WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY? W

hat m

akes

peo

ple

‘tick’

Find casual relationships between

human behaviour and experience

The study of behaviour, mental processes and experience

Scientific study of human

lifeTheory that explains

observations about behaviour

Psychology compared with common sense

studies behaviour systematicallyproduces evidence that can be tested,

quantified, and analysed attempts to be objective not confined to everyday experience builds on and draws from a body of knowledge aims to predict with a measure of certainty

Major Branches of Psychology

Cognitive

Physiological

Social

Developmental

Individual Differences

(including psychopathology)

What do these deal with?

Approaches in Psychology

Psychodynamic

Freud, Jung, Klein

Behaviourist

Watson, Skinner, Thorndike

Humanistic

Rogers, Kelly

Cognitive

Gardner, Bruner, Beck Evolutionary

Darwin…

The Psychology Tree

Humanistic

Cognitive

Psychodynamic

Evolutionary

Behaviourist

Neo-B

ehaviourist

Individual Differences

Abn

orm

al P

sych

olog

y

Psych

omet

rics

Personality

Intelligence

Social

Attitudes & prejudice

Social influence

Physiological

Brain Structure

Hor

mon

es

Neuroanatomy

Developmental

Loss & Change

Life Stages

Child D

evelopment

Moral, Social, Gender

CognitiveLear

ning

& P

robl

em S

olvin

g

Perception

Attention

Memory

Language

Comparative

Animal Case Studies

Applications of Psychology

Clinical (includes counselling

& psychotherapy )

Occupational

EducationalOrganisational

Forensic

How Do Psychologists Do Research?

Experiments Observations

Tests, Questionnaires

& Surveys

Interviews

……..or a combination of these

Quantitative or Qualitative ?

Quantitative Research

Produces evidence & results in numeric form

Results can be analysed and tested for statistical significance

Scope of research may have to be limited to allow this

Usually produces clear results, but these will not always take account of individual diversity

Results may not be reliable or properly understood & applied

Qualitative Research

Produces evidence in non-numerical forms, usually words (eg. diary studies)

Gives rich data that is detailed and can easily encompass diversity and individuality of experience

Can be quite flexible in scope

May not produce clear results

Sometimes subjective and “unscientific”