Psychology in Practice lecture notes

2023.09.11.

Lecture 1.

 Dilemmas
o money-fame-success-happiness?
o do we learn from past experience?
o do we function rationally or irrationally?
 Paradoxes/controversies:
o why do we show a facade to the outside?
o why does leadership ignore rational viewpoint?
 Definitions of psychology:
o Scientific exploration of the mind and human behaviour
o Mental functions and processes
o Interpersonal behaviour and relationships
 Controversies:
o Concious, rational, spoken (talk)
o Unconscious, emotional, done (action)
o the first is frequently used to mask /rationalise the second
 Can we describe it scientifically / objectively?
 The best prdedictor of behaviour is past behaviour
 Two common models of psychologists:
o Healer/helper
 knowledgable
 emphatic
 trustworthy
 is an outsider or a close friend better?
 Psychologist has to remain ojective
o Detective/scientist
 objective
 knowledgable
 scientist-> abstract
 What is psychology’s goal:
o people seen as
 biological creature
o individual creature
o social creature