Introduction to Psychology
www.ssc.uwo.ca/psychology/undergraduate/psych020-002/PSY20Class1web.ppt
Psychology: The Science of
Behaviour
Chapter 1
© McGraw-Hill Ryerson 2005
What is Psychology?
• Science of behaviour and factors that influence it
• What is behaviour?
• 2 components:
– directly observable actions
– mental events/ internal processes
• not observable: e.g. thoughts, feelings
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What questions and behaviours
do you think psychologists are
interested in studying?
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Psychologists are interested in many issues and
aspects of behaviour:
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Memory
Thinking
Biological basis of behaviour
Causes and treatment of mental disorders/addiction
Child development and parenting styles
Function of sleep
Personality
Culture
Animal behaviour
Etc.!!!
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Psychology as a Science
• Looks for causes of behaviour using rigorous
systematic method of hypothesis testing and
theory building
• When possible use controlled experiments
• Research is the foundation of psychology
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Types of Research
• Basic research “curiosity driven”
– Seeks knowledge purely for it’s own sake
– Describe behaviour
– Find factors that influence or cause it
Ex/ I wonder how babies learn to talk?
• Applied research
– Solve specific practical problems
Ex/ What medication works best to relieve Parkinson’s
disease symptoms?
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Note – basic research feeds applied
Basic and Applied Research
• Robber’s Cave Study (see document “Aggression: Robbers Cave”)
• Basic research findings:
– Competition breeds hostility
– Conflict decreased by increasing group
interdependence
• Jigsaw Classrooms (Aronson et al., 1978)
– Cooperation between multiethnic groups was achieved
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4 Goals of Psychology
• To describe how people behave
• To explain and understand its causes
• To predict how people will behave under
certain conditions
• Influence or control behaviour by controlling
the causes
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• When examining the causes of behaviour
– Biological
– Psychological
– Environmental
– Different researchers study each of these
causes
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What caused Whitman to kill?
• Case of Charles Whitman
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Killed his mom, wife and shot many others
Tumor in area involved in aggression (Biological)
Irrational thoughts/ violent impulses (Psychological)
Abusive father; rifles – rewarded (Environmental)
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Which answer is correct?
All can be correct.
Different levels of analysis.
The same behaviour viewed from different
perspectives.
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What do you see?
Similarly, researchers from different perspective see
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different causes of the same behaviour.
Psychological Perspectives
• Perspective = vantage point from which you analyze
behaviour and its causes
• The perspective a psychologist studies from influences
which questions they ask, which aspects of behaviour
he/she considers important, the type of research
methods, etc.
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6 Perspectives on Behaviour
• Biological
• Humanistic
• Cognitive
• Behavioural
• Psychodynamic
• Sociocultural
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Biological Perspective
• What is psychological is first physiological
• Roles of:
– Brain structures & function
– Biochemical processes
– Genetic factors
– Evolution
Ex/ tumor in amygdala
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Cognitive Perspective
• Views human as problem solvers and information
processors
• Roles of:
– Mental processes ex/ attention
– Information stored and retrieved
– Memory
Ex/ abnormal thought patterns
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Psychodynamic Perspective
• Behaviour caused by unconcious processes
• Roles of:
– Unconcious forces
– Unresolved conflict from past
– Hypnosis & ink blots
Ex/ unconcious aggressive impulses
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Behavioural Perspective
• External environment shapes behaviour
• Roles of:
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Past experience in forming habits
Reward and Punishment
Associations
Stimuli in environment evokes response
Observational learning
Ex/ rifle play rewarded
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Humanistic Perspective
• Internal factors such as innate tendency toward
individual growth and self fulfillment
• Roles of:
– Concious motives
– Free will
Ex/ discharged from army
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Sociocultural Perspective
• External environment determines behaviour
through influence of one’s culture
• Roles of:
– Culture = enduring values, behaviours, traditions
shared by a large group of people and passed on from
one generation to the next
– Social influences
Ex/ violence on TV and videogames
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6 Perspectives on Behaviour
• Biological
• Humanistic
• Cognitive
• Behavioural
• Psychodynamic
• Sociocultural
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