Introduction to Psychology
 Course title: Introduction to Psychology
 Course code: Psy-101
 Instructor: Nasia Sajjad
Why we learn Psychology??
 To understand the nature and mechanism of
behavior and mental processes
 To develop understanding the relationship
between behavior and mental processes
 To apply this understanding to real life situations
and on the basis of this learn for future
Definition of Psychology
 The word of psychology is derived from two Greek
words “Psyche and Logos”
 Psyche means “Soul/Spirit/Mind” and Logos means
“Knowledge”
 Psychology stands for the knowledge of mind/soul
 Psychology is the scientific study of mind and
behavior
Subject Matter of Psychology
Subject Matter of psychology is A-B-C
 A stands for Affect
 B stands for- Behavior (Overt and Covert
Behavior)
 C stands for- Cognition
Subject Matter of Psychology
(continu..)
 Affect: refers to the experience of feelings or
emotions, it’s the observable expression of
emotion through facial expression e,g voice tone,
hand gestures, tears
 Behavior: Behavior anything that we do (Overt
and Covert Behavior)
 Cognition: The mental process of knowing
including perception, attention, memory, learning,
sensory, decision making,judgement etc
Subject matter of Psychology
(continu..)
 Overt Behavior
 Covert Behavior
 Behavior that other
 Behavior that is
people can see and
directly or sensely
observable, mostly in
which used body
language e.g. walking,
running
hidden, consist on
mental, social and
physical actions that
are not immediately
observable e.g.
behavior of internal
organs, deception
Historical background of Psychology
 The roots of Psychology can be traced back to
some half million years. Primitive people assumed
that behavior was caused by the presence of good
and evil souls .
 People have been interested in the behavior of
other people throughout history so that roots of
psychology may be found in philosophy, religion,
and science.
 We can divide history period into two periods
 Pre scientific period
 Scientific period
Pre scientific period
 Some of our modern ideas of mind came from
ancient Greek. Term Psychology was derived
from the Greek word ‘Psyche’ (soul) and ‘logos’
(knowledge). It eventually came to mean the
“study of the mind”
 Pre scientific period can be divided into three sub
periods .
 i) Greek period
 ii) Middle ages
 iii) Islamic period
Greek period
 1: Hippocrates :
 Greek physician Hippocrates thought that personality
was made up of four temperaments and these
temperaments were influenced by the presence of
“humors or fluids” in the body. The problem of
interest to the early Greek philosophers was the
relationship between “mind” and body.
Hippocrates four humors and
Personality Type or temperaments:
Black Bile
Yellow Bile
Phlegm
Blood (humors)
Melancholic Choleric
Phlegmatic
(temperaments / personality type)
Sanguine
Moody
Touchy
Passive
Anxious
Restless
Careful
Rigid
Aggressive Thoughtful
Sober
Excitable
Peaceful
Pessimistic Changeable Controlled
Reserved
Optimistic
Calm
(Personality Characteristics)
Sociable
Outgoing
Talkative
Responsive
Easygoing
Carefree
Greek period
 2: Plato
 He stressed the controlling influence of soul or
mind.
 He postulated the theory of mind body dualism
and held the view that as long as the soul remains
in the body, the man is alive, and when it leaves
the body, the man dies.
 Mind-body dualism: mind and body are not
identical, both are function separately without
interchange
Greek period
 3: Aristotle
 Rejected the Plato’s theory and suggested that
mind is a function of the body itself just as vision
is a function of the eye.
 His concept of mind as a function of bodily
processes was an important step in the direction of
making Psychology a science.
 Attention turned, eventually, from pure
speculation about the mind to the study of
organism.
Middle ages
 1: Plotinus:
 He was influenced by Plato and Aristotle’s thoughts.
 He tried to understand religious beliefs through reasoning.
 2: St. Augustine:
 Being a Christian philosopher, he believed that human
being is interaction of soul and body.
 He was founder of introspective method (examination of
one’s own conscious thoughts and feelings).
 He thought that an individual can understand his own inner
feelings.
Islamic Period
 If the ideas of modern Psychologists about mental
health are assessed, we come to know that these
are based on the views of Islamic philosophers and
thinkers.
 The Muslim philosophers described the principles
of life in the light if Quran and the Sunnah.
Islamic Period
 Here a brief description of Muslim philosophers
may be added into the history of psychology.
 1: Alkundi:
 He was a great Arab philosopher. He believed that
our souls have originated from God’s soul.
According to him, our real happiness lies in the
reason and spiritual life.
Islamic Period
He tried to combine religion and philosophy as
both seek reality; philosophy focuses on
theoretical aspects whereas religion stresses upon
actions.
2: Al- Farabi
 He wrote more than 80 books on various topics.
He believed that a man is composed of body and
soul, which belong to God.
 God is immortal and above all human thoughts.
Farabi was influenced by the teachings of Plato
and Aristotle.
Islamic Period
 3: Ibn-e-Sina
 He was physician, poet and psychologist all in
one. According to him, there are three kinds of
mind :Human mind, Animal mind , and vegetable
mind.
 Vegetable mind: the power of growth,
reproduction
 Human mind: ability to reason, gave humanity
 Vegetable and animal mind connect to earth and human
mind connect to God
 Only the Human mind possess reason and
intelligence. He said that physical illness could be
treated with medicine but mental illness could be
treated psychologically with religion.
 He thought that body had no link with mind; body
perishes but mind remains alive.
 4: Imam Ghazali
 He wrote a number of books on religion.
According to him those obsessed with love of God
and treading the right path do not contact mental
disorders. Therefore , he also instructed people to
follow the right path.
 He said that , this world is a place of actions and
hard work and no body was allowed to remain idle
in life. He viewed that man was recognized by his
actions.
 He stressed upon children’s education. He said
children’s capabilities must be assessed for proper
education. He thought that mental diseases were
caused by negative emotional problems and one
should get rid of them.
 5: Allama Bin Khaldun
 He proposed the theories of social psychology and
explained human beliefs , prejudices , attitudes
and other subject matters.
 According to him , religion influences human
mind and whole life.
 6: Shah Wali Ullah
 He wrote many books and made a deep study of human
mind and behavior. He discovered the causes of mental
disorders and treated them .
 According to him conflict goes on between positive and
negative forces within human mind and healthy personality
develops only by striking balance b/w the two. If irrational
ideas are in excess, mental health is affected.
Scientific Period



This period may be divided into two sub
periods:
1: Renaissance Period
2: Modern Period
1 : John Lock :
 He believed we were born with empty mind in the
world, he gave the concept of “tabula rasa”like
blank slates upon which all of life’s experiences
could be written .
 Memories are imprinted on our mind as a result of
experience.
 Other influences on early psychology came from
biology and physics.
2: Charles Darwin :
 In his book” The Origin of Species” in 1859,he
outlined his theory of evolution. In his theory he
suggested that animals and people show behavior
that is adaptive to the environment and helpful to
their survival.
3: Paul Broca
 A French physician identified a part of the brain
(still called “Broca Area”) working as control
centre for speech.
4: Weber:
 About the middle of 19th century the discoveries
made in physics gave rise to a new field known as
“psychophysics”
 Psychophysics is the branch of psychology that
deals with the relationship between physical
stimuli and mental phenomena.
 Weber observed the relationship between changes
in the physical stimuli and human ability to
perceive changes.
5. Fechner
 He looked into mathematical connection between
the physical and psychological changes.
 For the first time it had been demonstrated that
psychological phenomenon could be quantified
and investigated with scientific method.