Psych Bellringer
 What do you hope to gain from
learning psychology? (give 3-5
reasons)
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Begin all bellringers on a new sheet of looseleaf
You do not have to write the question as long as
you write the topic
GROUP DISCUSSION
 What is psychology?
 What types of work do psychologists do?
 What types of things do psychologists study?
 Why is it important to study psychology?
UNIT 1
Psychology: study of behavior and mental
processes
*the word comes from “psyche” meaning
mind or soul, and “logia” meaning study or
investigation
*Psychology is a social science
Goals of Psychology:
(1) Describe Behavior: gather information about
the behavior being studied and to present what is
known
(2) Explain Behavior: explanation of why people
or animals behave as they do
*hypothesis: an educated guess about some
phenomenon
*theory: complex explanation based on findings
from a large number of studies
(Parapsychology exercise)
(3) Predict Behavior: predict what organisms will
do or what they think or feel in different situations
Types of Science:
(A)Basic Science: research
EX: a study of eye movement during
sleep research—may find a person who has a
sleep disorder, so they try to understand and
explain the situation
(B)Applied Science: discover ways to use what
we know about people to benefit others;
use psychological principles to solve
immediate problems
EX: they would try to correct the
sleep disorder
History of Psychology
 Ancient times…
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Socrates (look within yourself)
Plato (examine your thoughts & feelings)
Aristotle (people see pleasure and avoid pain)
Hippocrates (confusion and madness were caused by
abnormalities in the brain)
 Middle Ages
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Madness was caused by demons
Water-float test
Events leading up to birth of psychology:
 1600’s:
~ Dualism (mind and body are separate and
distinct)
~Descartes disagreed and said their was a link between
mind and body
~ Scientific Revolution led to chemical advancements
~Phrenology—examining bumps on skull to determine
intellect and character…encouraged others to study brain
 1879:
~ First psychology lab opened in Leipzig, Germany by
Wundt
Historical Approaches to Psychology:
(1) Structuralism
~ studied conscious experience
~ 2 categories of experience: objective (sight,
taste) and subjective (emotions)
You can experience an apple by its shape and color and
subjectively remember how good it tastes
~ Wundt was a structuralist
~ He developed introspection (people reported their
thoughts and Wundt tried to figure out thought processes)
~ Led to scientific method
(2) Functionalism:
~experience is a continuous “stream of
consciousness”
~studied how mental processes help animals and
people adapt to their environment
ex. Asking someone out continually…why?
~Habits are difficult then become automatic
(sports)
~William James---taught first psych class at
Harvard in 1875
~James is the “father of psychology” in US
(3) Gestalt (means “whole pattern”)
~ the context in which something occurs affects
the way we perceive it
~ German psychologists Wertheimer, Kohler,
and Koffka
~ studied the whole person, not just one part
EX: when people look at a chair,
they recognize the whole, rather
than noticing the seat, legs, etc.
*(show illustration examples)
Current Approaches to Psychology:
(most psychologist don’t group themselves into historical theories anymore)
(A) Psychoanalytic:
~Sigmund Freud (1938) interested in
unconscious mind and internal conflict; thought all
behavior is a result of unconscious motivation
~used “free association” where a patient
would say everything that came to mind,
no matter how silly or irrelevant it seemed
~Freud was first to use dream analysis
~Have primitive biological urges in conflict with
society expectations
(B) Behavioral
~ Pavlov--studied conditioning; dog salivating from
ringing fork
~ Watson--all behavior is a result of a stimulus that
produces a response (Do you know what your pet is
thinking?)
~ Skinner--studied reinforcement
(C) Humanistic
~Each person is unique and has the potential to
develop fully; people are free to make choices
~Focus on the person rather than the environment
~Maslow & Rogers
(D) Cognitive:
~study the mind
~ 1950s Jean Piaget—focused on how we process,
store, and use information and how it influences our
thinking
~behavior is influenced by mental processes
(perceptions, memories, expectations)
(E) Biological:
~focus on how the brain, nervous system, hormones,
and genetics influence our behavior
~how music, hormones, and genes are involved
(F) Socio-cultural:
~studies how culture, gender, socio-economic and
ethnicity affects our behavior…ex. Female jobs
Psychi vs Psycho
Psychiatrist: a medical doctor who can
prescribe medication to patients
Psychologist: people who have been trained
to observe, analyze, evaluate, and treat
behavior; cannot prescribe medication
Types of Psychologists:
1. Clinical Psychologist: helps people deal with
personal problems like anxiety, depression,
schizophrenia, and drug addiction
~employed in clinics, hospitals, prisons,
private offices
~about ½ of psychologists; largest group
2. Counseling Psychologist: helps people with
adjustment problems about careers, friends,
and family
~ employed in industrial firms (businesses)
3. School Psychologist: work in school to help young
people with emotional or learning problems; give
intelligence and achievement tests
4. Educational Psychologist: deal with topics related
to teaching young people for entire school
system…motivation, instructional methods, etc.
5. Developmental Psychologist: study life span; look
at physical changes (ht & wt, aging) , emotional
(self-esteem), cognitive (how children learn
right/wrong) and social (relationships among peers
and parents)
7. Industrial Psychologist: employed by business or
government agencies; may study how to improve
work conditions, or job placement services
8. Social Psychologist: study people’s behavior in
social situations; focus on physical attraction,
conformity, prejudice, violence, etc.
9. Experimental psychologist: experiment on
nervous system; ex. what triggers memory and
hunger
10. Others: Sports, Forensics, Consumer,
Environmental…
American Psychological Association (APA): a
scientific and professional society of
psychologists and educators; world’s largest
club for psychologists
Job Advertisement
 Using one of the assigned types of psychologists, create a
job advertisement for that occupation.
 Include:
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What the nature of the job will be
What type of specialist is being sought
Degree needed
3 interesting facts about this type of psychologist
Money earnings
The best and worst part of this job
 Have at least one illustration on the advertisement
 You may complete this on the computer or construction
paper
Collage
 Choose one of the 6 Contemporary
psychological perspectives: Biological,
Cognitive, Humanistic, Psychoanalytic,
Behaviorist, Sociocultural
 Use magazines or the computer to locate
pictures that illustrate the subject matter and
key assumptions of their assigned
perspective