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POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY OF THE PHILIPPINES

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

IROJO, JR. , ROLANDO D.

BSBA-HRDM 2-1

PROFESSOR ESTHER GULMATICO

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CHAPTER 1

SYNOPSIS:

The first chapter deals with the historical background of Psychology and the importance

of studying psychology. In this chapter described and explained the aims and goals of

psychology which is to describe, understand, predict and control human and animal

behavior and mental processes. It also tackled about the historical development of

psychology during the ancient period, during the medieval times, pre-modern and

modern period and contemporary. It discussed about the outstanding pioneers including

their contributions in the field of psychology. It also described the different

characteristics of the schools with movements of psychology and the different methods

used in Psychology and the major fields of psychology and how can it relate to different

career opportunities.

RECOMMENDATION:

After studying this chapter, I can now able to define and explain the nature of

psychology and can now relate it to other fields. Psychology is a very broad and

complex field to study because it encompasses different sub-fields so the students must

study, focus and work well on this.

Questions:

1. What is Psychology?

Psychology is an academic and applied discipline that involves the scientific

study of mental functions and behaviors. Psychology has the immediate goal of

understanding individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and

researching specific cases, and by many accounts it ultimately aims to benefit

society.

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2. What are the fields involved in Psychology?

Biological

Clinical

Cognitive

Comparative

Developmental

Educational and school

Evolutionary

Industrial–organizational

Personality

Social

Positive

3. What are the different Types of Behavior?

Overt and Covert

Conscious, Unconscious and Non-conscious

Rational and Irrational

Voluntary and Involuntary

Simple and Complex

4. What are the fields of science closely related to psychology?

Biopsychology

Physiological Psychology

Psychiatry

Psychotherapy

Psychotropics

Psychosurgery

Social Psychology

Psycholinguistics

CHAPTER 2

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SYNOPSIS:

In this chapter, the topics focused on the human development or the beginning of life.

How human beings started on and what are the developments happening on human.

This chapter explained the interrelationship between heredity and the environment in

human growth and development which divided into three major paths of human

development. The Physical development which is the changes happening in bodily

appearance, structure and changes in bodily activities like motor skills: the Psychosocial

development which includes changes in social and emotional aspects of personality and

the Cognitive development in which the changes in thought and processes affect

language, learning abilities and memory.

RECOMMENDATION:

The students should be able to appreciate the significance of pre-natal development to

post natal development, identify the different aspects of development and state and

explain the principles of heredity.

Questions:

1. What are the two kinds of change in development?

QUALITATIVE CHANGES

Refers to a progressive series of change leading to improvement like those

changes in kind that distinguish an infant who have developed motor skill from a

baby who can walk already.

QUANTITATIVE CHANGES

Refers to measurable changes in an individual like changes in height, body

proportion, and the likes.

2. What is Heredity?

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It is the passing of traits to offspring from its parents or ancestor. This is the

process by which an offspring cell or organism acquires or becomes predisposed

to the characteristics of its parent cell or organism. Through heredity, variations

exhibited by individuals can accumulate and cause some species to evolve.

3. What are the stages of development?

Prenatal Stages

a. Period of the Ovum

b. Period of the Embryo

c. Period of the Fetus

Post Natal Stages

a. Infancy Period

Childhood Stage

a. Early Childhood Stage

b. Late Childhood Stage

Puberty Stage

a. Pre-pubescence

b. Post-pubescence

Adolescence Stage

a. Teenager

b. Youth

Adulthood Stage

a. Early Adulthood Stage

b. Middle Adulthood

c. Late Adulthood or Old Age

CHAPTER 3

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SYNOPSIS:

In this chapter discussed the human development and how this development and

physiological functioning affects his behavior. It discussed about the main system that

controls all our bodily activities and behavioral responses and the basic structural and

functional unit of the Nervous System which includes the neurons responsible for nerve

impulses. The chapter explained about the main systems affecting the physiological

functioning of human which are the Nervous System which is made up of the Brain

which is the house in the skull, the Spinal Cord which can be found in the vertebral

column, The Peripheral Nervous System which is the second major division of nervous

system and the Endocrine System governing man’s behavior..

RECOMMENDATION:

Our Nervous System controls and coordinates every function in our body and therefore

controls our entire health. If the nerve signals from our brain to our body are not working

properly, then our body functions are compromised.

The nervous system acts to tell our body when something occurs or help notice things

that only humans would. Changes in temperature, changes in light, pain or pleasure,

touch, tension and stress. It is our brain's way of telling yourself what is happening to

your body. For instance, when you get sick you may feel a headache or a pain from a

scratch, it lets your body know that you are sick and your body is fighting infection or

that you need to revise your mistake and not do something again because it is harming

your body. Student should know the importance of Nervous System to our body and

know how to care about it.

Questions:

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1. What is Nervous System?

The nervous system is the part of an animal's body that coordinates its

voluntary and involuntary actions and transmits signals between different parts of

its body. 

2. What are the two major divisions of Nervous System?

The Central Nervous System

The central nervous system CNS is responsible for integrating sensory

information and responding accordingly.

The Peripheral Nervous System

The peripheral nervous system (PNS) is the part of the nervous system that

consists of the nerves and ganglia outside of the brain and spinal cord.[1] The

main function of the PNS is to connect the central nervous system(CNS) to the

limbs and organs, essentially serving as a communication relay going back and

forth between the brain and the extremities.

3. What is the Endocrine System?

The endocrine system refers to the collection of glands of an organism

that secrete hormones directly into the circulatory system to be carried towards a

distant target organ. The major endocrine glands include the pineal

gland, pituitary gland, pancreas, ovaries, testes, thyroid gland, parathyroid

gland, hypothalamus, gastrointestinal tract and adrenal glands.

CHAPTER 4

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SYNOPSIS:

Sensation and perception are the processes involved in detecting stimuli in the world

around us, transmitting them to the brain, and then organizing and interpreting them.

The study of psychophysics has led to the measurement of absolute thresholds and

difference thresholds, which define the levels of stimuli needed in order for sensation to

occur. Sensory experiences are translated into neural messages in a process known as

transduction. In describing each of the senses, the chapter focuses on vision and

hearing, describing in detail the structure and function of the visual and auditory

systems, the theories about color vision, and the place and frequency theories of

hearing. The authors then describe smell, taste, touch, kinesthetic (position) sense, and

vestibular (balance) sense. The gate control theory of pain and the role of endorphins in

the relief of pain are also examined. Perception is the process of actively organizing and

interpreting sensory information. The Gestalt approach to perception suggests that

analyzing perceptions into their smallest elements will not lead to an understanding of

perception. Instead, perception must be understood according to organizing principles

such as figure-ground, similarity, proximity, continuity, and closure. Other perceptual

phenomena at work in the interpretation of sensory stimuli include perceptual

constancy, a phenomenon occurring in the perception of size, shape, brightness, and

color; depth perception, based on both binocular and monocular cues; and the

perception of motion. The chapter examines the role of illusions, the Müller-Lyer illusion

and the Ponzo illusion, and of ambiguous and impossible figures in understanding

perception.

RECOMMENDATION:

Sensations and perceptions are important because these are the basic means by which people

experience the world and build a worldview to explain those experiences. Sensations are direct

sensory stimuli, such as seeing shapes and colors, hearing sounds or feeling a touch.

Perceptions are the ways we interpret those sensations to make sense of what we are sensing.

Questions:

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1. What is Perception?

Perception (from the Latin perceptio, percipio) is the organization, identification,

and interpretation of sensory information in order to represent and understand

the environment.

2. What are the types of perception?

Visual Perception

Ability to interpret the surrounding environment by processing information that is

contained invisible light. 

Movement Perception

Process of inferring the speed and direction of elements in a scene based

on visual, vestibular and proprioceptive inputs.

Depth Perception

 Visual ability to perceive the world in three dimensions (3D) and the distance of

an object.

Perceptual Illusion

The perception of something objectively exists in such a way as to cause

misinterpretation of its actual nature."

Sound Perception

Organize sounds into auditory objects or streams and use the principles of

grouping to help us to segregate those components we are interested in from

others. 

Olfactory and Gustatory Perception

The sensation that results when olfactory receptors in the noseare stimulated by 

particular chemicals in gaseous form;

The sensation that results when taste buds in the tongue and throat convey

information about the chemical composition of a soluble stimulus; "the candy left

him with a bad taste"; "the melon had a delicious taste"

CHAPTER 5

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SYNOPSIS:

Intelligence has been defined in many different ways such as in terms of one's capacity

for logic, abstract thought, understanding, self awareness, communication,

learning, emotional knowledge, memory, planning, creativity and problem solving. It can

also be more generally described as the ability to perceive and/or retain

knowledge or information and apply it to itself or other instances of knowledge or

information creating referable understanding models of any size, density, or complexity,

due to any conscious or subconscious imposed will or instruction to do so.

Intelligence is most widely studied in humans, but has also been observed in non-

human animals and in plants. Artificial intelligence is the simulation of intelligence in

machines.

Within the discipline of psychology, various approaches to human intelligence have

been adopted. The psychometric approach is especially familiar to the general public,

as well as being the most researched and by far the most widely used in practical

settings.

RECOMMENDATION:

Few people agree on exactly what “intelligence” is or how to measure it. The nature and

origin of intelligence are elusive, and the value and accuracy of intelligence tests are

often uncertain. Intelligence is a particularly thorny subject, since research in the field

has the potential to affect many social and political decisions, such as how much

funding the U.S. government should devote to educational programs. People who

believe that intelligence is mainly inherited don’t see the usefulness in special

educational opportunities for the underprivileged, while people who believe that

environment plays a large role in intelligence tend to support such programs. The

importance and effects of intelligence are clear, but intelligence does not lend itself to

easy definition or explanation. Intelligence work is a discipline in and of itself, just like

police work, and carries its own language, rules, and culture. Intelligence encompasses

a broad range of disciplines and jobs including those that work in national security, law

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enforcement, and corporate security to name a few. State and local governments also

have needs for certain types of intelligence.

Questions:

1. What is Intelligence?

the ability to acquire and apply knowledge and skills.

2. What are the theories of intelligence?

Spearman’s Two-Factor Theory

Thurstone’s Primary Mental Abilities

J.P. Guilford’s Factor Analysis

Cattell and Horn’s Concepts of Fluid & Crystallized Intelligence

Sternberg’s Information Processing Approach

Howard Gardner’s Multiple Intelligence Theory

3. What are the types of tests use in measuring Intelligence?

Individual Test

Group Test

Verbal Test

Performance Test

Power Test

Speed Test

CHAPTER 6

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SYNOPSIS:

Learning is the act of acquiring new, or modifying and reinforcing,

existing knowledge, behaviors, skills, values, orpreferences and may involve

synthesizing different types of information. The ability to learn is possessed by humans,

animals and some machines. Progress over time tends to follow learning curves.

Learning is not compulsory; it is contextual. It does not happen all at once, but builds

upon and is shaped by what we already know. To that end, learning may be viewed as

a process, rather than a collection of factual and procedural knowledge. Learning

produces changes in the organism and the changes produced are relatively permanent.

Human learning may occur as part of education, personal development, schooling,

or training. It may be goal-oriented and may be aided by motivation. The study of how

learning occurs is part of educational psychology, neuropsychology, learning,

and pedagogy. Learning may occur as a result of habituation or classical conditioning,

seen in many animal species, or as a result of more complex activities such as play,

seen only in relatively intelligent animals. Learning may occur consciously or without

conscious awareness. Learning that an aversive event can't be avoided nor escaped is

called learned helplessness. There is evidence for human behavioral

learning prenatally, in which habituation has been observed as early as 32 weeks

into gestation, indicating that the central nervous system is sufficiently developed and

primed for learning and memory to occur very early on in development.

RECOMMENDATION:

One of my most treasured values is my love of learning. Learning is something that

impacts nearly every facet of my existence every day. I am constantly learning new

things, or expounding on existing knowledge. Even when I am not learning, I am

applying skills or knowledge, even if it is just a logic problem in a puzzle book, in order

to exercise my mind. Without my drive and desire to learn I would have never started

gardening, writing, painting, drawing, making my own jewelry, crafts, baking, or any of

my other hobbies and art forms. Learning new information, such as history and social

science is vital to our evolution as a civilization.

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We must learn from our past, our societal flaws, and our behavior in order to become a

better functioning society. The individuals that ignore or resist learning opportunities

become mentally atrophied.

Questions:

1. What are the Kinds of learning?

Habituation

Associative Learning

a. Classical Conditioning

b. Operant or Instrumental Conditioning

Social Learning

a. Attention

b. Retention

c. Motoric Reproduction

d. Reinforcement

Skill Learning

Verbal Learning

a. Serial-Anticipation Learning

b. Free Recall Learning

c. Paired- Associate Learning

Cognitive Learning

2. What are the Exceptional Forms of Memory?

Memorists – refer to individuals with exceptional memory. They are the ones

who never forget no matter how long a period of time has lapsed.

Eidetikers – individuals who possess eidetic imagery power.

Memory Disorders - breaking down of memory