The World of Psychology:
An Overview
What is psychology, and
how did it grow?
What Is Psychology?
• The science that seeks to understand
behavior and mental processes, and to
apply that understanding in the service of
human welfare.
Academic Psychology
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Biological
Perception
Consciousness
Learning
Memory
Cognition
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Motivation/Emotion
Developmental
Personality
Social
Disorders
Next
Testosterone and Aggression
Grp None
no T
no T
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Low
Grp Late
no T
T
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Result
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Figure 1.1: What Do You See?
• An elderly father-inlaw or a husband?
• Perception involves
more than just
passively receiving
information.
Return
In-class only
Return
Two Examples
• Spotlight Effect
• Illusion of Transparency
Return
Typical Work Settings
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Mental Health Facilities
Universities and Colleges
Business
Schools
Other (Miltary, Prisons, Public Policy)
Historical Roots of Psychology
• Used laboratory science methods to study
consciousness.
• Changed psychology from a philosophy to
a science of mental processes.
Wilhelm Wundt (18321920)
Structuralism
• Founder: Edward Titchener, trained by
Wundt
• Goals: To study conscious experience and
how elements of consciousness are
structure in humans.
• Methods: Experiments; introspection.
• Application: “Pure scientific research”
– Spurred development of psychological
laboratories.
Introspection
• Describe the
intensity and clarity
of the sensations
and images that
make up your
experience of this
object.
Gestalt Psychology
• Founder: Max Wertheimer
• Goals: To describe organization of mental
processes.
– “The whole is greater than the sum of its
parts.”
• Methods: Observation of
sensory/perceptual phenomena.
• Applications: Understanding visual
illusions; laid groundwork for humanistic
and cognitive psychology.
Psychoanalysis
• Founder: Sigmund Freud
• Goals: To explain personality and behavior
and develop techniques for treating mental
illness.
• Methods: Study of individual cases.
• Applications: Development of
psychotherapy; emphasis on childhood,
role of unconscious processes.
Functionalism
• Founder: William James
• Goals: To study how the mind works in
allowing an organism to adapt to the
environment.
• Methods: Naturalistic observations of
animal and human behavior.
• Applications: Child psychology;
educational and industrial psychology;
study of individual differences.
Behaviorism
• Founders: John B. Watson; B. F. Skinner
• Goals: To study observable behavior and
explain behavior via learning principles.
• Methods: Observation of the relationship
between environmental stimuli and
behavioral responses.
• Application: Behavior modification;
improved teaching methods.
Watson’s Famous Quote
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and
my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll
guarantee to take any one at random and train him
to become any type of specialist I might select—
doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes,
even beggarman and thief, regardless of his
talents, penchants, abilities, vocation, and race of
his ancestors”.
Current Approaches
• Biological Approach: Emphasizes activity of the
nervous system, especially the brain; the action
of hormones and other chemicals; and genetics.
• Evolutionary Approach: In what ways do
behavior and mental processes aid reproduction
and survival.
• Behavioral Approach: Emphasizes learning and
how environmental circumstances dictate
behavior.
Approaches (cont’d)
• Cognitive Approach: Emphasizes how people
receive, store, retrieve, and otherwise process
information
• Humanistic: Focuses on the attributions and
choices made by the individual
• Psychodynamic: Conflicts between underlying
biology and societal goals.
• Cultural/Personality: Effects of individual traits
and cultural upbringing on behavior.
Impact of Sociocultural
Diversity on Psychology
• Are all people essentially the same?
• Sometimes “Yes”: Most basic processes of
perception and learning are shared
• Sometimes “No”: Sociocultural variables shape
what people make of those experiences and
what they learn from them.
• Culture is an organizing and stabilizing
influence.
Individualist
• Separate identity
• Meeting personal
goals; being unique
• Self-assurance,
express individuality
• Personal credit for
success; Blame
external factors for
failure
• Self frame of
reference
Collectivist
• Connectedness
• Belonging, Meet
obligations
• Self-restrain, selfeffacing,
• Social unit credit for
success; Blame
internal factors for
failure
• Group frame of
reference
Cultural Values in Advertising-Korean or U.S. Advertisements?
• “She’s got a style all her
own”
– ANSWER: ?
• “You, only better”
– ANSWER: ?
• “A more exhilarating way
to provide for your family”
– ANSWER: ?
• “We have a way of
bringing people closer
together”
– ANSWER: ?
• “Celebrating a halfcentury of partnership”
– ANSWER: ?
• “How to protect the most
personal part of the
environment: Your skin”
– ANSWER: ?
• “Our family agrees with
this selection of home
furnishings”
– ANSWER: ?
• “A leader among leaders”
– ANSWER: ?
Source: Brehm, Kassin, Fein, Social Psychology, 4/e (1999)