What is Psychology?
•
http://education-portal.com/academy/lesson/intro-to-psychology.html
• Psychology is the scientific
study of behavior and mental
processes.
• “Psychology” has its roots in
the Greek words of “psyche,”
or mind, and “-ology,” or a
field of study.”
• Psychology’s domain extends
across both directly
observable behaviors and
internal mental processes that
are not observable
Observable vs. Not Observable
• Some behavior is observable
• Example: slamming on brakes
when an animal runs in front
of the car.
• Other behavior, like thoughts
of hunger, cannot be readily
observed
• Thus, psychologists develop
hypotheses to explain
behavior and design
experiments and observations
to test the hypotheses
•
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• The Scientific Method
• The science of psychology
is based on objective,
verifiable evidence
obtained using the
scientific method.
• The Empirical Approach
• Standard for all
psychological research
• Uses a set of standards to
conduct a study which
emphasizes careful
observation and
scientifically based
research.
• 1. What is Psychology?
• 2. What are observable
behaviors?
• 3. What are some examples of
behaviors that are not
observable?
• 4. Why is it important to use the
empirical approach?
• Real Psychology vs. Pseudo-psychology?
• Psychology is NOT mere speculation about
human nature, nor is it folk wisdom about
people that “everybody knows” to be true
• In fact, there are many “commonsense” ideas
that psychological science has shown to be
false
• Pseudo-psychology- the phony or unscientific
psychology which pretends to be the real thing.
• Negative Effects of Pseudo-psychology:
• 1. People believe the fake psychology and miss
out on real psychological insights which are
more helpful and interesting.
• Ex. Confirmation bias: Paying attention to the
events and evidence which confirm our desired
beliefs and ignoring evidence that contradicts
those beliefs.
• Astrology fans usually remember days when the
horoscope was accurate but forget the days
when it missed the mark
• 2. Pseudo-psychology produces fraud. (fortune
tellers, astrologists, faith healers, etc.)
• 3. With increased incidents of fraud in the field
of psychology, there is diminished public
support for legitimate psychological science.
• 4. Potential for more serious harm
• Unfounded psychological beliefs can waste
time, money, talent, and even lives
• Examples:
• False “recovered memories” of sexual abuse
• Presumption of female intellectual inferiority
that keeps women out of “men’s jobs”
• Another example of pseudo-psychology was an
autism treatment called Facilitated
Communication.
• Facilitated Communication
• Autism treatment where a facilitator attempts
to communicate with an autistic person
• Facilitator asks questions and then assists the
person in responding by pointing to letters on a
letter board.
• Who is really responding?
• After applying the scientific method to the
practice, it was proved to be ineffective.
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• Psychology can be divided into three main
branches
• 1. Experimental Psychology
• Psychologists who do the basic research in
Psychology
• Most are faculty members at colleges and
universities
• Also called Research Psychologists
• Smallest of the three major branches
• 2. Teachers of Psychology
• This group overlaps with the experimentalists
because most researchers also teach classes at
the colleges where they conduct experiments
• However, many Psychologists now are hired
only to teach
• 3. Applied Psychology
• This group uses the knowledge developed by
experimental psychologists to address human
problems
• (training, equipment design, psychological
treatment)
• Work in schools, clinics, factories, social service
agencies, airports, hospitals, and casinos
• 64% of doctoral level psychologists in the U.S.
work in this area of Psychology
• Assignment:
• Using the information on page 7 of your
textbook, create a bubble map that shows the
six most popular Applied Psychological
Specialties and what those specialists do.
• Psychology vs. Psychiatry
• Psychiatry is a specialty in the medical field, not
a part of psychology.
• Psychiatrists hold MDs and have specialized
training in the treatment of mental and
behavioral problems.
• Psychology is a much broader field which has
many different specialties.
• When and Where did Psychology Start?
• Roots of Psychology can be traced back to the
ancient Greeks
• The issues and ideas raised by the Greeks are
similar to current theories
• Plato- first philosopher credited with the study
of gaining knowledge
• Aristotle- developed theories of sensation,
perception, cognition, memory, problem
solving, and ethics
• The Four Humors
• Greeks felt everything was made up of 4
elements
• fire, air, water, earth
• Qualities of elements
• fire=warm, air=cold, water=moist,
earth=dry
• Hippocrates, the “father of medicine”
claimed that the human body had 4
components
•
•
•
•
a.
b.
c.
d.
Blood-warm and moist
Black bile- cold and dry
Yellow bile- warm and dry
Phlegm- cold and moist
• These components were known as the
four humors
• If the humors were balanced properly,
then the person was in good health
• Imbalance in the humors resulted in
sickness
• Galen extended Hippocrates theory to
include characteristics of human
personalities
•
•
•
•
•
a. Excess blood=hyperactive
b. Excess black bile=sad, depressed
c. Excess yellow bile= “hot tempered”
d. Excess of phlegm= lazy and apathetic
At nearly the same time, African and Asian
societies were developing their own
psychological ideas
• In Asia, Yoga and Buddhism explored
consciousness and meditation
• In Africa, other explanations for personality and
mental disorders were emerging from
traditional spiritual beliefs
• But the Greeks are most responsible for
influencing Western Psychology
• When the medieval church
controlled Europe, clerics
minimized inquiry into human
nature
• For many years, churches felt
the human mind, like that of
God, was an unsolvable
mystery.
• In the 17th C. the French
philosopher Rene Descartes
argued that human sensations
and behaviors were based on
activity in the nervous system.
• Despite this, Psychology
would not become a distinct
scientific discipline for
another 200 years
• Modern Psychology
• Modern psychology developed from
several conflicting ideas including
structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt
psychology, behaviorism and
psychoanalysis.
• Wilhelm Wundt (Voont) was the first to
declare himself a psychologist.
• Wundt established an institute for
psychological research in 1879
• Conducted studies on elements of
consciousness:
• sensation, perception, memory, cognition,
learning, emotion, and language
• Structuralism- devoted to uncovering the basic
structures that make up mind and thought;
studying of conscious experience
• Relied heavily on introspection
• Introspection- the process of reporting one’s
own conscious mental experiences
• Critics objected to Wundt’s introspective
method
• “How can we judge the accuracy of people’s
description of their thoughts and feelings?”
• Psychologists today do rely on introspection for
obtaining dream reports and evidence of
perceptual changes
• The topics that Wundt first identified and
explored are chapter titles in EVERY
introductory Psychology text.
• The Necker Cube
• This cube will trick your brain. If you look at it
for a few moments, it will suddenly seem to
change perspectives.
2 Lessons from Necker
Cube:
Introspection
Multiple Perspectives
• 1. What would be the
strengths/weaknesses of
introspection?
• 2. What are some negative effects of
Pseudo-Psychology?
• 4. What is the main difference
between a Psychologist and a
Psychiatrist?
• 5. What group of people are most
responsible for influencing Western
Psychology?
• 6. Why is Wilhelm Wundt important?
• Functionalism
• One of the most vocal of Wundt’s
critics was William James (U.S.
psychologist)
• Believed Structuralism was
boring
• Believed that psychology should
look at function and not just
structure
• Functionalism- A theory that
emphasized the functions of
consciousness and the ways
consciousness helps people
adapt to their environment.
• James believed psychology
should explain how people
adapted-or failed to adapt-to
everyday life outside the
laboratory.
• Wanted to see how people
functioned in everyday life, not
just in contrived situations.
• Believed that mental processes
were not static. He described
them as a “stream of
consciousness.”
• Continuously changing and
interacting with the
environment
The parts of the
functionalist view of
psychology
• Gestalt Psychology
• Opposite of structuralism. Instead of looking at
the individual parts, it wanted to examine the
whole.
• How do we construct “perceptual wholes”?
• Ex. Recognizing a person’s face.
• Gestalt psychology looked at how the brain
works by studying perception and perceptual
thinking.
• Prominent Gestalt psychologists:
• Max Wertheimer who studied visual illusions
and ambiguous figures
• Wolfgang Kohler who studied “insight learning”
(sudden “Aha!” Experiences)
• 1. What is the main focus of Gestalt
Psychology?
• 2. What did William James think
about Wundt’s theories?
• 3. What is functionalism?
• 4. What did William James believe
about mental processes?
• Behaviorism
• Behaviorists disagreed with nearly everyone
• Believed consciousness should not be a part of
Psychology at all
• John B. Watson argued that a true and
objective science of psychology should only
deal with observable events: stimuli from the
environment and the organism’s response to
that stimuli.
• Mind is a black box which could not be opened
or understood.
• Since we can’t understand it, we should not try
to guess what role it has in our actions.
• Actions were important, not thoughts
•
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• Psychoanalysis
• Psychoanalysis is the
brainchild of Sigmund
Freud and his followers.
• Mental disorders resulted
from conflicts of the
unconscious mind.
• Freud believed behavior
came from unconscious
drives, conflicts and
experience that we may
not even have a memory
of.
• Psychoanalysis is still a
force in modern psychology
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• Psychology today arises from 9 main
perspectives:
– Biological
– Developmental
– Cognitive
– Psychodynamic
– Behavioral
– Humanistic
– Sociocultural
– Evolutionary
– Trait views
• The historical perspectives were much easier to
identify and explain, as they were cut and dry.
• The modern perspectives are more
convoluted and confusing and all have merit.
• Biological View
• Emphasizes how our physical make up and the
operation of our brains influence our
personality, preferences, behavior patterns, and
abilities.
• Behavior is a result of heredity, functioning of
the nervous system and endocrine system, and
environmental impacts (insults) such as
disease.
• Strong roots in medicine and biological science
• Neuroscience- devoted to understanding how
the brain creates thoughts, feelings, motives,
consciousness, memories, etc.
• Neuroscience is popular now due to advances in
computers and brain-imaging techniques
• Within the biological view is the theory of
evolutionary psychology.
• Relatively new specialty in Psychology
• Theory arose from the ideas of Charles Darwin.
• See behavior and mental processes in terms of
their genetic adaptations for survival and
reproduction…(survival of the fittest)
• Throughout history, individuals with the most
adaptive mental and physical characteristics
would survive
• Used to explain behavior such as warfare,
homicide, and racial discrimination
• Genetic tendencies that once may have helped
humans adapt and survive
• Developmental View
• Psychological change results from an
interaction between heredity and environment
• This is the question of nature vs. nurture. What
has a bigger impact on us, heredity or
environment?
• Developmental Psychologists also study
changes that occur as we grow older
• Cognitive View
• Our actions are a direct
result of the way we
process information from
our environment.
• Cognitions are thoughts,
expectations, perceptions,
memories and states of
consciousness.
• Combination of the best of
structuralist, functionalist
and gestalt theories and
ideas.
• 1. What two things do
Developmental Psychologists study?
• 2. What are psychologists debating
about in the Nature vs. Nurture
debate?
• 3. Why is neuroscience so popular in
this day and age?
• 4. What are cognitions?
• 5. What does the cognitive view
state about our actions?
• Psychodynamic View
• Understanding mental
disorders in terms of
unconscious needs,
desires, memories, and
conflicts
• We are motivated by the
energy of irrational desires
generated in our
unconscious minds.
• Approach is popular
among Psychotherapists
• Sigmund Freud was the
best known representative
of this approach
• Freud said the mind is like a mental boiler
which holds the rising pressure of
unconscious sexual and destructive
desires, along with memories of traumatic
events.
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• Humanistic Psychology
• A viewpoint which emphasizes human ability,
growth, potential and free will.
• Much like the psychoanalytic perspective, it
emphasizes our mental thoughts and process as
the root of our behavior.
• It, however, emphasizes the positive side of
human nature. It has received a lot of criticism
because it is not the most “scientific.”
• Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers are the most
famous humanistic psychologists
• Humanistic Psychologists have had a major
impact on the practice of counseling and
psychotherapy
• Behavioral View
• A viewpoint which finds the
source of our actions in the
environmental stimuli, rather
than in inner mental
processes.
• Behaviorists reject a science of
inner experience
• They study people from the
outside focusing only on what
they can observe…
• The effects of people, objects,
and events on behavior
• B.F. Skinner was the most
influential American
behaviorist
• Sociocultural View
• Emphasizes the importance of social
interaction, social learning, and a cultural
perspective.
• Culture: a complex blend of beliefs, customs,
values and traditions developed by a group of
people and shared with others in the same
environment.
• For many years, psychology was blind to the
influence of culture on people’s behavior.
• 30 years ago, 90% of psychologists were
Caucasians from the U.S. and European
university systems… groups with strikingly
similar cultures.
• 1. What is the mind like according to
Freud?
• 2. What do Behaviorists believe?
• 3. Who was the most influential
American behaviorist?
• 4. Why was Psychology blind to the
influence of culture on behavior for
so many years?
• 5. What is culture?
• Evolutionary/Sociobiological
• View of psychology that looks at individuals’
behaviors through the lens of natural selection.
• Behavior is adaptive and hereditary and
cultural!
• In this theory, genetics are not used as a way
to show how people are different, but rather
the ways in which people have evolved.
• based on the arguments of Charles Darwin and
his theories of evolution.
• Trait View
• Behavior and personality are the products of
enduring psychological characteristics.
• Behavior results from a person’s unique
combination of traits (mood swings,
personality)
• In recent years, biological, cognitive
and developmental perspectives have
been gaining supporters.
• In that time, behaviorism, and
psychoanalysts (Freudians) have
been losing supporters
• Using the information from page 19,
create an advertisement for your new
psychology clinic. In the ad, describe the
services of the different types of
psychologists that work at your clinic.
• Your clinic should include psychologists
from four of the nine modern perspectives.
Be sure to include descriptions of the four
perspectives you choose in your ad.
• When creating the ad, keep in mind the
types of problems that people might want
to bring to the clinic.
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