Introducing Psychology

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Introducing Psychology

• What is it that fascinates psychologists about
  ordinary behavior? What exactly do they study?

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Introducing Psychology

• I. Why Study Psychology?
• II. Overview of Psychology
• III. A Brief History of Psychology
• IV. Psychology as a Profession

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I. Why Study Psychology?

• Insight
• Psychology can provide useful insight into
  behavior.
• Of course, few people are more obnoxious than a
  novice psychologist.
• The more you study psychology, the more respect
  you will gain for the complexity and diversity of
  human and animal behavior.

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I. Why Study Psychology?

• Practical Information
• You will learn concrete and detailed ways to
  carry out a number of useful procedures, i.e.
  shaping, mnemonic devices, and life development.

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II. Overview of Psychology
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Defining Psychology

• Psychology is the scientific study of behavior
  and mental processes.
• Psychology is trying to understand why people do
  the things they do.
• Behavior has causes it is governed by laws and
  rules.
• Thus, the study of behavior must be systematic.

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• The flaw in all their reasoning is that
  speculating on the WHOLE from a few FACTS can
  lead to VERY LARGE errors in judgment.

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The Scientific Basis of Psychology

• Psychologists rely on the scientific method
• Identify a specific problem or question
• Formulate a hypothesis
• Collect data through observation and experiment
• Analyze the data
• Draw a conclusion

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Goals of Psychology

• Describe
• The first task for any scientist or psychologist
  is to gather information about the behavior being
  studied and present what is known.

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Goals of Psychology

• Explain
• Psychologists also seek to explain why people
  behave as they do.
• Theories are formed from a large number of
  experimental studies.
• Theories allow us to describe and explain
  observed behavior.

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Goals of Psychology

• Predict
• Psychologists want to predict what humans will
  do, think, and feel in various situations.
• By studying descriptive and theoretical accounts
  of past behaviors, psychologists can predict
  subsequent behaviors.

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Goals of Psychology

• Control
• Some psychologists seek to influence or control
  behavior in helpful ways.

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What problems may occur when a researcher accepts
one theoretical view?
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III. The Establishment of Psychology
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Structuralism

• 1879 The first psychology lab was set up in
  Germany by Wilhelm Wundt.
• He attempted to map out the basic structure of
  thought process.
• He used introspection, a method of
  self-observation in which one looks within and
  reports their thought process.

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Functionalism

• 1890 American psychologist William James
  theorized all activities of the mind thinking,
  feeling, learning, and remembering serve only
  to help us survive as a species.

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Five Major Approaches in Use in Psychology
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1. Biological Psychology

• Some psychologists today focus on the
  physiological basis of behavior.
• Its the belief that everything you do or feel
  involves some correlation in the brain.

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2. Psychoanalysis

• Founded by Sigmund Freud, he was interest in the
  unconscious mind.
• He believed that behavior occurred without us
  knowing why.
• He believed that our conscious experiences are
  only the tip of the iceberg, that beneath the
  surface are primitive biological urges that are
  in conflict with the requirements of society and
  morality.

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2. Psychoanalysis

• Free association a technique in which a patient
  said everything that came to mind, no matter how
  absurd or irrelevant it seemed.
• Dream Analysis dreams are the expression of the
  most primitive unconscious urges.

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2. Psychoanalysis

• Both he believed revealed the operation of
  unconscious processes.
• He used his case studies to develop a
  comprehensive theory of personality.

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3. Behaviorism

• Belief that the environment shapes you into what
  you are.
• The key idea is that all animals adjust their
  behavior to meet the demands of their environment.

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3. Behaviorism

• Behaviorists stress investigating observable
  behavior.
• They believe that all behavior, even instinctive
  behavior, is a result of conditioning.
• American B.F. Skinner, influenced both the public
  and scientists with his techniques of
  conditioning behavior by rewards and punishments.

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4. Cognitive Processes

• Emphasizes the importance of thought processes in
  learning behavior.
• We perceive and interpret our world, think about
  problems, constantly assess our knowledge of
  ourselves and others, and use language to
  communicate with one another.

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5. Humanism

• Focuses on the uniqueness of individuals through
  choices.
• Belief that the human mind is able to influence
  and change the world in which it functions.
• Proposed by Abraham Maslow to counter the
  psychoanalytic and behavioral approaches which he
  felt was dehumanizing.

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IV. Psychology as a Profession
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What is a Psychologist?

• Psychologists are people who have been trained to
  observe and analyze behavior patterns, to develop
  theories on behavior, and to apply what they know
  to influence behavior.
• Just as there are many different branches of
  medicine, there are also many different fields of
  psychology.

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Psychiatry

• Psychiatry is a specialty of medicine.
• They study how to treat people with disturbed
  behavior and can prescribe medicine.

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Clinical and Counseling Psychology

• Specialists in this field are also referred to as
  psychotherapists.
• They help people deal with personal and everyday
  problems.
• Some help with emotional and learning problems.
• They account for about one-half of all
  psychologists.

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Personality, Social, and Developmental Psychology

• Usually involved in research.
• Some may create personality tests.
• Others study groups and may be interested in
  public opinion.

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Other Fields

• Educational Psychology Related to teaching
  children and young adults.
• Community Psychology May help design, run or
  evaluate a mental health clinic.
• Industrial/Organizational Psychology Study and
  develop methods to boost production, improve
  working conditions, and job placement.
• Experimental Psychology Do everything from
  testing how electrical stimulation of the brain
  affects behavior to studying how disturbed people
  think.

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• Psychology ties together all that has been
  discovered about human behavior and feelings in
  order to look at the total human being.