What Psychologists Do

1. What Psychologists Do • Some psychologists research, others consult – or apply psychological knowledge in therapy, and others teach • Clinical Psychologists – • Largest group of psychologists • Help people with psychological problems • Work in hospitals, prisons, universities and private practices • NOT PSYCHIATRISTS • Psychiatrist is a medical doctor and can prescribe medication

2. What Psychologists Do • Counseling Psychologists • Treat those with adjustment problems • Employed by businesses, colleges and universities • School Psychologists • Identify students with problems that interfere with learning (peer group, family, psychological, or learning issues) • How do school psychologists operate? • Student placement is a major responsibility

3. What Psychologists Do • Educational Psychologists • Focus on course planning and methods for a school system • Research how learning is affected by psychological, cultural, economic and instructional factors • Developmental Psychologists • Study the changes throughout a persons life • Include physical, emotional, cognitive, and social • Attempt to sort heredity and environmental influences

4. What Psychologists Do • Personality Psychologists • Identify characteristics or traits • Share an interest in origins of problems with clinical psych • Focus on anxiety, aggress, gender roles, etc. • Social Psychologists • Focus on behaviors in social situations • Examples?

5. What Psychologists Do • Experimental Psychologists • Research basic processes (such as nerve function, sensation, perception) • Some focus on relationship between biological changes and psychological events – called biological psychologists • Engage in basic research – research that has no immediate application and is done for its own sake

6. Psychologists: Other Specialties • Industrial and Organizational • Focus on people and work • Environmental • Focus on how people influence and are influenced by their environment • Consumer • Study the behavior of shoppers to predict behavior

7. Psychologists: Other Specialties • Forensic • Work in the criminal justice system • Testify about competence, problems that may cause criminal behavior, select officers, help officers cope with job stresses • Health • Examine how behavior and mental processes relate to physical health

8. A History of Psychology Chapter 1 Section 3

9. Roots from Ancient Greece • “Know thyself” – Socrates • Introspection – “looking within” • How we examine thoughts and feelings • Associationism – a learned connection between two ideas or events • Ancient Greeks theorized about various problems such as confusion and bizarre behavior • Hippocrates suggested odd behavior was caused by abnormalities in the brain

10. Middle Ages • Believed behavior was caused by demonic possession • Believed possession was punishment for sins or dealing with the devil • Used tests to determine if a person was possessed • Float test

11. Birth of Modern Science • Modern psychology was born in the 1800’s • 1879 – beginning of psychology as a modern lab science • Wilhelm Wundt • Structuralism – concerned with discovering the basic elements of consciousness • Objective sensations and subjective feelings

12. Modern Science • William James • Functionalism – concerned with how mental processes help us adapt • Principles of Psychology – first psych text book, 1890 • Include behavioral observation • Functional vs. structuralism

13. Modern Science • John B. Watson • Behaviorism – scientific study of observable behavior • If you reward, behavior is learned • B.F. Skinner • Used reinforcement (if you reward for an action, the action will be repeated)

14. Modern Science • Gestalt School – emphasize the tendency to organize perceptions into meaningful wholes • Reject the idea that experience can be broken down into parts • Reject the idea that psychologists should concentrate only on observable behavior • Believe learning is active and purposeful

15. Modern Science • Sigmund Freud • Psychoanalysis – emphasizes the importance of unconscious motives and internal conflicts • Psychodynamic thinking – assumed most of what exists in the mind is unconscious and consists of conflicting impulses, urges and wishes

16. Contemporary Perspectives Chapter 1 Section 4

17. Biological Perspective • Emphasizes influence of biology on behavior • Assume mental processes are made possible by the nervous system • Use CAT and PET scans to show what parts of the brain go with which mental process • Interested in influence of genes and hormones

18. Evolutionary Perspective • Focuses on evolution of behavior and mental processes • Suggest many behavior patterns have a hereditary basis • Focus more on inherited tendencies than environmental influences

19. Cognitive Perspective • Emphasizes role of thoughts in determining behavior • Rooted in “Know thyself”, along with structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt • Also view the mind as a computer • Believe behavior is influenced by values, perceptions and choices

20. Humanistic Perspective • Stresses self-fulfillment, consciousness, self-awareness, and capacity to make choices • What is considered most important? • Personal experiences • Friction between humanistic and behaviorists

21. Psychoanalytical Perspectives • Stresses influence of unconscious forces on behavior • Dominated in the 40s and 50s • (example – a person that intentionally bumps into you may be venting unconscious anger toward parents)

22. Learning Perspective • Emphasizes the effects of experience on behavior • Learning has different meanings in psychology • Behaviorists are concerned with what an organism does, not what it knows. Focused on learning habits though repetition and reinforcement • Social-learning theory suggests people can change their environments

23. Social-Learning Theory • People can learn intentionally by observing others • Conscious observational learning provides a storehouse of responses to situations • People can choose to do what they have learned • Have a cognitive leaning – believe people act in a way only when they recognize the situation calls for it

24. Sociocultural Perspective • Studies influences of ethnicity, gender, culture and socioeconomic status • Ethnicity • Includes study of bilingualism • Vulnerability to health problems • Prejudice • Gender, the state of being male or female