PSYCHOLOGY:

• Science of human behaviour what people do, how they do it, and why they
do it
• Systematic study of behaviour and mental processes
○ Behaviour: observable actions and responses in both animals and
humans
○ Mental Processes: wide range of mental activity such as thinking,
imagining, studying, and dreaming—not directly observable

THE ORIGIN AND BEGINNINGS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY:

• Greek philosophers motivational aspects of human behaviour

• Renaissance scientists observations could further be objectified through
measurements
• 17th century empiricists sharpened the empirical method of the Greeks
• 19th century German psychologists and physicists used measurement
techniques to study sensation and laid the foundation of scientific psychology

2 MAJOR DISCOURSES OF PSYCHOLOGY:

• ANCIENT GREEKS RENAISSANCE

• NATIVISM(Rene Descartes): innate/inborn (biology)
• EMPIRICISM: based on the environment and the experiences

a) WILHELM WUNDT: ELEMENTS OF THE MIND

• University of Leipzig in 1879 paved the way for modern psychological
research
• Father of experimental psychology
• He thought that studying sensations is the key to analyzing, the
structure of the mind
• Structuralism: is a study of the most basic elements, primarily
sensations and perception that make up your most conscious mental
experience.
• Introspection: is a method, which asks a person to verbalize his
thoughts and feelings without censorship.

b) WILLIAM JAMES: FUNCTIONS OF THE MIND

• “Principles of Psychology”  published in 1890.
• He viewed mental activities as having developed through ages of
evolution because of their adaptive functions such as helping humans
survive.
• Functionalism: It was the study of the function, rather than the
structure of consciousness, and was interested in how minds adapt to
our changing environment. It emphasized the study of behaviour as an
integrated process. It also deals with the goals, purposes, and
functions of the mind.

c) ARISTOTLE:
 • Aristotle: primary exponent
• It started with the philosophical concept that learning is the formation
of bonds in the nervous system.
• Associationism: it is a school of thought, which is concerned with the
factors of learning, such as remembering and thinking.

d) GESTALTISTS: SENSATIONS vs. PERCEPTIONS

• Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler, and Kurt Koffka
• They studied about the illusion of flashing lights appear to move in
1912, which they called as the Phi Phenomenon, today known as
apparent motion.
• They believed that perceptual experiences resulted from analyzing a
whole pattern, or in German, a gestalt.
• Studied behaviour by analyzing its elements and proposed that it be
studied in terms of organizations of form.

e) JOHN B. WATSON
• He was an American psychologist at the John Hopkins University
• For him, psychology is a purely objective experimental branch of
natural science, which theoretical goal is to predict and control
behaviour.
• For them, only observable behaviour can be subjected to verification
by other scientists.
• Together with Ivan Pavlov, they gave credence to observable behaviour
and not mental experiences as the appropriate subject matter for
physiological research.
• He also viewed behaviour to be a contingent to its environment, and
could be strengthened or weakened.
• Behaviourism: expressed scepticism on any aspect of behaviour that
could not be observedobjectively. He proposed that psychologists
study the behaviour of an organism.

f) SIGMUND FREUD

• Psychoanalysis: Analysis of the unconscious motives and conflicts

of
patients in an attempt to develop insight into their present mental or
behavioral problems.

I.Descriptive Methods:
The descriptive methods include:
 Naturalistic and Controlled observation:
 The survey methods (3 types)
• Surveys are widely used, and typically require selection of a sample
of participants (subjects) from a larger population of potential
subjects. It is important to know how a sample can be selected so
 that it is representative (i.e. random selection) how questionnaire s
are use, and why structured interviews often have an advantage
because of elaboration of details that is made possible when good
“rapport” is established between the subject and the interviewer.
 Clinical/Case study method (the “hybrid” method)

II.Experimental method:
The experimental method is the research method that meets the demand and
conditions required to establish whether a cause and effect relationship exists
between two (or more) variables.

All experiments begin with a hypothesis to be tested, about the casual

relationship between an independent variable and a dependent variable. If an
experiment confirms the hypothesis, the next question that must be addressed is
whether the same results apply in other situations.
There are several problems that can occur in an experiment that can
influence or bias the results.
➢ These problems can include a bias because of how the
experimental and control groups are chosen; experimental bias
(i.e. the experimenters expectation influences the participant
responses, or the study outcomes);
➢ The placebo effect (i.e. the subjects behave according to their
own expectations, or predispositions about the outcomes of the
experiment). It should also be noted that sometimes the
“controls” used in an experiment make the setting or situation
seem highly contrived and unnatural (adversely impacting the
outcomes).

III.Correlational method:

The correlational method is a research method used to analyze research data

to determine the relationship between variables (other than cause and effect
relationships).

When a correlation is high, the presence (or absence) of one variable

predicts the presence or absence of another variable.
Psychological researchers have often used a wide variety of test to collect
research data, and many tests are used in correlational research. Research findings
are verified by “replication” of psychological studies. If research findings (results)
are valid, the replication of the study will yield the same, or very similar, results.

“Meta-analysis” is a method of combining and integrating the results of a

number of research studies.

References:
➢ Prof. T.R Tharney: PSY 101 Chapter1 Review by Joseph Eulo
➢ A Student’s Guide to Psychology by Daniel Robinson
➢ Wikipedia
➢ Personal Psychology notes