PSYCHOLOGY 106
Psychological Principles for Nursing
Liam Ennis, Ph.D.
liame@ualberta.ca
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 lot’s of
ground, but in a primarily cursory fashion
If you have questions… ask them.
Psychology & Science
Psychology is the science of the mind and
behaviour
Psychological data are always based on
observed behaviour - inferences made re:
mind
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Behaviour: Any process or activity that is
directly observable
Mind: Can’t be observed directly (e.g.,
thought processes, motivation, etc.)
Black Box
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
History of Psychology
• Descartes - French philosopher
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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 - “unstudyable”
History of Psychology
Descartes cont’d:
concerned with mechanical processes of
behaviour which he felt were unrelated to soul
Animals don’t 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
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
Empiricism
John Locke – philosopher in the early
1600’s
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
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
Ivan Pavlov
1905 Nobel Prize for dog salivation
research
Conditioned reflexes
Reliance on precise measurement of
behaviour and presentation of stimuli
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
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
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To look inward to examine one’s own
conscious experience
examination of the simplest mental processes
Edward Titchner
Student of Wundt’s
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 - can’t 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.
Sigmund Freud
Pioneered psychoanalysis in order to
understand how the unconscious influences
human behavior.
Conceptualized the mind as having three
components;
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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.
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
B.F. Skinner
Behaviorist – Operant Learning &
Conditioning
Disagreed with emphasis on reflexes
Focused on consequences of behaviour
Behaviour contingent on influence of
reinforcers in one’s environment
Behaviourism dominated psychology
from 1920’s – 1980’s
Albert Bandura
Social Learning Theory
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Observational learning
Aggression/Bo-Bo Doll
Modelling
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
Cognitive Psychology
Increasingly popular since 1970’s
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
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