1.

The Subject Psychology

(i) Definition of Psychology:
A. Nature – Bio science, Social Science or Pure science
B. Schools of thought – Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism,
Psychoanalysis, Gestalt Psychology.
(ii) Fields of Psychology – Clinical, Counseling, Developmental, Educational,
Organizational, and Social.
(iii) Heredity and Environment –
a. Meaning of the term ‘heredity’; basic principles and mechanism of heredity.
b. Meaning of the term environment;
c. Importance of both heredity and environment in behavior
Notes:
(i) Definition of Psychology:
The term Psychology is derived from two Greek words; Psyche- Soul or Mind and
Logos- Science or study. Initially Psychology was defined as science of mind or soul. But
as it was realized that mind or soul does not have specific location, initial definition has
been modified and interpreted by many philosophers and scholars. The Psychology is a
science of behavior and cognitive processes. By the term behavior, in other words,
psychologists mean any observable action or reaction of a living organism- everything
from overt actions through subtle changes in electrical activity deep inside our brains.
Similarly, by cognitive processes, psychologists mean every aspect of our mental life- our
thoughts, memories, mental images, reasoning, decision making, and so on- in short, all
aspects of the workings of human mind.
History: Psychology gradually emerged over the course of 19 th century. It may be
recalled that modern Western science is often thought to have its origin in the 16 th century
renaissance. By the late 19th century many philosophers had turned their attention to
questions about human mind. How do we perceive world around us? Do people have free
will, or are their actions determined by events outside and inside their bodies? What is the
link between mind and body- between the physical world and our thoughts, feelings, and
consciousness.
 Aristotle – Science of soul
 French philosopher Rene Descartes – suggested that mind and body are distinct
entities and they interact through pineal gland, found deep within the brain; this
view is known as dualism.
 Other philosophers, in contrast, suggested that, mind can influence body, body can
influence mind, this view is known as Interactionism.
 German Psychologist Wilhelm Wundt and British Psychologist Edward
Titchener defined Psychology as ‘science of individual experience.
Human mind can be studies with careful observation, this approach is known as
empirical approach. This is where physiology entered in the picture.
In 1879, Wilhelm Wundt had found first laboratory for research, in University of
Leipzig, Germany. He was considered as founder of Experimental Psychology.
 His student G. Stanley Hall brought psychology to United State. He had found
first laboratory at John Hopkins in 1883. He helped to start APA and became its
first president.
 Johannes Muller described how electrical signals were conducted by nerves
within the body.
 Gustav Fechner demonstrated perception of physical stimuli.
Ambiguous words like ‘mind’ ‘soul’ and ‘consciousness’ were replaced by ‘behavior’
‘mental processes and ‘experience’.
Psychology: Psychology is a scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

A. Different views regarding nature of Psychology:

 Rene Descartes: Dualism:

o According to him, mind and body were separate entities and they interact
through pineal gland.
o Body is nothing but a machine, which works automatically while mind can
think, imagine and memories freely.
 Empiricism:
o British Psychologist John Locke and German Psychologist Immanuel Kant
focuses on experiences derived from senses through body and mind.
 Associationism:
o Association or co-occurrence of the sensations and ideas are regarded as a
primary basis of thoughts, reasoning and learning.
 Naturalists:
o Jean Jacques Rousseau, Johan Heinrich Pestalozzi, Fredric Wilhelm
Froebel gave more importance to individual’s feelings, emotions over his/her
experiences, ideas and sensations.
 Faculty Psychology:
o Proposed by German thinkers Christian Wolff, that the soul or psyche is made
up of number of powers or faculties, like thinking, remembering, imagining and
reasoning.
 Apperception/ Herbartian Psychology:
o German professor Johann Friedrich Herbart stated, ideas acquired through
experience are never destroyed. But new ideas tend to push down the old ideas
below consciousness. This accumulation of old ideas is termed as apperception
mass.
o Person tries to relate new ideas with already existing ideas. According to this
perspective, mental life is the struggle between all those ideas which an
individual collects throughout his/her life.
Nature: Pure Science, Biological Science, Social Science
 Psychology as a pure science:
o Like all branches of science, Psychology uses Scientific Methodology to
conduct experiments, tests and frame hypothesis to draw inferences.
 o The laws, principles and formulae derived from psychological studies can be
generalized and applied to different situations in life.
o Scientific and systematic sequential techniques and methods are followed to
carry out experiments.
o Mathematical and statistical calculations are used to establish the reliability,
validity and proper interpretation of experimental results.
o Psychometry, a specialized branch of Psychology, deals with the quantitative
measurements of various mental processes like memory and intelligence.
o Application value: The knowledge obtained from various psychological studies
can be applied to formulate the different therapeutic approaches and counseling
techniques.
 Psychology as a biological science:
o In case of sensory, perceptual and cognitive functioning, different areas of the
brain, spinal cord and nervous system, along with the five sense organs, are
involved.
o In case of thinking and other intellectual functioning, motivation and even in
emotion different areas of the brain, autonomous nervous system and glandular
system are significantly responsible.
o Few neurotransmitters, genes, DNA and glands are implicated in case of certain
psychological disorders such as schizophrenia, mental disorder, autism and
personality disorders.
 Psychology as a social science:
o It studies psychosocial relations of human beings within their socio-cultural
context.
o It traces the anthropological and sociological issues associated with the
development of human societies and their impact on human behavior.
o The study and application of social psychology has been in practice all over the
world. It helps the people to adjust with their societies, solve their day-to-day
problems and understand the problems of the other members of the society as
well.
o Psychology attempts to analyze social problems from psychological
perspectives have been carried out for a long time.
o There are various analysis and explanations of the social behaviors of humans’
beings on the basis of psychological perspectives. Some of these are:
 Attitude formation – How attitudes can be changed
 Attribution – Action regarding something
 Prejudice – Unfair or unreasonable opinion about someone or something.
 Altruistic – Helping nature and Bystanderism.
Bystanderism- Individual is less likely to help someone in an emergency
situation when there are lots of other bystanders present.
B. Schools of thought – Structuralism, Functionalism, Behaviorism,
Psychoanalysis, Gestalt Psychology.
Psychology was enriched with different views regarding its basic nature by different
schools of though.
1. Structuralism:
 a. The first school of thought in Psychology.
b. Focuses on identifying the basic structure of human mind.
c. According to structuralism mental processes can be broken down to their basic
components or structural elements or units.
d. Major proponents of this school were Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Titchener
e. Wilhelm Wundt:
i. He proposed that psychology should focus only on analyzing the contents
of consciousness in order to determine its basic elements and relationship
between them.
ii. This could be carried out by method of introspection. It is a method in
which Wundt trained his subjects(participants) to objectively report what
they experienced, in connection to the certain stimulus.
iii. A trained individual reports in detail on his/her conscious experiences in
response to specific stimuli that are presented to them under carefully
controlled condition. (e.g., Sound, Optical illusion, other visual stimuli).
f. Edward Bradford Titchener:
i. One of the renowned followers of Wundt, also worked to make
psychology a more scientific discipline.
ii. Major contributor in establishment of experimental psychology in United
States of America
iii. He remodeled an idea of systematic experimentation of a normal adult
mind through the method introspection.
iv. According to him, introspection method is precise examination and
description of conscious experiences.
Neither the topics studied by structuralists nor the methods they employed have survived the
test of time.
The new scientific psychology developed in Germany and many scholars and students from
the United States visited and studied at German universities. They returned to North America
and started adapting psychological ideas to their social context. This led to hybridization of
psychology. The science of mind became science of behavior and developing knowledge
was use in various life domains such as business and mental health.

Structuralism was soon challenged by William James. According to him the new field
should focus not on structure of consciousness but on its functions.
2. Functionalism:
a. James and other functionalists focused on understanding the functions of
consciousness.
b. Functionalism was strongly influenced by Darwin’s theory of natural selection;
it’s proponents argued that since consciousness is a uniquely human
characteristics, it must serve important functions for us- otherwise it would have
never evolved.
c. Consciousness- How it helps human beings to cope with the challenging and
changing world around them
 d. For e.g. Child development and the relative benefits of various educational
practices
e. William James – According to James, the mind is continuously making
associations and modifying experiences so as to enhance the functional abilities.
It facilitates better adaption with the environment.
f. James Rowland Angell –
i. He defined functionalism as a study of responses of the whole individual,
rather than investigation of the movements of any single part of the
individual.
ii. Mental functions of an individual primarily mediate between environment
and individual’s needs.
3. Gestalt Psychology:
a. Gestalt (Gesh-TALT) is a German word meaning ‘an organized whole’.
b. German Psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka and Wolfgang
Kohler.
c. Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and
behavior as a whole.
d. Max Wertheimer:
i. He was interested in studying process of perception.
ii. He tried to distinguish between productive thinking, i.e. insight based on
reasoning and reproductive thinking with repetition, conditioning and
habits.
e. Wolfgang Kohler differentiated between overt and covert behavior.
f. Today Gestalt ideas are part of the study of cognitive psychology.
g. It provides basis for therapeutic technique called Gestalt Therapy.
4. Behaviorism:
a. Behaviorism burst upon the field in 1913, in a provocative article by J. B.
Watson.
b. J.B. Watson passionately argued for the view that psychology should focus not
on conscious experience but on behavior- actions that can be measured or
observed.
c. Primarily concerned with observable behavior, that can be measured objectively
and scientifically, rather than subjective mental processes like emotion and
cognition.
d. B.F. Skinner argued that because internal mental states cannot be studied
scientifically, they should be part of psychology.
e. Behaviorism emphasized on role of learning in influencing behavior, rather
than emphasizing the role of inherited or innate factors.
f. A Russian psychologist, Ivan Pavlov studied dog’s behavior and coined a
concept of Conditioning (method of learning)
5. Psychoanalysis:
a. Sigmund Freud: Physician, neurologist, medical doctor in Austria, specialized
in disorders of nervous system.
b. Unconscious mind: We push or repress, all our threatening urges and desires.
These repressed urges, in trying to surface, created the nervous disorders.
c. Early childhood experiences: Personality formulated during first 6 years of
life.
 d. Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Karen Horney and Freud’s daughter Anna
Freud.
e. Freudian Psychoanalysis, the theory and therapy, emphasizes on unconscious
conflicts.
(ii) Fields of Psychology:
Psychology has grown as a multifaceted discipline in diverse fields of life. In recent
years, the complexities of mental processes and behaviors are increasingly attended to by
collaborative teams of scholars from psychology and allied disciplines such as cognitive
science, neuroscience, genetics, anthropology.
The specialized studies often focus on specific settings and have developed their
identities. Thus, we have traffic psychology, sports psychology, forensic psychology,
health psychology, political psychology etc.
The growth of psychology is primarily due to increasing range of applications and
expansion of psychology beyond the Euro-American regions.
The American Psychological Association, which is the strongest professional body of
psychologists, has divisions of psychology.
1. Clinical Psychology:
a. Clinical Psychology applies its principles and therapies for the treatment of
mental disorders.
b. Clinical Psychologist is mainly focuses on diagnosis, causes, and treatment
of disorders are explored in order to promote subjective well-being and
personal development.
c. Clinical psychologists practice different therapeutic techniques. They use
different procedures intended to carry out psychological assessments to form
new therapeutic programs.
d. Clinical psychologists work in collaboration with medical practitioners
specialized in the field of psychopathology, i.e., psychiatrists
e. Psychiatrists use medication and drug therapy for treatment.
f. Clinical psychologists use certain psychotherapeutic techniques for
managing mental disorders.
g. Health Psychology and Abnormal Psychology are two related
specializations.
2. Counseling Psychology:
a. It’s an applied branch of psychology which helps people to deal with
personal problems, issues of adjustment, and career choice.
b. This branch of psychology works in case of mild mental problems.
c. The counsellors try to improve the individual’s sense of well-being.
d. Counsellors help the clients in various spheres, such as- emotional, social,
developmental, organizational and health related affairs.
e. Counsellors generally work in various fields ranging from families, schools,
hospitals, different organizations and community mental health services.
3. Developmental Psychology:
a. This branch of Psychology focuses on growth and development at different
stages of life.
 b. Attempts to understand changes in behavior and cognitive processes over the
life span.
c. Different aspects such as intellectual, cognitive, social and moral, from
infancy through childhood, adolescence and adulthood, up to old age.
d. Developmental psychology includes study of individual’s sensory motor
development, perceptual and reasoning ability, thinking and language
acquisition.
e. It examines influence of environment and heredity on the process of
development.
4. Educational Psychology:
a. Educational Psychology refers to the understanding of the behavior of
children at home and in classroom with purpose to examine and evaluate
their learning, emotional and motivational problems
b. Educational psychologist mainly studies the teaching-learning process in
educational situation.
c. This branch of Psychology is concerned with nature of learning in
educational institutes.
d. Educational Psychology scientifically studies process of human learning in
order to apply effective teaching-learning procedures and strategies.
e. Make use of quantitative methods including psychological testing, and
assessment to identify and measure different psychological traits of learners
and learning disability.
f. It helps in enriching educational process like curriculum development,
developing teaching and learning aids and instruments.
g. It helps in classroom management, improvement of teacher-student relation,
inculcating teaching skills and values.
h. It also helps to develop proper evaluation techniques.
i. Facilitates overall development of education system.
5. Organizational Psychology:
a. It focuses on quality of life at workplace.
b. Recruitment, training, motivation, performance appraisal.
c. Worker’s level of performance, job satisfaction, occupation safety.
d. Addresses metal health issues such as boredom, stress, anxiety, fatigue.
e. Use methods like therapy sessions, counselling, training programs,
workshops, seminars, feedback and management system.
f. Improving psychological well-being in organizational set up.
6. Social Psychology:
a. It focuses on Individual’s behavior in social context. For e.g., cooperation,
conflict, leadership, intergroup relationship etc.
b. Impact of social and cultural factors on individual behavior.
c. Aspects of social behavior and thoughts.
d. How we think about and interact with others.
(iii) Heredity and Environment
 Meaning of the term ‘heredity’: The role of chromosomes
 Basic principles and mechanism of heredity: The laws of heredity:
uniformity and variability.
  Meaning of the term environment: Significance of environment: physical
and social.
 Importance of both heredity and environment in behavior: How both
heredity and environment interact to produce behavior.
Heredity:
• Complex biological processes and physiological activities.
• Biological processes are mostly inherited from ancestors.
• Term heredity has originated from the Latin word ‘Heriditatem’ which means
biologically determined characteristics (behavior) passed from parents to their
offspring.
• Genetic information is received from parents during the time of fertilization.
Chromosomes:
• Threadlike structures containing genetic material, found in nearly every cell of
the body.
• Chromosomes are composed of substance known as DNA (Deoxyribonucleic
acid).
• Genes – segments of DNA serve as basic unit of heredity.
• Half of our genetic material comes from father and half from our mother.
• Chromosomes: These basic mechanisms explain why person who related
resemble one another.
• Genes determine many aspects of physical appearance
Mendel’s Laws of Heredity
• Mendel’s laws of heredity refer to biological concepts of heredity first uncovered
by the Austrian monk Gregor Mendel.
• Mendel conducted experiments crossing various sizes and colors of pea plants
and recording the outcomes of these crosses – revolutionized the understanding
of heredity.
• The Law of Segregation:
• The law of segregation says parental genes for a trait must segregate
(separate) equally and randomly into haploid gametes so that their
offspring have an equal chance of inheriting either allele.
• This is what happens during meiosis. Offspring inherit one allele from
each parent for a trait and no allele is favored or has an advantage over
the others.
• The Law of Independent Assortment:
• Mendel’s second law says that alleles for traits are passed on
independently of each other.
 • To put it another way, the selection of an allele for a trait has nothing to
do with which allele is selected for a different trait.
• The Law of Dominance:
• Also known as simple dominance, Mendel’s third law means that for the
two alleles of a gene, the dominant allele is always expressed because it
masks the recessive allele.
• Recessive traits are only seen when both alleles are recessive.
Environment:
• The term environment has been derived from a French word “Environia” means to
surround.
• It refers to both Abiotic (physical or non-living) and Biotic (living) environment.
Or Social environment (ethnic background, education of parents, socio-economic
status of family etc.)
Importance of environment and heredity
The contribution of some eminent scholars in this regard are as follows:
 British scholar Sir Francis Galton focused on psychological differences
among people, rather than common traits. His influential study ‘Heredity
Genius’ was the first systematic attempt to investigate the effect of heredity
on intellectual abilities. He used the term eugenics, which means improving
the characteristics of population by facilitating transmission of desirable
traits by means of controlled breeding.
 Nature-Nurture controversy:
o The nature versus nurture debate involves the extent to which
particular aspects of behavior are a product of either inherited (i.e.,
genetic) or acquired (i.e., learned) influences.
o Nature is what we think of as pre-wiring and is influenced by genetic
inheritance and other biological factors.
o Nurture is generally taken as the influence of external factors after
conception, e.g., the product of exposure, life experiences and learning
on an individual.
o Behavioral genetics has enabled psychology to quantify the relative
contribution of nature and nurture with regard to specific
psychological traits.
o Instead of defending extreme nativist or nurturist views, most
psychological researchers are now interested in investigating how
nature and nurture interact in a host of qualitatively different ways.
 Twin studies and adoption:
o Identical twins generally are raised in the same home, attend same
schools and so on. Thus, if a given aspect of behavior is strongly
influenced by genetic factors identical twins resemble each other more
closely than fraternal twins.
o Adoption- The environment in which twins are raised are often not
precisely identical. This is also applicable for fraternal twins, who
may differ in gender and treatment from parents and other people.
o Identical twins who are adopted in different homes, show different
behavioral characteristics which can be reasonable attributed to
environmental factors.
o No single type of study can provide evidence about relative role of
genetic and environmental factors. By conducting such researches,
psychologists have been able to arrive at estimates of what is known
as heritability. (Heritability- The extent to which variations among
individuals with respect to a given aspect of behavior or a given trait
are due to genetic factors.)