PSYCHOLOGY 106 Psychological Principles for Nursing

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PSYCHOLOGY 106Psychological Principles for
Nursing

• Liam Ennis, Ph.D.
• liame_at_ualberta.ca

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Prologue

• Cover the basics of psychological principles and
  show explain how these principles can be applied
  to solve human problems (and wherever possible,
  nursing-related human problems.
• Introductory course Cover lots of ground, but
  in a primarily cursory fashion
• If you have questions ask them.

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Psychology Science

• Psychology is the science of the mind and
  behaviour
• Psychological data are always based on observed
  behaviour - inferences made re mind
• Behaviour Any process or activity that is
  directly observable
• Mind Cant be observed directly (e.g., thought
  processes, motivation, etc.)
• Black Box

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History of Psychology

• First psychologists were philosophers (e.g.,
  Aristotle, Socrates, Plato)
• Speculation about the source of human knowledge,
  nature of mind and soul, mind-body relationship,
  whether these constructs could be studied
  objectively
• Determinism vs. Free Will

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History of Psychology

• Descartes - French philosopher
• Dualism - man consists of 2 distinct but
  conjoined entities Material body and immaterial
  soul
• Body is part of natural world and can be studied
  scientifically
• Soul - not bound by natural law - unstudy-able

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History of Psychology

• Descartes contd
• concerned with mechanical processes of behaviour
  which he felt were unrelated to soul
• Animals dont have souls, yet engage in many
  basic physiological behaviours that humans do
• Any activity performed by humans that is
  qualitatively no different from what animals can
  do, occurs without the soul
• role of senses, organs, reflexes

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Thomas Hobbes (1588-1679)

• British - struggle between church and state
• tutor to King Charles II
• Believed soul to be a meaningless concept
• Materialism nothing exists but matter energy
• All human behaviour can be understood re
  physical processes
• Thought product of brain-body machinery,
  subject to natural law

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Empiricism

• John Locke philosopher in the early 1600s
• Empiricism Knowledge is gained through our
  senses and experience, not through speculation
• British Empiricists all human knowledge and
  thought derive from sensory experience
• Thought subject to natural law and may be studied
  scientifically

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Psychophysiology

• 19th century - emphasis on machinery of behaviour
• Central nervous system, sensation and perception
• Reflexology - every human behaviour understood as
  a reflex, initiated by environmental stimuli
• localization of function - Broca

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Ivan Pavlov

• 1905 Nobel Prize for dog salivation research
• Conditioned reflexes
• Reliance on precise measurement of behaviour and
  presentation of stimuli

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Charles Darwin

• Consistent with theory of evolution, traits and
  behaviours can be examined for the function it
  serves in allowing the organism to survive and
  reproduce in natural environment
• Helped convince intellectual world that humans
  are part of nature, just like animals, and can be
  understood through the methods of science

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Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920)

• Commonly viewed as the father of psychological
  science
• Wrote first psych text ever
• Founded the first psych lab at University of
  Leipzig (Germany) in 1879
• Utilized introspection to study consciousness
• To look inward to examine ones own conscious
  experience
• examination of the simplest mental processes -
  sensations, memories, etc.
• Fast occurring processes simplest

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Edward Titchner

• Student of Wundts
• Laboratory at Cornell University
• Pioneered the Structuralist view of psychology
• The proper goal of psychology was the
  identification of the elements/structures of the
  mind and determine how they combine with one
  another
• Wundt correctly warned of limitations of
  introspection

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William James

• First psychological lab text in America
  Harvard University (1890)
• Rejected structuralism - cant understand a house
  by looking at the bricks
• Influenced by Darwin natural selection and
  adaptive behaviour
• Functionalism the study of the function of
  behaviour, and how people behave in order to
  adapt to their environments.

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Sigmund Freud

• Pioneered psychoanalysis  in order to understand
  how the unconscious influences human behavior.
• Conceptualized the mind as having three
  components
• the Id, responsible for our drives to meet our
  physiological needs and desires
• the Superego, incorporates the rules and morals
  of the society we live in
• the Ego, the conscious part of our minds that
  mediates between the Id and Superego so that we
  may get our needs met in a socially acceptable
  way.

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John B. Watson

• Mental constructs were of no value in explaining
  human behaviour, and only obscured psychological
  investigation and theory
• All behaviour reflexive all behavior can be
  understood as reactions/responses to events in
  the environment
• Spent latter part of his career in advertising

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B.F. Skinner

• Behaviorist Operant Learning Conditioning
• Disagreed with emphasis on reflexes
• Focused on consequences of behaviour
• Behaviour contingent on influence of reinforcers
  in ones environment
• Behaviourism dominated psychology from 1920s
  1980s

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Albert Bandura

• Social Learning Theory
• Observational learning
• Aggression/Bo-Bo Doll
• Modelling

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Carl Rogers

• Felt psychoanalysis and behaviourism devalued the
  conscious human mind
• Humanistic or Client-Centered Psychology (Maslow)
• Theory based on assumption that we all have an
  inherent actualizing tendency - beyond basic
  needs
• tendency stunted by others who criticize and
  inhibit
• Unconditional, positive regard

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Cognitive Psychology

• Increasingly popular since 1970s
• emphasizes how people take in, organize and make
  mental representations and store information.
  Also study how these processes effect behavior
• thought mediates behaviour
• How we think about things influences emotion,
  decision making, behaviour

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Biology the Brain

• Role of brain functioning as it relates to
  behaviour and psychological processes
• Heredity and behavioural genetics
• neurochemical processes of memory thought
• magnetic fields
• technologically based