GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY

(Course Code: Psyc 1011)

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 What is
Psychology?

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 CHAPTER ONE
I. ESSENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY
1.1. Definition and nature of psychology
• The word psychology is derived from two Greek words –
‘psyche’ and ‘Logos’ where
– Psyche – means ‘soul’ or spirit and Logos – means ‘the study’.
• Hence, originally psychology was defined as ‘the study of
soul’ or the study of spirit.
• It is often represented by the Greek letter ᴪ (psi) which is
read as ("sy").
• The modern and well accepted definition for many
psychologists is that:
• Psychology is defined as the scientific study of human and
animal behaviour and the underlying mental processing3
• Three aspects of psychology
a) psychology is a science?
• Psychology as a science obtains knowledge
through systematic and objective methods of
observation and experimentation.
– Psychologists do not study behavior with
commonsense rather they follow scientific
procedures and use empirical data to study
behavior and mental processes

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b) Psychology is a behaviour
Two types of behaviour
1. Overt behaviour- includes behaviours that could
be observed, measured and recorded objectively
and directly.
• For example, Motor activities (walking,
speaking, jumping), reading, eating etc
2. Covert behaviour - that includes internal, hidden,
covered or non-visible aspects of human behaviour.
• For example, cognitive activities (mental processing) like
thoughts, perceptions, memory, reasoning, analyzing etc
• The affective domain such as attitudes, feelings,
motivations etc, Emotional activities ( feeling happy, sad,
angry, afraid). 5
 1.2. Goal of psychology
• It has the following four goals:
1. Description – What is happening?
•The first goal is observing and describing behaviour,
what was observed as objectively as possible.
• In this case behaviours are systematically and
accurately characterized.
What happened?
Where does it happen?
To whom does it happen?

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2. Explanation ­: Why is it happening?
– It tries to understand the cause of behaviour.
– Explanation is about trying to find reasons for the
observed behavior.
This helps in the process of forming theories of behavior (A
theory is a general explanation of a set of observations or
facts)
3. Prediction : what will happen in the future?
• The psychologist or counselor would predict
(based on previous research into similar
situations)

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4. Control/Modify – How can it be changed?
• It is the ultimate goal of psychology.
For instance: from undesirable( falling in the school) to a desirable
one ( academic success)
• Inappropriate behaviour should be removed or stopped.
E.g. Smoking

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 1.3 Historical Background and Major
Perspectives in Psychology
• Psychology is a relatively new field in the realm of the
sciences, only about 125 years old.
• psychology then begun as an independent field of
study and with Wundt as its founder or "father of
modern psychology.
• He limited the subject matter of Psychology to
conscious experience. The elements of conscious
experience were considered to be sensation, feelings,
and images. Sensations: sight, sounds, tests, smells
and touch, which arises from stimulation of sense
organ. Feelings: love, fear, joy, and so on.
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1.3.1. Early School of thoughts in Psychology
• There are five such early schools of psychology.
A.Structuralism
a study of structure of mind.
• Titchener is the founder of structuralism.
• Structuralisms focused on breaking down mental
processes into the most basic components/
structure.
• They believed that, the chief purpose of psychology
was to describe, analyze, and explain conscious
experience, particularly feelings and sensations
using method of introspection- to understand the
basic elements of consciousness. 10
B. Functionalism
• The American psychologist William James pioneered
functionalism.
• consciousness was always changing so it had no basic
structure.
• He said that psychology should study the function or
purpose of consciousness and how it leads to
adaptive behaviour.
• Functionalism is the view that the key tasks of
psychologist should be understanding how the mind
functions in everyday life or how it works and how it
helps us adapt to a complex and ever changing
world. 11
C. Gestalt psychology
• The leading proponents of the Gestalt view were
the German psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt
Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler.
• Their slogan is ‘the whole is greater than the sum
of its part’
• The German word Gestalt means shape, form, or
configuration.

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C. Behaviourism
• Behaviorists view psychology as a study of
observable and measurable behaviors.
• John Watson revolutionized psychology by changing
the subject matter of psychology from the study of
conscious experience to the study of behaviour.
• Other proponents include E. Thorndike and F.
Skinner.
• Watson believed that the study of psychology
should be about observable behaviour and its aim
should be to describe, predict, understand, and
control behaviour.
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E, Psychoanalysis
• Psychologist Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) is the
founder
• Freud said that conscious experiences are only the tip
of the iceberg.
• Beneath the conscious experience is primitive
biological urges that seeks expression but which are
in conflict with the norms and morality of the society.
• The unconscious motivations and conflicts have
powerful influences on our conscious thoughts and
actions.
• According to Freud, all behaviour whether normal or
abnormal is influenced by the unconscious mind, this
belief is called psychic determinism. 14
• According to Freud the methods of studying the
unconscious mind are:
• a, Free association
• The psychologist makes association and meaning
between ideas, words, and thought.
• It is a projective technique to explore the clients
unconscious thoughts.
• b, Dream analysis
• According to Freud dreams are viewed as indications
of what a person is truly feeling with in the conscious
mind.
• The contents of dreams are analyzed for underlying
or hidden motivations. 15
 1.3.2. Modern perspectives
•Most events in human experience can be explained in different
ways using the various perspectives in psychology.
A, Biological Perspective
•also known as biological psyc, biopsychology or physiological psyc
•focuses on the physical and biological bases of behaviour
•It holds that the brain and the various brain chemicals affect
psychological processes such as learning, performance, perception
of reality, the experience of emotions, etc. and vice versa
B, The Cognitive Perspective
•Emphasizes the mental processes such as perception, memory,
intelligence, language, problem solving, and others.
•It focuses on the process that helps people to know, understand,
and think about the world.
•Explains how information in the memory is processed at different
stages and how our thinking about the world influences our br. 16
• Techniques used to explore behavior from a cognitive
perspective include electrical recording of brain activity,
electrical stimulation and radioactive tracing of metabolic
activity in the nervous system.
C. The Behavioural perspectives
• The forerunners of this view were J.B. Watson, Ivan
Pavlov, Edward L. Thorndike and B.F. Skinner
• The behavioural approach views behaviour and mental
processes as primarily the result of learning.
• They focus on overt, observable behaviour and they
stress on the role of the environment as a determinant of
human behaviour.
• This behaviourist tradition is still very much alive and well
in modern psychology. 17
D, The Humanistic perspective
• This perspective emphasizes the role of
motivation on thought and behaviour.
• Concepts such as self-actualization are an
essential part of this perspective.
• Generally, according to the humanistic approach,
our capacity to choose how to think and act
determines our behaviour.
• Humanistic psychologists believe that people are
essentially good, that they are in control of
themselves, and that they seek to grow toward
their highest potential.
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E. The Psychodynamic/Psychoanalytic perspective
• emphasizes the role of internal force, unconscious motives,
and conflicts in behaviour.
• many aspects of behaviour stem from unconsciousness
hidden forces deep with in personalities.
• The psychodynamic approach emphasizes:
– The influence of unconscious mental behavior on everyday behavior
– The role of childhood experiences in shaping adult personality
– The role of intrapersonal conflict in determining human behavior

F. The Socio-cultural perspectives

• In many cases, individual’s perceptions, feelings, and actions are strongly
influenced by the social and cultural systems in which they live.
• As a fish cannot leave without water, human behavior cannot be
understood without sociocultural context (the social and cultural
environment) that people "Swim" in every day. 19
 1.4. Branches/Sub field of psychology
• We can categorize the sub-fields or branches of psychology in to
the following broad areas.
1. Clinical psychology- A branch of psychology concerned with the
study, diagnosis, and treatment of abnormal behavior.
• Deal with Sever mental disorders.
• is a field that applies psychological principles to the prevention,
diagnosis, and treatment of psychological disorders.
2. Counseling psychology- like clinical psychologists they use
interviews and psychological tests to define their client’s problems.
• The problems may include difficulty in learning, emotional and
vocational problems and problems related to marriage, family
conflict etc.
• deal with less serious problems.

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3. School psychologists- employed by school systems to help
identify and assist students who encounter problems that
interfere with learning.
• They define student problems through interviews with parents,
teachers and the students themselves.
4. Educational psychologists- concerned with the application of
psychological principles and theories in improving the
educational process including curriculum, teaching, and
administration of academic programs.
5. Developmental psychology- study physical, emotional cognitive
and social changes that occur in people through their life span.
6. Personality psychology- it focuses on the relatively enduring
traits and characteristics of individuals.
• Personality psychologists study topics such as self-concept,
aggression, moral development.
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7. Social psychologists- concerned with ways in which individual
and group of people influence the behavior of other people.
• They focus on social or external influences to explain behavior
and they deal with topics such as attitude formation, attitude
change and interpersonal interaction etc.
8. Experimental psychology- conduct research relevant to all
other fields of specializations and they deal with functions of
the nervous system, sensations and perception and learning.
9. Industrial or organizational psychology
• concerned with improving working conditions such as hiring
and promotion, production and efficiency, selection of
employee, program evaluation, evaluation of performance, and
work motivation.
10. Biological psychology- seeks to discover the relationship
between biological process and behavior. For example how do
sex hormones influence behavior? 22
11. Cross-cultural Psychology - examines the role of
culture in understanding behavior, thought, and
emotion.
• It compares the nature of psychological processes
in different cultures, with a special interest in
whether or not psychological phenomena are
universal or culture-specific.
12. Health Psychology - applies psychological
principles to the prevention and treatment of
physical illness and diseases.
13. Forensic psychology - applies psychological
principles to improve the legal system (police,
testimony, etc 23
 1.5. Research Methods in psychology

A) Definition of Terms
• In research, the followings are the important terms
 Scientific Method: a process of gathering ideas and
testing them by making observations, experiments and
statistical analysis.
 Theory - is an integrated set of principles about observed
facts that is intended to describe and explain some aspects
of experience.
 Hypotheses - is a tentative proposition about the
relationship between two or more variables or phenomena.
E.g. Males have high self - confidence in making decisions
than females.
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B) Major Types of Research Methods
• There are 3 different research methods/designs in psychology
i) Experimental Method
• This is carried out to investigate the relationship between two or
more variables by deliberately producing change in one variable
and observing the effect on the other.
• Such a research method shows cause- effect relationship.  
• In an experimental research there are two groups:
a) The Experimental group- This is the group that receives the
treatment (group exposed to independent variable).
b) The Control group – A group that receives no treatment but is
created to see the difference created by the treatment given to
the experimental group.
• Extraneous variable – this is a variable that is not controlled in the
experiment but can influence the experimental procedure.
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•An example of experimental research:
•The effect of a new drug on the behaviour of students
with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder. 
•The effect of chewing Chat on academic performance.
•The experiment needs to be designed in the following
way:  
Groups Treatment
Experimental Group Takes the new drug or chat
Control Group Takes a placebo
 
 
 
(No treatment)

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 Full population of interest

Randomly
assign into
control and
experimental
groups

Experimental group Control group

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 Limitations or Problems in using experimental
research design 
• It cannot be used in situations where the
experiment is dangerous to the subjects for
ethical reasons.
• It will be difficult in the real world to avoid all
extraneous variables; hence the findings may
not be applicable outside the experimental
situations.
• It is time consuming and costly.

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ii) Correlational research
• It is the research method, which studies the
relationship between two or more variable, in which to
what extent two variables, traits, attributes are related.
• It does not show cause-effect relationship.
Example:
• The relationship between parental discipline and
juvenile delinquency.
• The relationship between cigarette smoking and lung
cancer
• The relationship between bonuses paid to workers and
productivity.

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iii) Descriptive Research
a. Survey method
• Survey method involves asking people a series of questions
about their behaviours, thoughts, or opinions.
• studying the incidence of behavior in large population.
• Example – The attitude of college students towards premarital
sex.
b. Case study
• Case studies are conducted when researchers believe that an
in-depth look at one individual.
• For example: The unit of study can be a family, a group of
delinquents, dropouts and teenagers.

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c Naturalistic observation
• Naturalistic Observation- Refers to observation and
recording behaviour in natural setting with no influence
or control it.
• Subjects are not aware that they are being observed.
• This is accomplished by means of one-way mirrors
technique.
• It can use photo camera, video camera, and
observational checklist, etc…
• Example- The causes for aggressive tendencies among
children. behaviors of soldiers during combat. 

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• Steps of scientific research
1. Defining the Problem
2. Formulating the Hypothesis
3. Testing the Hypothesis
4. Drawing Conclusions
5. Reporting Results

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