INTRODUCTION TO

PSYCHOLOGY

Prepared by:
DR RAFIDAH AGA MOHD JALADIN
Senior Lecturer/Counselling PsychologistDepartment of Educational
Psychology & Counselling
Faculty of Education, University of Malaya
50603 Kuala Lumpur, MALAYSIA
Tel: +603 7967 5035/5058 Email: rafidah_aga@um.edu.my
PERKAMA International Lifetime Member (ASH00159)
Registered Counsellor with Lembaga Kaunselor (KB00196, PA00300)
Prologue to Topic 1
 Our text surveys the basics of psychological
principles and shows how these principles can be
applied to solve human problems.
 You will find the text covering most areas in
psychology but, as this is an introductory course,
we will not be able to go into extreme depth with
any particular topic.
 If you have any questions, ask them!

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Psyche and Science =
Psychology
 Definition of psychology
 Psychology is the science of behavior and
mental processes
 What is science?
 realizing problems, making initial observations,
hypothesizing, testing hypotheses
 What is behavior?
 any activity which is directly observable
 What are mental processes?
 not directly observable: e.g., thinking, motivation

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 3

Psyche and Science =
Psychology
 Goals of psychology
 To describe human and animal behavior and
mental processes
 To understand human and animal behavior
and mental processes
 To predict human and animal behavior and
mental processes
 To influence/control human and animal
behavior and mental processes

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 4

The Many Faces of Psychology
 The Early “Psychologists”
 Although Wilhelm Wundt is usually credited
with formally establishing psychology as a
separate scientific discipline, many
individuals with diverse interests and talents
helped to “found” psychology.
 We will look at some of these individuals
now

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 5

The Many Faces of Psychology
 Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Bradford
Titchener: The structure of the mind
 They sought to determine the structure of the
mind through use of analytic introspection
 Their school of thought is called
“Structuralism”
 Wundt at the University of Leipzig in 1879;
Titchener in America
 Structuralism vs Functionalism

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 6

The Many Faces of Psychology
 William James: The “functions” of
consciousness
 James interested in the functions of
consciousness
 wrote the first “psychology” textbook in 1890
 may have had the first psychology laboratory
in America circa 1876
 established “functionalism” as a school of
thought in psychology

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 7

The Many Faces of Psychology
 Ivan Pavlov and John B. Watson: Behaviorism
 Pavlov received Nobel Prize in 1905 for his work on
salivating dogs and the serendipitious discovery of
“classical conditioning”
 Watson established “radical behaviorism” circa 1912
in the United States
 Both interested in behavior and its precise
measurement rather than “consciousness” of Wundt
and James

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 8

The Many Faces of Psychology
 Hermann Ebbinghaus: Studies of Memory
 Ebbinghaus used experimental methods to
measure memory in the late 1800’s
 interested in how memory works, how it is
established, how does forgetting happen, how
memories deteriorate with interference, and
other facets of memory

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 9

The Many Faces of Psychology
 Max Wertheimer: Gestalt Psychology
 Interested in perception, I.e., how do we
make sense out of the world around us
 Gestalt, a German word, means: “The whole
is greater than the sum of its parts.”
 He believed the mind must be studied in
terms of large meaningful units instead of the
small units of structuralism
 Why do we see things the way we do?

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The Many Faces of Psychology
 Alfred Binet: Measuring intelligence
 Binet sought to establish methods whereby
the mind’s intellectual capacities could be
measured
 Developed the first IQ test, used to assess
how well students would do in academic
settings, in France circa 1905
 The “Standford-Binet IQ Test” is, along with
collaborative efforts of others, Binet’s test

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The Many Faces of Psychology
 Sigmund Freud: The Psychoanalytic School
 Established “psychoanalysis” via work with female
clients in Vienna, Austria, circa 1910
 Believed roots of psychological problems were
motives that reside in the part of the mind of which
we are unaware called the “unconscious”
 His over-emphasis on sex resulted in the “Neo-
Freudians”, e.g., Erikson, Jung, Sullivan, Horney,
Adler, and others.

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 12

The Many Faces of Psychology
 Pioneers of psychology include people
from Europe and America, as well as
African-Americans, Latins, and other
ethnic minorities, both male and female.
 Your text articulates information about
some of these individuals.
 We will now look at contemporary
perspectives in psychology.

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 13

Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 Contemporary Behaviorism and Social Learning
Theory
 Behaviorism still generally rules out the study of
“mental processes” because these are unobservable
 Social Learning Theory believes that “mental
processes” can be subjected to scientific inquiry
 Albert Bandura: aggression and modeling
 Patricia Devine: emotional/cognitive factors that influence
formation and maintenance of prejudice

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 14

Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 The Sociocultural Perspective
 Culture, ethnicity, and gender identity are
important to understand a person
 What is “normal” is a culturally-relative term
 How do you define “normal?”
 All sociocultural variables must be taken into
account to fully understand someone; all
judgments concerning “normal” must be
relative to the culture in which one lives.

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Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 Contemporary Psychoanalysis
 Most modern psychoanalysts disagree with
Freud’s emphasis on sexual and aggressive
motives for human behavior.
 Most believe that other motives are
responsible for human behavior, e.g., Erik
Erikson believed that how we are treated and
how we react to developmental stressors has
much to do with why we do what we do.

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 16

Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 Contemporary Psychoanalysis
 Most contemporary psychoanalysts believe
that cognitive processes also mediate why we
do what we do, e.g., Alfred Adler’s notion of
the “inferiority complex” and its effects on
our behavior.

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 17

Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 Contemporary Cognitive Perspective
 Increasingly popular since the mid-1970s, this
perspective studies the processes involved in
perceiving, believing, thinking, and other cognitive
activities using sophisticated scientific
instrumentation.
 For example, is there a particular neural network in
the brain responsible for allowing you to perceive
your grandmother? Particular neural circuits
involved in experiencing prejudice?

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 18

Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 Contemporary Humanistic Psychology
 Considered the “Third Force” in psychology
(behind psychoanalysis and behaviorism).
 Believes that individuals determine their own
fates through decisions they make
 Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow are examples
of humanistic psychologists
 Not as scientifically oriented as other
branches of psychology

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Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 Contemporary Biological Perspective
 Interested in the role of the brain in
psychological processes
 Interested in the role of heredity in
psychological processes
 sociobiology
 heredity in psychological abnormality

 heredity in cognitive skills, etc.

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Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 Specialty fields in modern psychology
 “Basic” areas of psychology
 the domain of psychology that is involved in the generation
of new knowledge upon which later applications can be built
 psychological research done in many field areas
 “Applied” areas of psychology
 these psychologists apply the basic knowledge to solve
human problems
 applied areas include counseling, clinical, and educational
psychology

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 21

Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 The relationship between psychology and
psychiatry
 A psychologist usually has a Ph.D. in
psychology from an accredited graduate
school. It requires:
 4 years of undergraduate work in psychology
 2 years of Masters-level graduate work

 3 years of Ph.D.-level graduate work

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Contemporary Perspectives in
Psychology
 The relationship between psychology and
psychiatry
 A psychiatrist has an M.D. and residency in
psychology. It requires:
 4-year undergraduate degree
 4-year medical degree
 3-year residency in psychology

 The pecking order in psychology is: M.S.,

M.S.W., Ph.D., M.D./P.C.

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 23

Questions?
 Do you have any questions about Topic
One?

Psych 101 Chapters 1 and 2 24