Introduction TO Psychology

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 UNIVERSITY OF GUJRAT

Assignment # 01
Course code: Psy-101
Course title: Introduction to psychology
Instructor: Ma`am Maryam
Submitted By:
Mehvish 20011509-094

Department of Mathematics

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Introduction to Psychology:
We all use the principles of psychology everyday and probably don’t even
realize it. When we spank our child for doing something wrong, we are utilizing the learning principle of
punishment. When we get nervous right before we have to give that big speech, we are activating our
autonomic nervous system. When we talk to ourselves in our heads, telling ourselves to "calm down,"
"work harder," or "give up," we are utilizing cognitive approaches to change our behaviors and emotions.

The word “psychology” is derived from two words “psyche” and “logos”. Psyche means
“soul” and loges means “science”. Thus psychology was first defined as the “science of soul”. According
to earlier psychologists the function of psychology was to study the nature, origin and destiny of the
human soul. But soul is something metaphysical. It cannot be soon, observed and touched and we cannot
make scientific experiment on soul.
In the 18th century, psychology was understand as the “science of mind”.william james (1892) defined
psychology as the science of mental processes. But the word “mind” is also quite ambiguous as there was
confusion regarding the nature and functions of mind.
Modern psychologists defined psychology as the “science of consciousness”. James sully (1884) defined
psychology as “science of inner world”. wilhelm wundt (1892) defined psychology as the science which
studies the “internal experiences”. But there are three levels of consciousness like conscious.
subconscious and unconscious and so this definition also was not accepted by some psychologists.
Then William Mcdugall (1905) defined psychology as the “science of behavior” Behavior generally
means overt activities which can be observed and measured scientifically. But one`s behave our is always
influenced by his\her experiences so when we study one`s behavior we must also study his\her
experiences.
Definition of psychology:
psychology is systematic, scientific study of behaviors and mental processes.
Behaviors: Refers to observable actions or responses in both humans and animals.
Mental processes: Not directly observable refers to a wide range of complex mental processes, such as
thinking, imagining, studying and dreaming.
The study of psychology have following goals:
 Describe
 Explain
 Predict
 Control
 Improve

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The Nature of Psychology:
Psychology is the scientific study and practical application of observable behavior and mental processes
of organisms. Psychology differs from other social sciences such as: Sociology, History, or Economics,
because psychology specifically deals with the study of an individual. The other social sciences will study
groups, or history. Psychology is less a science of reported findings, it attempts asks and answers
questions using observable behavior and what can be determined as mental processes of the subject. The
symbol for psychology is the Greek letter “psi” (Ø). The subject matter of psychology is, affect, behavior,
and cognition. The affect for psychology is the actual mental processes that make up: moods, feeling, and
emotional state. An example for affect would be feeling sad about something happening. Behavior
includes the actually actions and responses of organisms. Behavior can include the way we act in any
given situation, for example when we get up in the morning. The order in the way we prepare ourselves
for going out into public can be categorized as our behavior. Cognition is the actual mental events and the
processes that result from them. Memories of an event are a great example of an organism’s cognition.
The components and corresponding faces of psychology include the body of knowledge which is
considered the teaching face, set of investigative methods or research face, and array of techniques the
therapy face. The goals of psychology are: to explain behaviors, to describe behaviors, to predict
behavior, and to modify inappropriate behaviors. Explaining behaviors would be a question similar to
“Why does this happen?”, and example of how describing behavior could be accomplished would be
asking “What causes this behavior, where does it come from?”. Predictions can be elaborated on by
asking “When will the behavior occur?”. An example of a behavioral modification question is “What can
be changed in the environment to alter this behavior?”
Scope of psychology:
The Scope of psychology has a very wider area in the study of human behavior as follows:
 To identify the nature and characteristics of the learner.
 The nature of learning process.
 The principal, teaching and learning process.
 The human growth and development.
 The technique employed in teaching.
 Identification of personality traits.
 Development and adjustment of psychology traits.
 Scientific measurement and evaluation of psychology traits.
Applications of psychology in Pakistan:
The application of can be understood by various subfields of psychology making an attempt in meeting
the goal of the psychology.
 Clinical
 Counseling

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 1. Clinical psychology:
Introduction:
Calinical psychology is a broad brach of psychology that focuees on diagnosing and treating
mental,emotions and behavior disorders. some of the more common disorder that might be treated
included learning disabilities ,substance abuse ,depression , anxiety and eating disorders.
The field of psychology became more recognized during the second half of the 19 th century,although
clinical psychology wasn’t recognized until the end of the 19 th century . it was around this time that
“lighter witmer” first helped treat a boy with a learning disability. In 1896 “witmer” opened the first
psychology clinic which catered to the children with disabilities. In 1907 he coined the phrase “clinical
psychology” in his new psychology journal called “The psychology clinic”.
Clinical psychology in pakistan:
Psychology is very vast field in which we can find a number of other
areas on which we can focus and specialize . forensic is also gained importance but the status of clinical
psychology

Clinical psychology is the most rising area in country like Pakistan. There is huge scope among the
students that is being capture out in the field of the clinical psychology .

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