PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE psychologists, attempt to facilitate

learning, but they usually focus on course

 Scientific study of behavior and
mental processes.
 Describe, explain, predict and
control behavior.
 Combination of theories.
WHAT DO PSYCHOLOGISTS DO?
planning and instructional methods for a
school system rather than on individual
children (learning).
Developmental psychologists study the
changes— physical, cognitive, social, and
emotional—that occur throughout the life
span (heredity vs. environment)

Engage in research, practice and teaching.

Personality psychologists identify and
measure human traits and determine
influences on human thought processes,
Pure research – no immediate application
feelings, and behavior ( anxiety,
to personal or social problem. (know and
aggression, sexual orientation, and gender
understand)
roles)
Applied research – designed to find
solutions to specific or social problems.
Social psychologists are concerned with
the nature and causes of individuals’
Other practice psychology by applying
thoughts, feelings, and behavior in social
psychological knowledge to help
situations.
individuals change their behavior, so that
they can meet their own goals more
Environmental psychologists study the
effectively.
ways that people and the environment—
the natural environment and the human-
made environment—influence one
FIELDS OF PSYCHOLOGY
another
Clinical psychologists help people with
Experimental psychologists specialize in
psychological disorders adjust to the
basic processes such as the nervous
demands of life (interviews and
system, sensation and perception,
psychological tests)
learning and memory, thought,
motivation, and emotion (pigeons and
Counseling Psychologists cater clients
rats)
typically have adjustment problems but
not serious psychological disorders.
Forensic psychologists apply psychology
(academic or vocational)
to the criminal justice system. They deal
with legal matters such as whether a
School psychologists are employed by
defendant was sane when he or she
school systems to identify and assist
committed a crime (expert witness)
students who have problems that
interfere with learning.
Sport psychologists help athletes
concentrate on their performance and not
Educational psychologists, like school
on the crowd.
(positive visualization to enhance
performance)
Industrial psychologists focus on the
relationships between people and work.
Organizational psychologists study the
behavior of people in organizations such
as businesses.
Human factors psychologists make
technical systems such as automobile
dashboards and computer keyboards
more user-friendly.
Consumer psychologists study the
behavior of shoppers to predict and
influence their behavior.
Health psychologists study the effects of
stress on health problems and guide
clients toward healthier behavior
patterns, such as exercising and quitting
smoking.
HISTORICAL FOUNDATIONS
Socrates (2,500 yrs. ago) – “Know thyself”
(introspection)
Aristotle (384–322 BC) - argued that
human behavior, like the movements of
the stars and the seas, is subject to rules
and laws. (personality, sensation and
perception, thought, intelligence,
needs and motives, feelings and emotion,
and memory)
Democritus was one of the first to raise
the question of whether there is free will
or choice.
Gustav Theodor Fechner (1801–1887)
Elements of Psychophysics, which showed
how physical events (such as lights and
sounds) stimulate psychological
sensations and perception.
5 SCHOOLs OF PSYCHOLOGY (SFBGP)
STRUCTURALISM
Wilhelm Wundt
 mind as natural occurrence
(scientifically studied)
 introspection (experience)
 attempted to break conscious
experience down into objective
sensations, such as sight or taste,
and subjective feelings, such as
emotional responses, and mental
images such as memories or
dreams.
 subjective + objective = mind
FUNCTIONALISM
William James
 conscious experience + behavior
 looked at how our experience
helps us function more adaptively
in our environments.
 “How do behavior and mental
processes help people adapt to the
requirements of their lives?”
 adapted Darwin’s theory and
proposed that adaptive behavior
patterns are learned and
maintained.
BEHAVIORISM
John Broadus Watson

 study of rats.
 focused on learning observable
behavior.
B. F. Skinner

 learned behavior is reinforced

behavior

GESTALT
Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and
Wolfgang Köhler

 focused on perception and how

perception influences thinking and
problem solving.
 “gestalt” translate to pattern/
organized whole.
 demonstrated that much learning,
especially in problem solving, is
accomplished by insight
IMPORTANCE OF CONTEXT
A 'flash of insight' is the forming of new
connections in our memory that create a
completely new idea.
CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES IN
PSYCHOLOGY
 BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE
seek the relationships between the
brain, hormones, heredity, and
evolution, on the one hand, and
behavior and mental processes on
the other.

Schizophrenia  COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

PSYCHOANALYSIS
 Sigmund Freud
proposes that much of our lives is
governed by unconscious ideas
and impulses that originate in
childhood conflicts.
- realm of mental processes to
understand human nature.
-They investigate the ways we
perceive and mentally represent
the world, how we learn,
remember the past, plan for the
future, solve problems, form
judgments, make decisions, and
use language

- rooted from Socrates, “know

 thyself”. - people differ from one another.
(introspection) It studies the influences of ethnicity,
gender, culture, and socioeconomic status
 HUMANISTIC EXISTENTIAL on behavior and mental process.
PERSPECTIVE
- cognitive in
flavor, yet it emphasizes the role of
subjective (personal) experience.

- Humanism stresses the human

capacity for self-fulfillment
(consciousness, self-awareness, and
decision making)

- Humanists believe that

self-awareness, experience, and
choice permit us, to a large extent, to SCIENTIFIC METHOD
“invent ourselves” and our ways of
relating to the world as we progress Formulate a research question
through life. State the hypothesis
- Consciousness, our sense of being in Test hypothesis
the world is seen as the force that
unifies our personalities. Draw conclusions based on findings
Publish research

 PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE Replicate study

Karen Horney and Erik Erikson

- focused less on unconscious
processes and more on conscious choice
and self-direction.

 PERSPECTIVES ON LEARNING
- focuses on the environmental
determinants of human behavior. From
this perspective, human behavior is under
the control of the environmental stimuli
that precede behavior and the
consequences that follow it.

 SOCIOCULTURAL PERSPECTIVE
Syndrome – no medicine
Repression – repression of memories
Projection – see your faults or self in
others