Unit 1: Introduction to Psychology

The unit aims to introduce students with the text about introduction to
psychology, equip them with reading skill of identifying the main ideas, and
introduce them with some terms in psychology. This unit is for meeting 1 and
2.

A. Reading
Task 1: Read the text below.

What is Psychology?
By Saul McLeod

Psychology is the scientific study of the mind and behavior, according to

the American Psychological Association (APA). Psychology is a
multifaceted discipline and includes many sub-fields of study such areas
as human development, sports, health, clinical, social behavior and
cognitive processes. Psychology is really a very new science, with most
advances happening over the past 150 years or so. However, its origins
can be traced back to ancient Greece, 400 – 500 years BC. The
emphasis was a philosophical one, with great thinkers such as Socrates
(470 BC – 399 BC) influencing Plato (428/427 BC – 348/347 BC), who in
turn influenced Aristotle (384 BC - 322 BC). Philosophers used to discuss
many topics now studied by modern psychology, such as memory, free
will vs determinism, nature vs. nurture, attraction etc.
The Beginnings of Psychology as a Discipline
In the early days of psychology there were two dominant theoretical
perspectives regarding how the brain worked, structuralism and
functionalism. Structuralism was the name given to the approach
pioneered by Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920), which focused on breaking
down mental processes into the most basic components. The term
originated from Edward Titchener, an American psychologist who had
been trained by Wundt. Wundt was important because he separated
psychology from philosophy by analyzing the workings of the mind in a
more structured way, with the emphasis being on objective
measurement and control.

Structuralism relied on trained introspection, a research method

whereby subjects related what was going on in their minds while
performing a certain task. However, introspection proved to be an
unreliable method because there was too much individual variation in
the experiences and reports of research subjects. Despite the failure of
introspection, Wundt is an important figure in the history of psychology
as he opened the first laboratory dedicated to psychology in 1879, and
its opening is usually thought of as the beginning of modern
experimental psychology.

An American psychologist named William James (1842-1910) developed

an approach which came to be known as functionalism, that disagreed
with the focus of structuralism. James argued that the mind is constantly
changing and it is pointless to look for the structure of conscious
experience. Rather, he proposed the focus should be on how and why
an organism does something, i.e. the functions or purpose of the brain.
James suggested that psychologists should look for the underlying cause
of behavior and the mental processes involved. This emphasis on the
causes and consequences of behavior has influenced contemporary
psychology.

The Perspectives of Psychology

Structuralism and functionalism have since been replaced by several
dominant and influential approaches to psychology, each one
underpinned by a shared set of assumptions of what people are like,
what is important to study and how to study it. The perspectives include
psychoanalysis, behaviorism, humanistic approach, and cognitive
psychology.

Psychoanalysis, founded by Sigmund Freud (1856-1939), was the

dominant paradigm in psychology during the early twentieth century.
Freud believed that people could be cured by making conscious their
unconscious thoughts and motivations, thus gaining insight. Freud’s
psychoanalysis was the original psychodynamic theory, but the
psychodynamic approach as a whole includes all theories that were
based on his ideas, e.g., Jung (1964), Adler (1927) and Erikson (1950).

The classic contemporary perspectives in psychology to adopt scientific

strategies were the behaviorists, who were renowned for their reliance
on controlled laboratory experiments and rejection of any unseen or
unconscious forces as causes of behavior. Behaviorism is a theory of
learning which states all behaviors are learned through interaction with
the environment through a process called conditioning. Thus, behavior is
simply a response to environmental stimuli. Behaviorism is only
concerned with observable stimulus-response behaviors, as they can be
studied in a systematic and observable manner.

Later, the humanistic approach became the 'third force' in psychology

and proposed the importance of subjective experience and personal
growth. The humanistic approach in psychology developed as a rebellion
against what some psychologists saw as the limitations of the
behaviorist and psychodynamic psychology. The humanistic approach is
thus often called the “third force” in psychology after psychoanalysis and
behaviorism (Maslow, 1968).

During the 1960s and 1970s, psychology began a cognitive revolution,

adopting a rigorous, scientific, lab-based scientific approach with
application to memory, perception, cognitive development, mental
illness, and much more. Cognitive psychology is the scientific study of
the mind as an information processor. Cognitive psychologists try to
build up cognitive models of the information processing that goes on
inside people’s minds, including perception, attention, language,
memory, thinking, and consciousness.
(adopted from https://www.simplypsychology.org/whatispsychology.html)

Task 2: Answer these questions based the text from

task 1.

1. How does American Psychological Association define psychology?

_______________________________________________________
2. Mention some fields in psychology ___________________________
 _______________________________________________________
3. Where and when does psychology come from? ________________
_______________________________________________________
4. Mention three philosophers who inspired the study of psychology
_______________________________________________________
5. What were two dominant theoretical perspectives of psychology in
the early days? __________________________________________
6. Who created the term structuralism? _________________________
7. What was Wundt’ concentration which brought about the term
structuralism? ___________________________________________
8. What was Wundt’s contribution? ____________________________
_______________________________________________________
9. How was the method of trained introspection? _________________
_______________________________________________________
10. Why can’t trained introspection method be trusted? _____________
_______________________________________________________
11. What was the event considered as the start of modern experimental
psychology? ____________________________________________
12. What was the approach that challenged structuralism?
_______________________________________________________
13. What was James’ suggestion to psychologists which has influenced
contemporary psychology? _________________________________
_______________________________________________________
14. How can people be healed according to psychoanalysis?
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
15. What do the behaviorists rely on? ___________________________
 _______________________________________________________
16. According to the behaviorism theory, how can a behavior be
learned? _______________________________________________
17. What was the reason of the development of humanistic approach in
psychology? ____________________________________________
_______________________________________________________
18. What does it mean by cognitive revolution? ___________________
_______________________________________________________
19. What is cognitive psychology? ______________________________
_______________________________________________________
20. What do cognitive psychologists attempt to do? ________________
_______________________________________________________
_______________________________________________________

B. Vocabulary
Task 3: Find the words in column A with their
synonym/meaning in column B. The words are from the
reading text.

A B
1. multifaceted [adj] ( ) A. attention, stress
2. cognitive [adj] ( ) B. separate something into
smaller parts
3. origin [n] ( )
C. the way in which children are
4. emphasis [n] ( ) treated as they are growing
5. nurture [n] ( ) D. calculation
E. a way of doing something
6. perspective [n] ( )
F. understanding
7. pioneer [v] ( ) G. intellectual, mental
8. ) H.
break down [phrasal v] ( model, pattern
9. measurement [n] ( ) I. varied, various
J. accurate, correct
10. unreliable [adj] ( )
K. related to science, systematic
11. approach [n] ( ) L. to be one of the first people to
12. pointless [adj] ( ) do something, to found
M. beginning
13. conscious [adj] ( )
N. inaccurate, false
14. underlying [adj] ( ) O. viewpoint, position
15. contemporary [adj] ( ) P. give support
Q. new, modern
16. underpinned [v] ( )
R. basic, fundamental
17. paradigm [n] ( ) S. aware, alert
18. insight [n] ( ) T. meaningless / irrelevant
19. scientific [n] ( )
20. rigorous [adj] ( )

Task 4: Fill in the blanks below with the words from the
box.

paradigm unreliable nurture cognitive

contemporary scientific rigorous measurement
break down pioneered origin underlying

1. ____________ psychology involves the study of internal mental

processes—all of the things that go on inside your brain, including
perception, thinking, memory, attention, language, problem-solving,
and learning.
2. For centuries, the debate has existed within the psychological
community and beyond concerning the topic of nature versus
____________ in terms of human development and achievement.
3. Some of these educators are hoping to produce a change in the
current educational ____________.
4. His ____________ career began in the mid-1980s, when he helped
find the vaccine against the virus.
5. Managers had complained that the workers were lazy and _______.
6. Most major airlines have had to adopt many of the cost-saving
innovations ____________ by their low-cost competitors.
7. If you have a huge task on your to-do list right now, you need to
____________ the large task into small tasks.
8. She gave a series of lectures at University of York last year on
____________ British writers.
9. The driving test remains a ____________ test of competence to
drive and includes assessment of a candidate's driving behavior.
10. The ____________ message of the film is that love transcends
everything else.
11. This book finally explodes some of the myths about the
____________ of the universe.
12. Safety of the vaccine will be determined from data provided by
laboratory ____________.

C. Reading Skill: Reading for main ideas

Knowing the main idea of a paragraph or text is important because we

can identify the point of view and topic of the paragraph or text. The
main idea is usually at the beginning of a text. Therefore, to know what
a text tells us about, we don’t have to read the whole text. Look at the
text below and identify the main idea of the text.

Humanistic psychology is a psychological perspective that emphasizes the study

of the whole person. Humanistic psychologists look at human behavior, not
only through the eyes of the observer, but through the eyes of the person doing
the behaving. Humanistic psychologists believe that an individual's behavior is
connected to his inner feelings and self-image. The humanistic perspective
centers on the view that each person is unique and individual, and has the free
will to change at any time in his or her life.

The main idea of the text can be seen in the first line. So, its main idea
is humanistic psychology.

Task 5: Read the texts below and identify their main

ideas.

1. Psychologists attempt to understand the role of mental functions in

individual and social behavior, while also exploring the physiological
and biological processes that underlie cognitive functions and
behaviors. Psychologists explore behavior and mental processes,
including perception, cognition, attention, emotion, intelligence,
subjective experiences, motivation, brain functioning, and
personality.
(adopted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology)

The main idea of this text is _______________.

2. Psychologists take human behavior as a main area of study. Much of
the research in this area began with tests on mammals, based on the
idea that humans exhibit similar fundamental tendencies. Behavioral
research ever aspires to improve the effectiveness of techniques for
behavior modification. Early behavioral researchers studied stimulus–
response pairings, now known as classical conditioning. They
demonstrated that behaviors could be linked through repeated
association with stimuli eliciting pain or pleasure.
(adoted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Psychology)

The main idea of this text is _______________.

3. Maslow's hierarchy of needs is a theory in psychology proposed by

Abraham Maslow in his 1943 paper "A Theory of Human Motivation"
in Psychological Review. There is little scientific basis to the theory;
Maslow himself noted this criticism. Maslow subsequently extended
the idea to include his observations of humans' innate curiosity. His
theories parallel many other theories of human developmental
psychology, some of which focus on describing the stages of growth
in humans.
(adopted from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation)

The main idea of this text is _______________

4. An individual's motivation may be inspired by others or events

(extrinsic motivation) or it may come from within the individual
(intrinsic motivation). Motivation results from the interaction of both
conscious and unconscious factors. Mastering motivation to allow
sustained and deliberate practice is central to high levels of
 achievement e.g. in the worlds of elite sport, medicine or music.
Motivation governs choices among alternative forms of voluntary
activity

The main idea of this text is _______________.

5. One of the primary functions of the family involves providing a

framework for the production and reproduction of persons
biologically and socially. This can occur through the sharing of
material substances such as food and the giving and receiving of
care and nurture. Thus, one's experience of one's family shifts over
time.

The main idea of this text is _______________.

D. Terms in psychology
Task 6: Fill in the blanks with the appropriate words in
the box.

bullying anorexia juvenile delinquency

autism addiction mind

1. ____________ is defined as a psychological and/or physiological

dependency on a particular substance or event.
2. ____________ is an eating disorder where an individual purposefully
starves or under-eats in the false belief that she is are overweight.
3. ____________ is a lifelong developmental disability that affects how
a person communicates with, and relates to, other people.
4. ____________ is the use of force, coercion, or threat, to abuse,
aggressively dominate or intimidate.
5. ____________ is the habitual committing of criminal acts or offenses
by a young person.
6. ____________ is the set of faculties including cognitive aspects such
as consciousness, imagination, perception, thinking, intelligence,
judgement, language and memory.

Task 7: Fill in the blanks with words from the Box in

task 6.

1. __________ mapping is a highly effective way of getting

information in and out of your brain. It is a creative and logical
means of note-taking and note-making
2. __________ behavior often emerges in childhood, and the
consequences for victims can last a lifetime.
3. Lack of parental control is seen to lie behind drug abuse and
____________ among teenagers.
4. Children with ___________ may not reach the same developmental
milestones as their peers, or they may demonstrate loss of social or
language skills.
5. He successfully battled his ____________ to heroin.
6. Artist Demi Lovato has become an unofficial spokesperson for young
women with eating disorders since being treated for ___________ in
2010.
E. Writing
Task 8: Write 5 sentences using different words from
Task 3 (column A).

D. Speaking
Task 9. Find information about various definitions of
psychology in English or Indonesia, short history of
psychology, and what psychologists do. Find the
information from the internet (YouTube, websites,
etc.). Then present your findings in English.