PSYC1001 – Notes
Introduction & Psych Perspectives
What is Psychology? Psychology is the scientific investigation of mental
(thinking, remembering and feeling) and behaviour. Understanding a
person requires attention to the individual’s biology, psychological
experience and cultural context.
Behaviour – Overt (observable) actions; Physiological correlates of
actions
Mental Processes – Thoughts (memories, imagery, concepts); Emotions
(fear, happiness, anger, arousal); interactions between the two (e.g.
decision making)
Graduate Attributes:
o Knowledge and understanding of psychology, including major
concepts, theoretical perspectives, empirical findings and
historical trends
o Appreciation, application and evaluation of basic research
methods in psychology.
o Critical thinking skills in psychology, including use of the scientific
approach to solve problems.
o Values in psychology, including; the ethical use of information,
appreciation of cultural diversity; and the value of empirical
evidence.
o Effective communication skills in psychology across a variety of
contexts and formats
o Appreciation of the application of psychological principles to
personal, social and organizational issues.
Psychological Perspectives
Aims:
 The Scientific approach in Psychology
 A brief history of scientific Psychology
 How Psychology is taught
 Relationship between Psychology and other disciplines
 Provide a framework for you to think about psychology
 Preview some of the topics and theme you will study in the
course.
Goals of Scientific Psychology
What?
Description of behaviour using careful observations
When?
Prediction allows for specification of the conditions under which a
behaviour will or will not occur
Why?
Explanation, identifying the causes of behaviour
Change?
Facilitating changes in behaviour
Clichés
1. Birds of a feather flock together OR opposite attract
2. Absence makes the heart grow fonder OR out of sight out of mind.
These clichés can be used post hoc to explain most behaviour therefore
out commonsense is unfalsifiable (not capable of being proved false).
Science
Common Sense
Objective data collection
Subjective data collection
Systematic observation
Hit or miss observation
Reliance on evidence
Ignores counterevidence
(Science vs. Common Sense)
Brief History of Psychology
o Psychology emerged in part from philosophy. Many issues at the
heart of contemporary psychological research and controversy are
classic philosophical questions.
o Psychology is defined as an empirical science. (Based on or
concerned with observations and experience rather than theory
and pure logic.)
o Early assumptions were that the goal of Psychology was to
understand the structure and contents of the mind.
Wilhelm Wundt – Father of Psychology
 He hoped to use scientific methods to uncover the elementary
units of human consciousness that combine to form more
complex ideas,
 Introspection – the process of looking inward and reporting on
ones conscious experience.
 He trained observers to report on their experiences under
different experimental conditions e.g. when presented with a
stimulus or task.
 However this failed because peoples self reports were unreliable.
Structuralism & Functionalism
 Edward Titchener (1867 – 1927) advocated the use of
introspection in experiments with the hope of devising a periodic
table of elements of human consciousness. Due to his interest in
studying the structure of consciousness, the school of thought
initiated was knows an as structuralism.
 Functionalism focuses on the function of psychological processes
in helping individuals adapt to their environment – by William
James.
 E.g. attention serves to highlight and focus analysis on certain
stimuli
 Consistent with evolutionary framework
 Functionalism focuses on identifying the rules or steps by which a
particular task is achieved, not on the underlying mechanism.
 The philosopher Jerry Fodor has argued that the task could then
be implemented on any information-processing system, such as a
computer or an alien’s nervous system.
Paradigm – is a broad system of theoretical assumption that a scientific
community uses to make sense of its domain of study, that includes
shared models, metaphors and methods. Psychology lacks a unified
paradigm but has a number of schools of thought or perspectives that
can be used to understand psychological effects.
Psychodynamic perspectives – proposes that people’s actions reflect the
way thoughts, feelings and wishes are associated in their minds; that
many of these processes are unconscious; ad that mental processes can
conflict with one another, leading to compromises among competing
motives. Although their primary methods has been the analysis of case
studies, reflecting the goal of interpreting the meanings hypothesized to
underlie people’s actions, psychodynamic psychologists are increasingly
making use of experimental methods to try to integrate psychodynamic
thinking with scientific psychology.
Behaviorism – focuses on the learning and studies the way
environmental events control behaviour. Behaviourists reject the
concept of mind, viewing mental evens as the contents of a black box
that cannot be known or studied scientifically. Scientific knowledge
comes from using experimental methods to study the relationship
between environmental events and behaviour.
 It was one of the early challenges to introspection
 They argues that subjective experience could not be verified by an
objective observer
 Only the study of observable behaviour qualified as scientific
 Highly successful approach
 There are 2 variants:
o Radical Behaviourism – which says that only the study of
observable behaviour is qualified as scientific & that
“internal states” are unobservable and therefore not a part
of scientific Psychology. (B.F Skinner, John Watson)
o Methodological Behaviourism – says that it is acceptable to
study “Internal States”(thoughts and emotions) as long as
these can be linked to observable behaviours & it is still the
approach the underlies much of the modern Cognitive
Psychology and Associative Learning.
Psychoanalysis – is another idea that challenged introspection. Freud
argued that many important psychological events are unconscious.
Although the details of Freud’s theory have not been supported, the
idea that many psychological processes proceed without full conscious
awareness is well established.
Humanistic Perspective – emphasized the uniqueness of the individual
and focuses on the person immediate experience, According to this
perspective, people are motivated to achieve personal goals so they can
fulfill their true potential. As a result, humanistic methods typically focus
on helping individuals to understand their own unique frame of
reference and work towards achieving self-actualization, defined as the
fulfillment of the whole range needs.
The Cognitive perspective – focuses in the way people process, store and
retrieve information. Information processing refers to taking input from
the environment and transforming it into meaningful output. A
metaphor underlying the cognitive perspective is the mind as a
computer, complete with software. In recent years, however, many
cognitive psychologists have used the brain itself as a metaphor for the
way mental processes operate. The primary method of the cognitive
perspective is experimental.
The Evolutionary perspective – argues that many human behavioural
proclivities exist because they helped out ancestors survive and produce
offspring that would be more likely to survive. Natural selection is the
mechanism by which natural forces select traits in organisms that are
adaptive in their environmental niche. The basic notion of evolutionary
theory is that evolution selects organisms that maxmise their
reproductive success, defined as the capacity and reproduce, and
maxmise the reproductive success of genetically related individuals. The
primary methods are deductive and comparative, although evolutionary
psychologists are increasing replying on experimental methods.
Psychology and the Brain
o Psychological processes depend on the physical activity in the
brain. So we could sidestep the study of behaviour and mental
events, and focus instead on neurons and neurotransmitters? No.
o Level of analysis
 Political, economic patterns
 Group behaviours
 Behaviour of individuals
 Neural events
 Molecular analysis
 Subatomic analysis
o No amount of staring down at a microscope or measuring neural
activity would reveal a psychological process such as emotion or
memory that we didn’t already know about. But if we have a
psychological process defined, we can examine brain activity while
we manipulate that process.
o The better our functional understanding of the psychological
process, the better we can identify he neural mechanisms
responsible for the various steps in that process.
o Neuroscience is an important aspect of [psychology but it doesn’t
replace it.
Psychology as a natural science
 Empirical – based on systematic observation
 Experiments – manipulate one variable to observe the effect on
another
 Analysis – examine data to determine conclusions that can be
drawn
 Theory – Used to generate predictions and summarise existing
knowledge.
 Public – Results are subject to Review by others.
Study of Psychology will tell you about:
 Principles of behaviour that are supported by evidence
 Our current understanding of the mechanisms underlying normal
and dysfunctional behaviours.
 How to do research into behaviours and experience.
 Practical and effective methods for promoting desirable
behaviours and reducing distress.
Future/Careers
Fields:
- Clinical
- Organisational
- Health
- Education
- Forensic
- Human Factors
- Sport
Clinical Psychology – concerned with diagnosis, assessment – how bad
that disorder is and how it is affecting them.
Clinical Psychology – Psychopathology – Normal Psychology are all
closely connected.
Treatments and diagnosis – Clinical
Middle ages: Exorcism used to drive out evil forces within afflicted
individuals.
Biological approach:
Early traditions – Hippocrates humoral theory – thought if u didn’t have
the right balance in your body then you would be disturbed e.g. needs
therapy like bleeded out by leeches.
Drug therapies – Antipsychotics, Antidepressants, Lithium: is for people
with bipolar disorder, Anxiolytics: treat anxiety disorder.
Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) – is seen to reduce severe depression
but is only used as a last resort. In some cases it improves their mood
and depression. Side effects of short-term memory loss can also be
seen.
Psychosurgery – Irreversible and drastic. It is very rare today. Used for
OCD. Make cut in brain to improve the symptoms.
PSYCHOLOGICAL TREATMENT APPROACHES:
o Reflect underlying assumptions about causation:
 Psychoanalytic (unconscious conflict e.g. fear towards
father) – getting people to explore their thoughts so these
issues come to the surface.
 Behavioural (learned response to stimuli e.g. dog)
 Cognitive (thinking influences emotions and behaviour –
focuses more on thoughts rather than the behaviour with
the thoughts being the key issues that need to be
challenged)
 Cognitive/behavioural – usually come together.
Behaviour therapy:
 Reaction against psychoanalysis – not focus on mystical theories,
lets focus on what we can see and measure.
 Ultimate aim: change overt, observable maladaptive behaviour.
 Take the presenting problem seriously – a phobia is a phobia vs.
caused by deep intrapsychic conflict.
 Specific, clearly defined goals
 Time limited, directive
 Therapist/client relationship not sufficient – says that if u can take
to your therapist openly then you defiantly will get better. This is
incorrect, as you need to actually go out and fix it. Yes having a
good relationship helps but is not the sole basis of fixing the
problem.
 Empirical research based and evaluated
 Strong evidence for its efficacy
Aaron Beck
- Ultimate goal of CT is the development of adaptive thoughts
pattern. He was sitting with a patient and found out that maybe
the problem lies with the thought.
There are three main approaches in cognitive therapy
o Collaborative Empiricism – where the therapist works with the
patient, never outright challenge their belief but you use
questioning so they see that what they are thinking is untrue, get
them to slowly realize that their thinking patterns are distorted.
o Socratic (physical/bodily sensations) questioning - above
o Cognitive restructuring – help them get some flexibility in their
thinking, get them to explore the possibility that what they r
thinking is incorrect.
Cognitive-Behaviour Therapy
o Even pure cognitive therapists tend to conceptualise problems in
learning terms.
o Behaviour therapists often use ‘cognitive’ explanations and
methods
o Cognitive therapists often use ‘behavioural; explanations and
methods
- Integration of cognitive and behavioural theories
o Strong evidence for effectiveness – good for mood and anxiety
disorders but also good for more serious disorders in conjunction
with medication.
(PICTURE FROM LECTURE NOTES)
How does research inform our clinical approach to psychological
disorders?
Is Psychotherapy effective?
 Assess (pre) – Treat – Assess (Post)
 Reduced problem: Treatment worked
 But: would they have improved without treatment?
(Individualism, placebo effect, short term study – variables that
don’t make it completely reliable)
 Randomised no treatment control
 Reduced problem: treatment worked
 But: was is the specific treatment
 Randomised placebo control
 Comparative treatment research
EXAMPLE: Post-traumatic stress Disorder
A. Exposure to a trauma event in which:
 The person experienced, witnessed or was confronted with actual
or threatened death or serious injury or threat to physical
integrity of self or others
 Response involved intense fear, helplessness or horror.
B. Re-experiencing
 Intrusive recollections
 Nightmares
 Sense of relieving the trauma e.g. flashbacks
 Distress or reminders
 Physiological reactivity to reminders.
C. Avoidance
 Cognitive avoidance e.g. thoughts, feelings
 Avoidance of physical reminders e.g. people and places that may
remind them of the trauma.
D. Arousal
 Insomnia
 Anger, Irritability
 Impaired concentration
 Hyper vigilance
E. Symptoms still present one month after could mean PTSD
F. Clinically significant distress, functional impairment.
PTSD
- 7.8 % of population have experienced PTSD
- Can occur at any age, including childhood
- Affects about 10% of survivors of traumatic event
Managing Stress Response
o For 30 years the common response has been to offer everyone
trauma counseling
o Termed “psychological de-briefing”
 Occurs within 48 hrs. of trauma exposure
 Requires people to discuss their experience and their
emotional responses
 Presumes that “spilling your guts” is a good thing
 Intended to prevent posttraumatic stress.
o Many millions of dollars spent every year.
Does it work? NO. Perhaps people have natural coping and need their
time to get over things.
How do we know?
 Assess people before or after treatment with psychological
debriefing with standardized measured.
 Properly developed tools are essential – might have worked but
you don’t know for sure whether it was the actual treatment or
whether the person just needed time to heal or they weren’t even
paying attention.
 Comparison condition needed
 We can only know that a treatment works if we compare it against
something else.
 Observed changes may be due to:
- Time
- Attention
- Repeated assessments
- MUST HAVE A COMPARISON CONDITION
- Randomisation – if u don’t then it could be that the first 100
people that u put in the first group were the closest to the
trauma.
- To avoid biased allocation to a treatment condition
 Assessment needed after the treatment
 This assessment must be independent
 “Blind: assessment means assessment not biased by knowing
what treatment was given. Need the people doing the assessment
not to know who is getting the treatment or not.
Psychological Debriefing
o These principles were ignored for decades and as a result
everyone believed debriefing worked.
o Controlled trials have now been proven that debriefing does not
prevent psychological disorders.
Scientific method:
 Pretty much unique to psychology
 Testing different theories
 Randomised allocation to groups
 Independent assessments
 Standardised assessments
 Strict protocols for interventions
 Checks that interventions are valid.
What does basic psychology say about trauma response & Animal
Neuroscience?
Classic Conditioning – Learning that certain environmental stimuli
predict harmful events.
(ADD PICTURE)
e.g. animal testing.
- Trauma = electric shock
- Fear = Rats fear
- Reminders = Light
- Distress = Rats fear to the light
This is equivalent to trauma cues in humans. Even months later they will
still have a similar reaction. So in therapy they learn that these signals
shouldn’t learn fear.
- Animal testing is good as it helps them to see how to treat certain
disorders as they are able to do things to animal that are illegal for
humans e.g. cutting open their brain.
- Found a treatment of a PTSD – medial pre frontal cortex (mutes
the amygdala) and amygdala – emotion center of the brain
- Found in PTSD that the MPC does not do its job and that the
amygdala is active – reduced inhibition of this.
- The same brain regions underpinning extinction in rats predict
exposure therapy for humans – Extending from basic animal
research is helping us to understand hoe to treat people affected
by trauma.
- Animal studies tell us that glutamate is a learning
neurotransmitter linked to the emotional learning - saw that the
rats learned quicker that the cues no longer signal danger.
- By increasing glutamate experimentally we can increase the
learning of safety in extinction learning.
- We can now improve therapy for anxiety by increasing glutamate
prior to therapy sessions.