Bellringer

ANSWER the following questions:

• In your opinion, what is psychology?

• Why is the study of psychology important?

• What would you like to learn in this class?

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 Chapter 1
WHAT IS
PSYCHOLOGY
Section 1: Why Study Psychology?
Section 2: What Psychologists Do
Section 3: A History of Psychology
Section 4: Contemporary Perspectives

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 Chapter 1: Section 1

Why Study Psychology???

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 Main Objective:

• Identify the goals of psychology, and

explain how psychology is a science.

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 Behavior and Mental Processes:

• Psychology:
• The scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
• Behavior:
• Any action that other people can observe or measure:
• EX: Laughing, walking, heart rate.

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 • Cognitive activities:
• Private, unobservable mental process such as sensation,
perception, thought, and problem solving.
• EX: Dreaming

• How would psychologists measure this

behavior??

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 • Psychological constructs:
• Theoretical concepts that enable one to discuss something
that cannot be seen touched, or measured directly.

• Psychologists are interested

in studying people’s emotions or
feelings!!!

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Section 1: Why Study
Psychology?
GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
• Observe
• Describe behavior
• Explain
• Predict
• Control

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Section 1: Why Study
Psychology?
THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology is a social science but has its foundation in
the natural sciences (biology, chemistry). It deals with
the structure of human society and interactions of
individuals who make up society.

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How do psychologists find answers that they
are looking for??
• Research
• Conducting surveys and experiments
• Collecting and analyzing data
• Drawing conclusions
• Theories which they test

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 Research:
• 2 widely used methods:
• Surveys & Experiments
Surveys: methods of collecting data that usually involves
asking questions of people in a particular group.
****May use humans or animals****

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 Psychological Theories:
• Theory: a statement that attempts to explain why
things are the way they are and happen the way they
do.

• Principle: a rule or law

• EX: If you study, then you will get better
grades!!

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 Review
• Give an example of a psychological construct.
• How do psychologists find answers that they
are looking for?
• What is the difference between a theory and a
principle?

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Chapter 1: Section 2

What Psychologists Do

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 Main Objective:

• Describe the work done by psychologists

according to their areas of specialization.

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 What do you think???

• Write down movies that you have seen or books

that you have read that have professional
psychologists as characters.

• What kinds of work did these psychologists do?

• In which areas of psychology did they specialize?
• How realistic were their characterizations?

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What books/movies come to
mind??

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Section 2: What Psychologists
Do
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
• Clinical – the largest group – treat psychological
problems.
• Counseling – treat adjustment problems.
• School – deal with students who have problems that
interfere with learning.
• Educational Psychologist – focus on course planning
and instructional methods.
• Help with developing SAT

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Section 2: What Psychologists
Do

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION (continued)

• Developmental Psychologists- study changes that
occur throughout a persons’ life span. (physical,
emotional, cognitive, social)
• Personality Psychologist – identify characteristics or
traits. (aggression; anxiety; shyness)
• Social Psychologist – concerned with people’s
behavior in social situations. (group behavior)
• Experimental Psychologist – conduct research into
basic processes, such as the nervous system.
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 Experimental Psychologists (continued)

• Focus on basic research:

• Research that has no immediate application and is done
for its own sake.

• EX: Basic research into motivation has helped clinical

and counseling psychologists develop ways of helping
people control their eating habits.

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Section 2: What Psychologists
Do
AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
(continued)
• Industrial and Organizational Psychologist – focus
on people in work and business (assist in hiring)
• Environmental Psychologist – focus on ways in
which people influence and are influenced by physical
environment (does crowding make people
irritable?)
• Consumer Psychologist – study the behavior of
shoppers to explain and predict behavior. (placement
of milk)
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Section 2: What Psychologists
Do

AREAS OF SPECIALIZATION
(continued)
• Forensic Psychologist – are concerned with how
psychological problems give rise to criminal behavior.
• Health Psychologist – study the ways in which
behavior and mental processes are related to physical
health.
• (Correlation with stress and heart disease)

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End of Chapter 1:2

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If you were to be a psychologist, what area would you choose to
specialize in and why?

Write a short description of a time that you watched a

movie/played a video game/listened to music that you weren’t
supposed to at a young age. Did your parents find out? Were you
in trouble?

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Chapter 1: Section 3

A History of Psychology

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 Main Objective:

• Explain the historical background of the

study of psychology.

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Roots from Ancient Greece:
• Began in ancient Greece.
• Socrates:
• Believed can learn about
ourselves by examining
thoughts and feelings.
• Introspection: “Looking within”

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 • Plato:
• Associationism:
• A learned connection
between two ideas or events.
• EX: thoughts can lead to dreams.

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 Middle Ages:

• Europeans believed that problems were signs of

possession by demons.
• EX: punishment for sins

• http://youtu.be/2h6QX-7EW2Y

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Section 3: A History of
Psychology

PSYCHOLOGY DEVELOPED OVER TIME

• Revived during the scientific advances of the 1500s,

1600s and 1700s.
• 1879: the year that many believe to be the beginning
of psychology.
• Considered a modern laboratory science by Wilhelm Wundt

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 Wilhelm Wundt:
(“Vunt”)

• Structuralism:
• Maintains that conscious experience breaks down into
objective sensations and subjective feelings.
• Objective: sight and taste
• Subjective: emotional responses and mental
images.

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 William James:
• Functionalism:
• Emphasizes the purposes of behavior
and mental processes.

• Believe that adaptive behavior patterns are learned and

maintained because they are successful.
• EX: studying to make good grades

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 What are the main differences
between structuralism and
functionalism??
• Structuralism: What are the elements of
psychological processes?

• Functionalists: What are the purposes of behavior

and mental processes?

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 John B. Watson

• Behaviorism:
• Defines psychology as the scientific
study of observable behavior.

• EX: Watching violence on T.V. can lead to

violent behavior.

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 B.F. Skinner
(Burrhus Frederic)
• Believe animals AND humans
learn to behave in certain ways
because they have been reinforced
for doing so.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=41ZW0OGp4HE

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 The Gestalt School:

• Gestalt Psychology:
• Emphasizes the tendency to organize perceptions into
meaningful wholes.

• Context influences perception!

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 Sigmund Freud:

• Psychoanalysis:
• Empathizes the importance of
unconscious motives and internal
conflict in determining human behavior.

• EX: Verbal slips; dreams reflects Freud’s

influence on popular culture.

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 Freud (continued)
• Consultations with patients
• Free association

• Believed unconscious processes (sexual & aggressive

urges) are MORE important than conscious experience in
governing people’s behavior and feelings!!!

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 Freud (continued)
• Psychodynamic thinking:
• Most of what exists in an individual’s mind
is unconscious and consists of conflicting
impulses, urges, and wishes.

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 Freudian Slips! Pretty funny!

Freudian Slips! Pretty funny!

• Freudian slip:
• is an error in speech, memory, or physical action that is
believed to be caused by the unconscious mind.

• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oiPzM98h7NA
• http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5PGeKNk1oWo

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End of Chapter 1: Section 3

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 Bellringer

• What are the main differences between

structuralism and functionalism?
• Who is responsible for developing the ideas of
reinforcement?
• In Ancient Greece, what did Socrates believe in
relation to psychology?

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 Chapter 1: Section 4

Contemporary Perspectives

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 Main Objective:
Describe the main contemporary
perspectives in psychology.

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Section 4: Contemporary
Perspectives

SEVEN MAIN CONTEMPORARY

PERSPECTIVES IN PSYCHOLOGY
1. Biological – nervous system, glands, hormones, genetic
factors.
• How does biology influence behavior?
• CAT & PET scans show mental processes
• How do genes influence personality?

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 • Evolutionary Perspective:
* Focuses on the evolution of behavior and mental
processes.
* Charles Darwin: “Survival of the Fittest”

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 • Cognitive Perspective:
*Study mental processes to understand human nature.

*Cognitive psychologists believe that people’s

behavior is influenced by their values, their
perceptions, and their choices.

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 • Humanistic Perspective:
* Stresses the human capacity for self-fulfillment and
the importance of consciousness, self-awareness,
and the capacity to make choices.

* Believe that we are free to choose our own behavior.

* View people as basically good and desiring to be
helpful to others.

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 Humanistic Perspective
(continued)

• Self-actualization:
• The self-motivated striving to reach one’s potential.

• Client-centered therapy:
• Most widely used humanistic
technique.

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 • Psychoanalytic Perspective:
* Stresses the influence of unconscious forces on
human behavior.

EX: Sigmund Freud

Today, psychologists focus less on sexual impulses

and more on conscious choice and self-direction.

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 • Learning/Behavioral Perspective:
• Emphasis the effects of experience on behavior.

• Social-learning theory:
• Suggest that people can change their
environments or create new ones.
• Believe behavior is learned either from
direct experience or by observing other
people.

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 • Sociocultural Perspective:

• Studies the influence of ethnicity, gender, culture, and

socioeconomic status on behavior and mental
processes.

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Sociocultural Psychologists study
the following topics:
• Ethnic groups:
• A group united by cultural heritage, race, language, or
common history.
• Gender:
• State of being male or being female; gender roles
• Prejudice

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Out of the 7 psychological perspectives,
which one do you favor the most AND
explain why!

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