Chapter 1

1. Chapter 1 What is Psychology??

2. Behavior/Mental Processes • Psychology: the scientific study of behavior & mental processes • Behavior: any action people can observe & measure • Cognitive Activities: mental processes including dreams, perceptions, thoughts, and memories • Hard to measure • Emotions & Feelings • Psychological Constructs: used to talk about something we cannot see, touch, or measure directly

3. Goals of Psychology: • Explaining Behavior: • Anxiety affecting an athlete’s behavior • Predicting & Controlling: • Manage anxiety, block out crowd • Positive Visualization

4. Psychology As A Science • Psychology As A Science: • Social Science: deals with the structure of human society and the nature and interactions of the individuals who make up society • Natural Science: the nature of the physical world, related to functioning of brain • Research through surveys and experimentation • Theory: a statement that attempts to explain why things are the way they are and happen the way they do • About behavior, mental processes, and biological processes • Discuss principles that govern behavior & mental process • Principle: basic truth or law • Some theories are inadequate and may be disguarded

5. Major Fields of Psychology • All are: • Interested in behavior • Believe in value of research • Believe theories should be supported by research • Something is true only if evidence supports it • Types of Psychology: • Clinical, Counseling, School, Educational, Developmental, Personality, Social, Experimental, Industrial & Organizational, Human Factors, Community, Forensic, Health, Rehabilitation, Cross-Cultural, Environmental, Comparative, Consumer

6. Fields: • Clinical Psychology: largest group, child & adult mental health, learning disabilities, geriatrics, general health • Anxiety, depression, schizophrenia, overcome problems, adjust to demands of life, relationship issues, dependency issues, weight control • interviews and psychological tests, understand & resolve problems by changing behavior • Hospitals, prisons, university clinics, private practice • Not psychiatrist • Counseling Psychology: use interviews and test to ID clients problems, adjustment problems rather than serious psychological disorders • Career, conflict with family or others • Clarify goals, overcome adjustment problems, meet challenges • Businesses & college/university counseling

7. Fields: • School Psychology: identify & help students with problems that interfere with learning • Peer group & family problems, learning disorders, advise teachers, school officials, & parents at how to help students overcome difficulty or reach potential, recommend placement of students • Talk to students, teachers, parents, administer tests, observe students in classroom • Educational Psychology: help students learn by focusing on course planning & instructional methods for entire school system • Theoretical issues measurement of abilities, learning, and child & adolescent development, research motivation, emotion, creativity, intelligence; cultural factors; economic factors; instructional methods • Prepare standardized tests

8. Fields • Developmental Psychology: study changes in person’s lifespan: physical, emotional, cognitive, social, sort out heredity vs. environment (nature vs. nurture) • Many focus on adolescence • Personality Psychology: identify human characteristics or traits, look for traits people have & study the traits’ development • Interest in origins of psychological problems and disorders • Social Psychology: concerned with people’s behavior in social situations, focus on external influences • Study: gender roles, factors of attraction, conformity, behavior in group, prejudice and discrimination, hostility

9. Fields • Experimental Psychology: conduct experimental research into processes of nervous system, sensation, perception, learning, memory, motivation, thinking • Biological & Psychological reasons for cognitive behavior, biological changes & psychological events, basic research (research with no immediate application, done for own sake) • Industrial/Organizational Psychology: focus on people & work, behavior of people in organizations like business firms • Employed by corporations to improve working conditions and increase worker output, assist in hiring, graining, and promoting employees; devise testing and conduct research for factors contributing to job satisfaction, help those with on the job issues

10. Fields: • Human Factors: try to find the best ways to design products for people to use; how used in schools, work, home • How people use it, affect their lives, shape/look/feel product, engineer a safe, comfortable, durable product • Community Psychologist: study & create social systems that promote & foster individual wellbeing • Work in mental health centers, hospitals, school based programs • Promote changes in social environment not individual, help powerless social groups develop coping strategies, prevent threats to mental health • Forensic Psychology: work within criminal justice system, testify about psychological competence of defendants, explain how certain problems affect criminal behavior • Assist in police officer selection, help officers cope with job stress, train officers in handling certain situations

11. Fields: • Health Psychology: examine ways in which behavior & mental processes are related to physical health • Work with health care professionals, study stress effects on health problems, focus on prevention and reducing disease, adopt healthful behaviors • Rehabilitation Psychology: work with patients who are struggling with the effects of a disability that limits their physical, sensory, cognitive or emotional functioning • Stroke, brain disease, amputation, vision impairment; those with difficulty working, taking care of themselves or others, normal activity; develop coping strategies • Cross Cultural Psychology: study behavior & mental processes of those in different cultural conditions, are depression & anxiety perceived differently in other cultures

12. Fields: • Environmental Psychology: focus on ways in which people influence and are influenced by their physical environment • Comparative Psychology: study animal behavior to try and compare similarities and differences among different animals, modern and ancient, to gain understanding of evolutionary relationships • Inspired by Darwin, but work with biologists, anthropologists, geneticists, etc. • Consumer Psychology: work on placement of products, study and predict behavior of shoppers, assist others in applying findings of their studies, work with advertisers

13. History of Psychology • ANCIENT GREECE: • Plato encouraged introspection (looking within) “know thyself” • Aristotle discussed associatism: how experiences remind us of similar experiences in the past • Pioneers of Psychology: • Structuralism, Functionalism, Psychoanalysis • Modern Developments: • Behaviorism & Watson, Skinner & Reinforcement, Gestalt

14. Pioneers in Psychology: • Structuralism: Wilheim Wundt • Established it as a field of study separate for other social & natural sciences • Considered a founder of modern psychology • Set up lab in 1879 still in operation today • Mental process is activity and classified feelings as pleasant or unpleasant, tense or relaxed, excited or depressed • Structuralists concerned with basic elements of consciousness • Rely on introspection • Combine consciousness, objective sensations (reflect outside world), and subjective feelings (emotional responses and mental images)

15. Pioneers in Psychology • Functionalism: William James • Father of American psychology, trained in medicine • Truth of an idea can never be proved we should focus on how practical or productive an idea is • Functionalists concerned with how mental processes help organisms adapt to their environment, application of findings in everyday situations • Consciousness can’t be broken down like structuralists think, stream of consciousness, focus on relationship between experience and behavior • Use introspection & behavioral observation • Adaptive behaviors are learned and maintained b/c they are successful, eventually become habits, through repitition become automatic • Less-adaptive behaviors are dropped or discontinued

16. Pioneers in Psychology • Psychoanalysis: Sigmund Freud • People have little free will, unconscious mind does work, revolutionary • Psychoanalyzed himself including dreams, memories, personality, concluded he had many disorders & fears • Scandalized society with emphasis on sexual origins of psychological disorders • Psychoanalysis: emphasized importance of unconscious motives & internal conflicts in determining human behavior • Slip of the tongue, meaning of a dream, Oedipus complex, oral fixation • No lab research, gained understanding behavior through consolations with patients, talked about problems “talking cure,” decided they had little insight into own ideas and feelings, goal was to release emotional energy locked in unconscious mind • Unconscious process (sexual & aggressive urges) more important than conscious experiences in governing behavior & feelings • Psychodynamic thinking: most of what exists in individual’s mind is unconscious and consists of conflicting impulses, urges, and wishes • Behavior aimed at satisfying desires, even though some are socially inappropriate or unacceptable

17. Modern Developments: • John Watson & Behaviorism: study of observable behavior • Hungry mouse in maze rewarded for turning right in the right place • Functionalism was dominant theory at the time • Watson agreed with focus on importance of learning, but thought unscientific to study consciousness • Thought psychology must be limited to observable, measurable events like behavior • Regardless of who we think we are inside, we can be totally conditioned by external events

18. Modern Developments: • B.F. Skinner & Reinforcement: • Added to behaviorist tradition by introducing reinforcement • Animal is reinforced or rewarded for performing an action, it is more likely to perform it again in the future, even complex behaviors • People learn like animals do, because of positive or negative reinforcement • Disagreed with trying to understand inner person, believed studying personalities & feelings was unscientific

19. Modern Developments: • Gestalt School: Developed by group of German psychologists • Alternative to behaviorism & structuralism • Fascinated by ways context influences interpretation of information • Gestalt means shape or form, based on idea that perceptions of objects are more than sums of parts, wholes that give shape or meaning to parts • Rejects structuralist idea that experience can be broken down • Principle of similarity: when objects look similar, people tend to recognize a patter and perceive them as united whole • Principle of closure: people fill in missing info when enough of shape of an object is indicated • Reject only focusing on behavior, learning is not mechanical • Learning is active & purposeful, learning by problem solving is accomplished by insight not repetition

20. Contemporary Perspectives: Role of Biology • Biological Perspective: emphasizes influence of biology on behavior • Roots in Associatism • Mental processes made possible by nervous system, brain • CAT & PET scans examine activity in brain & brain parts • Hormones: chemicals that glands release into the bloodstream to put into effect various body functions, growth & digestion • Genes: basic unit of heredity, health, personality, behavior • Evolutionary Perspective: focuses on the evolution of behavior and mental processes • Behavior patters are adaptive behavior • People learn to act a certain way in order to survive and pass down that behavior • Roots from Darwin

21. Contemporary Perspectives:Role of the Mind • Cognitive Perspective: emphasizes role that thoughts play in determining behavior • Study mental processes • Investigate ways people perceive information, solve problems, daydream • Roots from Socrates, structuralism, functionalism, Gestalt • Interested in information processing, working & long term memories • Behavior influenced by values, perceptions & choices

22. Contemporary Perspectives:Role of the Mind • Humanistic Perspective: stresses human capacity for self-fulfillment & importance of consciousness, self-awareness, and capacity to make choices • Consciousness shapes personality • Personal experience is most important • Self-awareness, consciousness, choice let us invent ourselves • We are free to choose our own behavior • People are basically good & desire to be helpful • Explore feelings, manage negative impulses, realize potential • Critics include behaviorists and say we should only address observable events, inner experiences can’t be measured

23. Contemporary Perspectives: Role of the Mind • Psychoanalytic Perspective: • Stresses influence of unconscious forces on human behavior • Dominated 40’s-50’s • Today less on roles of unconscious sex & aggression impulses and more on conscious choice • Aggression is a common reaction to frustration, but it’s not acceptable, to avoid being rejected we hold it in, later we have explosions • Outlets for pent up aggression include physical activity

24. Contemporary Perspective: Role of Experience • Learning Perspective: emphasizes effects on behavior • Learning is essential in observing, describing, explaining, predicting & controlling behavior, but learning is debated • Social Learning theory: people can change their environments or create new ones, people can learn intentionally by observing others, but expectations and values determine whether they choose to do what they have learned • Direct experience or observing others • Opposes Behaviorists

25. Contemporary Perspective: Role of Experience • Sociocultural Perspective: influences of ethnicity, gender, culture, and socio-economic status on behavior and mental processes • Can better understand how people act and think • Ethnic groups united in heritage, race, language history • Inclusion, bilingualism, differences in IQ testing, vulnerability to health problems, prejudice • Gender, being male or female, not just body parts

26. Contemporary Perspective:Biopsychosocial Perspective • Mental processes are influenced by biological processes & psychological dispositions and social factors • George Engel, US, treatment of heart disease • Social relationships from birth directly impact biological development