An Introduction to Psychology

1
An Introduction to Psychology

• Chapter one

2
What is it?

• Mind reading??
• Abnormality??
• Map out elements of mind and thought

3
Whats in it for you?

• Charm and influence others
• Learn some of the secret tricks
• Learn to control, modify and/or enhance your own
  behavior
• Learn to think more critically about others
  behavior
• Individual differences measurement

4
Defining Psychology

• Behavior
• Mind
• Processes
• Content
• Subjective experience
• Scientific study

5
Pervasive Influence(Zimbardo, 2004)

• Objective, quantifiable means of assessing human
  talents, abilities, strengths and weaknesses
• Binet first measured intellectual performance
  over 100 years ago
• Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery
• 2 million each year
• Assessment is multibillion dollar industry

6
Positive Reinforcement

• Time out
• Animal training
• How we think about changing behavior

7
Psychotherapy

• Individual, couples , families, children
• Treatment of emotional disorders
• Improvement of human functioning

8
Lifespan development

• Legal rights and protection of children
• Optimal development
• Age related developmental periods
• Orderly progression of mental development
• Elderly hold on to cognitive skills through
  stimulation

9
Parenting

• Alfred Adler and Rudolf Dreikurs
• Need for secure attachment
• Parents need to make age-appropriate demands

10
Psychological Stress

• At the heart of many physical and psychological
  disorders
• Revolution in medical treatment
• Health Psychology the Biopsychosocial approach

11
Unconscious Motivation

• What we think is not always based on conscious
  motivations
• Impact of psychology on literature

12
Prejudice and discrimination

• Social psychology research demonstrated negative
  impact of separate but equal
• Brown vs. Board of Education of Topeka, KS
• Gordon Allport (1954) The nature of prejudice

13
Humanizing work conditions

• Dehumanizing effects of assembly work replace by
  better methods
• Japanese model of group dynamics based on work of
  Kurt Lewin in the 1940s
• Worker satisfaction, job fit
• Personnel selection and placement

14
Political polling

• Cantrill advised FDR in 1940s

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So what do psychologist actually do?

• Clinical psychologist
• Diagnose and treat psychological disorders
• Forensics psychology and the law
• Counseling psychologist started in VA hospitals
• Less of a distinction between the two
• Health Service Providers

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Psychiatrists

• Medical doctors who treat psychological problems
• Issue of prescription privileges for psychologists

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Applied psychology

• Industrial/organizational psychology
• School psychology
• Human factors designing and engineering new
  products
• Health psychology

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others

• Neuropsychology
• Clinical neuropsychology brain functioning and
  abnormal behvior
• Educational psychology
• Process of learning, reading, writing

19
Research psychologists

• Many specialties
• Personality
• Development
• Sensory processes
• Social
• Cognitive
• Evolutionary
• Cross cultural

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It aint all dead white guys..

• Increasing emphasis on diversity
• Visit APA website
• Check my webpage for this class

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Historical Approaches

• Structuralism
• Functionalism
• Behaviorism
• Psychoanlytic
• Humanistic

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The cognitive revolution

• Move away from radical behaviorism
• Renewed interest in consciousness beginning in
  the 1950s
• Analogies to computers
• The rise of Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)

23
Biological Psychology

• Technological advances
• Biological correlates of behavior