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History and Scope of Psychology – Module 1 Person vs. Situation

History and Scope of Psychology – Module 1 Person vs. Situation. Introduction to Psychology Aug 26-28, 2009 Class #2-3. What is Psychology?. Psychology The science (or study) of behavior and mental processes How we try to explain behavior A systematic study Having a method or a plan.

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History and Scope of Psychology – Module 1 Person vs. Situation

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  1. History and Scope of Psychology – Module 1Person vs. Situation Introduction to Psychology Aug 26-28, 2009 Class #2-3

  2. What is Psychology? • Psychology • The science (or study) of behavior and mental processes • How we try to explain behavior • A systematic study • Having a method or a plan

  3. Relatively speaking, it’s a new field… • Philosophy’s been around “forever”… • Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, etc. since 400 B.C. • In contrast, psychology’s first laboratory was established in Germany in 1879 by Wilhelm Wundt • Its really not until the late 1800’s and early 1900’s that psychology starts making its mark • So, we’re just 125 years old or so

  4. Is it the Person or is it the Situation? • Internal and External influences: • Internal • Inner personality • External • Specific situational factors • What's more influential insofar as prediction of a person’s behavior is concerned?

  5. Is it the Person or is it the Situation?Or both??? • To address this issue, we will be analyzing real-life and experimental examples all semester • Today’s examples: • Subway Conductor • Kitty Genovese tragedy

  6. “I didn’t want to get involved…” • Kitty Genovese Tragedy (March 13, 1964) • Kew Gardens apartment in Queens, NYC where Kitty lived 

  7. 38 “Silent Witnesses”

  8. Winston Moseley , mugshot

  9. She might still be alive today…

  10. Diffusion of Responsibility • “Bystander Effect” • Tendency for each group member to dilute personal responsibility for acting by spreading it among all other group members

  11. Perspectives of Psychology • Biological (Neuroscience) • Genes, hormones, drugs, etc. • Psychoanalytic • Unconscious drives (Freud) • Behavioral • We are shaped by the external environment (Watson) • Humanistic • Free will to make decisions (Rogers) • Cognitive • How we process information to help us perceive situations • Evolutionary • Survival • Social-Cultural • How behavior varies across cultures

  12. Emotion of Anger • How would a psychologist from each perspective explain the why someone has a “short fuse”? • Biological? Psychoanalytic? Behavioral? Humanistic? Cognitive? Evolutionary? Social-Cultural?

  13. Cognitive Biological Personality Developmental Quantitative Clinical Experimental Environmental Counseling Community Educational School Social Industrial/ Organizational Forensic Subfields of Psychology

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