gestalt and

structuralism

• Cognitive processes – functions of human consciousness

• Cognition – all intellectual processes

What Is Psychology

Founded 1st psychology lab in France Developed way to measure

intelligence• Identify intelligent children for extensive

education in France

Test modified in U.S.• Stanford-Binet Intelligence Scale

• Psychometrics – measurement of mental functions

What Is Psychology

Behaviorists influenced by Darwin and learning from experience

Ivan Pavlov • Conditioning – simple form of learning

• Precise scientific way of studying learning

What Is Psychology

John Watson and Margaret Washburn• Impressed by Pavlov’s scientific precision

• Behaviorism - human behavior learned through classical conditioning

• Should study only overt behavior

B.F. Skinner• Strict behaviorist – no mental processes

What Is Psychology

Social learning theory • Broader version of behaviorism

Albert Bandura• Most of behavior learned from others in

society

• Important theoretical view today

What Is Psychology

Mental processes that we are unaware of

Sigmund Freud • Founder of psychoanalysis

• Unconscious mind

• Innate motives Conflicts influence behavior Sexual and aggressive are most important

What Is Psychology

Humanistic psychology• Maslow, Rogers, and Frankl

• Human fate based on conscious decisions

• Society is cause of self-defeating unconscious mind – bombarded with inaccurate information

• Self-concept – our view of what we are like Negative information causes anxiety

Difficult to have accurate self-concept

What Is Psychology

Sociocultural perspective• People are different – gender, cultural

heritage, age, sexual orientation, and unique experiences

• Derived from social anthropology

• Shaped by social learning theory – personalities, beliefs, attitudes, and skills learned from others

• Full understanding within sociocultural context

What Is Psychology

Interested in relationship between biological nature and psychological nature• How structures of brain influence behavior

• Influenced by Darwin’s theory of evolution – compare different species and humans

• Neurons and complex connections

• Active and inactive states of human brain

What Is Psychology

Sociocultural perspective• Culture – patterns of behavior, beliefs,

values shared by a people

• Ethnic group – persons who are descendants of common group of ancestors

• Ethnic identity – one’s sense of belonging to a particular ethnic group; sharing their culture

What Is Psychology

Sociocultural perspective • Gender identity – viewing oneself as female

or male

• Cultural relativity Think in relative terms, not judgmental

All cultures are different, none inferior

Usually more differences within groups than between groups

What Is Psychology

Sociocultural perspective in psychology• Psychology overemphasizes same,

neglects diversity

• History of psychology – Prejudiced against females and people of color Roadblocks in education and employment

Today – formal barriers dropped but some prejudice still exists

What Is Psychology

Studies behavior of animals and humans

Influenced by Darwin’s natural selection• Spontaneous change or mutation in

gene – the fittest survive

• Fitness – reproducing offspring to carry mutated gene to future generations

• Hard wired differences in men and women

What Is Psychology

Positive psychology movement• Study positive aspects of human lives

• Seligman – positive psychology as new school of thought Study health and happiness

What Is Psychology

Applied psychologists – research studies

Basic areas of modern psychology

• Biological psychology

• Sensation and perception

• Motivation and emotion

• Developmental psychology

• Sociocultural psychology

What Is Psychology

• Cognition

• Personality

• Social psychology

Applied areas of modern

psychology• Clinical psychology

• Counseling psychology

• Educational and school psychology

• Industrial and organizational psychology

• Health psychology

What Is Psychology

Relationship between psychology and psychiatry

• Psychiatrist – M.D. degree , residency training in psychiatry and medical internship

• Psychologist – Ph.D. or Psy.D., internship in clinical psychology

What Is Psychology

Human beings are biological creatures Every person is different, yet much the

same Can fully understand people in their social

context Human life is continuous process of change Behavior is motivated Humans are social animals People are active in creating experiences Behavior can be adaptive or maladaptive

What Is Psychology

What Is Psychology