Nature of

Psychology
Objectives
• Define psychology and explain what makes it a
science.
• Discuss the historical background of psychology
and approaches taken from different school of
thoughts.
• Explain the goals of psychology
• Illustrate the different ways of psychological
approaches to research
What makes psychology interesting?
• It asks questions about different aspects of our lives.
• Is behavior nature or nurture?
• Does the way we were raised affect the way we will raise our own
children?
• Why do we get nostalgic when we smell something familiar?
• Are men really better than math than women?
• It affects our lives through the result of different research done
in this field
• It gives us a chance to understand people how they think, feel,
and act.
• And opportunity to help people who are in need
What is psychology?
• Scientific study of behavior and mind.
• Behavior refers to actions and responses that can be directly
observe
• Mind refers to the internal state and processes such as
thoughts and feeling that cannot be seen directly.
• It is a science of behavior and mental processes that
seeks to describe and explain aspects of human
thought, feelings, perceptions, and actions
Historical Background
• Charles Darwin – human behavior should be subject to
study
As a discipline (School of Tought):
1. Wilhelm Wundt and Bradford Titchener (STRACTURALISM)
2. William James (FUNCTIONALISM)
3. Sigmund Freud (PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY)
4. John B. Watson (BEHAVIORISM)
5. Gestalt Psychology
6. Existential and Humanistic Psychology
7. Cognitive Psychology
8. Biological/Physiological Psychology
 Structuralism
• is the 1 school of psychology that aimed at analyzing the basic
st

elements, or structure of conscious mental experiences through

the use of INTROSPECTION

Wundt
• 1879 Germany
• 1 formal laboratory to find natural law of human mind
st

• Perception
Titchener
• 3 elements of consciousness : physical sensations, feelings, and
images (memories)
Functionalism
• explores how an organism uses perceptual abilities to function
in its environment

William James
• American Psychologist
• Minds constantly weaves association, revise experiences; jumps back
and forth in time
• Psychology should study the functions of consciousness rather than its
structure
•  focuses on more objective forms of study and argues that it's
necessary to study aspects of the mind and behavior in terms of
function.
Psychodynamic theory
• behavior results from psychological factors that interact within the
individual, often outside conscious awareness

Sigmund Freud
• Doctor/neurologist
• Unconscious desires and conflicts are the fundamental cause of symptoms of
psychological illness.
• Considers freewill as an illusion
• Man are motivated by unconscious instincts not available to the conscious
mind
• Psychoanalysis
• The couch
• Personality stages and fixation
Behaviorism
school of psychology that studies observable, measurable
behavior

John B. Watson
• Believes that structuralism, functionalism, and psychodynamic theories
of mental life is superstition
• If you cannot measure the phenomenon objectively, you can’t study it.
• Focuses in observable, measurable behaviors.
• Ivan Pavlov (classical conditioning)
• B.F. Skinner (operant conditioning)
Gestalt Psychology
• Studies how people perceive and experience objects as whole
patterns
• Max Wertheimer
• Wolfgang Kholer
• Kurt Koffka
• Interested in perception
• Gestalt theory emphasizes that the whole of anything is greater
than its parts.  (https://www.britannica.com/science/Gestalt-psychology)
 Existential and Humanistic Psychology
Existential Psychology
• Focuses in the meaninglessness and alienation of modern life, and
how these factors lead to apathy and psychological problems

Humanistic Psychology
• Emphasizes non-verbal experiences and altered states of
consciousness as a means of realizing full human potential.
• Abraham Maslow
• Carl Rogers
Cognitive Psychology
• One of the newest school on psychology (1960s)
• Areas of interest:
• Thinking
• Feeling
• Learning
• Remembering
• Making decisions
• Cognitive psychologists believe that mental processes can and
should be studied scientifically
 Biological/Physiological Psychology
• Emphasis in on biological processes and heredity to explain
behavior
• Study of the brain and central nervous system

Evolutionary Psychology
• Explores the origin of behavior and their adaptive value
• Topic of interests:
• Altruism
• Mate selection
• Jealousy in different species
• Culture
• Male-female cultural and gender differences
Goals of Psychology
• Describe
• Explain
• Predict
• Control
How does psychology study behavior and
mental process?
Theory
• Systematic general principle or set of principles that explains how a
number of separate facts are related to one another

Basic types of research according to its purpose

1. Basic Research – advancing knowledge rather that practical
application( 3 goals: description, explanation, prediction)
2. Applied Research – purpose of solving practical problems (
covers the fourth goal of psychology – control)
Descriptive Research
1. Naturalistic Observation
2. Laboratory Observation
3. Case Study Method
4. Survey Research

Experimental Research Method (DV and

IV)

Correlational Research Method

What are the
subfields of
psychology?