What is Psychology?

1. What is Psychology? ©1999 Prentice Hall

2. What is Psychology? • Thinking critically about Psychology • Psychology’s past • Psychology’s present • What Psychologists do ©1999 Prentice Hall

3. Thinking Critically About Psychology • Can you distinguish between psychobabble and empirical psychology? • Critical thinking • The ability and willingness to assess claims and make judgments on the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence, rather than emotion or anecdote. ©1999 Prentice Hall

4. Be willing to wonder Define your terms Examine the evidence Analyze assumptions and biases Critical Thinking Guidelines ©1999 Prentice Hall

5. Critical Thinking Guidelines • Avoid emotional reasoning • Don’t oversimplify • Consider other interpretations • Tolerate uncertainty ©1999 Prentice Hall

6. Psychology’s Past • Three early psychologies • Structuralism • Functionalism • Psychoanalysis ©1999 Prentice Hall

7. Structuralism • Early approach that emphasized the analysis of immediate experience into basic elements. • Interested in what happens. • Trained introspection • Volunteers were taught to observe, analyze and describe their own sensations, mental images, and emotional reactions. ©1999 Prentice Hall

8. Functionalism • Early approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behavior and consciousness. • Interested in how and why something happens ©1999 Prentice Hall

9. Psychoanalysis • A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy, originally formulated by Sigmund Freud. • Emphasizes unconscious motives and conflicts. ©1999 Prentice Hall

10. Psychology’s Present • Major psychological perspectives • Two influential movements ©1999 Prentice Hall

11. Major Psychological Perspectives • Biological Perspective • Learning Perspective • Cognitive Perspective • Sociocultural perspective • Psychodynamic Perspective ©1999 Prentice Hall

12. The Biological Perspective • Psychological approach that emphasizes bodily events and changes associated with actions, feelings and thoughts. • This perspective involves: • Hormones • Brain chemistry • Heredity • Evolutionary influences ©1999 Prentice Hall

13. The Learning Perspective • A psychological approach that emphasizes how the environment and experience affect a person’s or animal’s actions. • This perspective involves • Behaviorism • Social-cognitive learning theories ©1999 Prentice Hall

14. The Cognitive Perspective • A psychological approach that emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving and other areas of behavior. • This perspective involves: • Computer models of human thinking • Infant thinking • Intelligence testing ©1999 Prentice Hall

15. Sociocultural perspective • A psychological approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behavior • This perspective includes: • Social psychology or the study of rules, roles groups and relationships) • Cultural psychology or the study of cultural norms, values and expectations ©1999 Prentice Hall

16. Psychodynamic Perspective • A psychological approach that emphasizes unconscious dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts or the movement of instinctual energy. • This perspective includes: • Unconscious thoughts, desires, conflicts. ©1999 Prentice Hall

17. Two Influential Movements in Psychology • Humanist psychology • Feminist psychology ©1999 Prentice Hall

18. Humanist Psychology • A psychological approach that emphasizes personal growth and the achievement of human potential, rather than the scientific understanding an assessment of behavior. • This approach: • Rejected behaviorism and psychoanalysis. • Emphasized creativity and achieving potential. ©1999 Prentice Hall

19. Feminist Psychology • A psychological approach that analyzes the influence of social inequities on gender relations and on the behavior of the two sexes. • This approach: • Recognized years of male bias in data collection and psychotherapy. • Questions the use of research in justifying women’s lower status or elevating women’s status (female bias). ©1999 Prentice Hall

20. What Psychologists Do • Academic/research psychologists • Psychological practitioners • Psychologists in other settings ©1999 Prentice Hall

21. Academic/Research Psychologists • Research in areas of basic or applied psychology. • Examples include: • Experimental psychologists • Educational psychologists • Developmental psychologists • Industrial/Organizational psychologists • Psychometric psychologists ©1999 Prentice Hall

22. Psychological Practitioners • Counseling psychologists help people deal with problems associated with everyday life. • School psychologists work with parents, teachers and students to enhance student performance. • Clinical psychologists diagnose, treat, and study mental or emotional problems. ©1999 Prentice Hall

23. Clinical Psychologists are not: • Psychotherapists • Psychoanalysts • Psychiatrists ©1999 Prentice Hall

24. Sports Consumer Issues Advertising Organizational Problems Environmental Issues Public policy Opinion polls Military training Animal behavior Legal Issues Psychologists in Other Settings ©1999 Prentice Hall

25. What Areas do Psychology Undergraduates Pursue? • Psychology • Other • Counseling • Education • Social work • Medicine • Law • Health Sciences • Business • Sociology ©1999 Prentice Hall