Introduction to Psychology I

Psych 1001 J
INSTRUCTOR: DR. LORENA RUCI

LORENA.RUCI@CARLETON.CA
 What is Psychology?

Psychology is the study of mind, brain and behaviour

 How the human mind works?
 How are we different from everyone else in the world?
 How do we learn?
 What is peer pressure?
Neuroscience
Developmental
Cognitive
Social
Clinical
Psychology: The beginning

Birthday: 1879
Before that…
Ancient Greece (470 BCE)
 Socrates, Plato, Aristotle, Hippocrates…Galen
China
 Confucius (551 BCE)
 Multiple tests
Muslim scholars
 Al-Kindi (801 CE)
 Psychology as a Science

Middle Ages (~ 5th~15 century)

 Scientific learning comes to a halt
 Church doctrine
Renaissance (~14th~17th century)
 Rebirth of knowledge
 Focus on here and now and not afterlife
Mid-1800 Europe
 No longer a branch of speculation (Philosophy)
Schools of Thought
 Schools of Thought

Structuralism (Edward Titchener)

 Conscious experience can be broken down in smaller pieces
 Introspection
 Too subjective
Functionalism (William James)
 Stream of consciousness
Gestalt Psychology (Max Wertheimer)
 The whole of personal experience is different form the sum of
its individual elements
 Phenomenology
 Schools of Thought
Behaviourism (John B. Watson)
 Examine observable behaviour and not internal processes
 Reinforcement and punishment
 Nature versus nurture
Psychology = scientific study of behaviour
Behaviour = overt or observable responses or
activities
– Radical reorientation of psychology as a science of
observable behaviour
– Study of consciousness abandoned
Stimulus = any detectable input from the
environment
 Schools of Thought

Freud and Psychoanalysis

Founded Psychoanalytic school of thought
Emphasis on unconscious processes influencing
behaviour
 Unconscious = thoughts, memories, and desires that are below
the surface of conscious awareness but exert great influence on
behavior
 Unconscious
 Sex and aggression
 Freud’s Ideas:
Controversy and Influence
10

Behaviour is influenced by the unconscious

Unconscious conflict related to sexuality plays a
central role in behaviour
Controversial notions caused debate and resistance
Significant influence on the field of psychology
Prominent followers such as Carl Jung and Alfred
Adler

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 Schools of Thought

The Humanistic perspective (Maslow, Rogers)

 Growth, free will and optimism
Diverse opposition groups got together to form a
loose alliance and a new school of thought emerged –
Humanism
 Led by Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) and Carl Rogers (1902–
1987)
 Emphasis on the unique qualities of humans: freedom and
personal growth
 Clinical Psychology

Clinical psychologists help people in distress

Apply theories/research findings to help clients
Three step process
1. Psychopathology
- Classify, research etiology, course of disorder
2. Assess and make decision
- Diagnosis, evaluate outcome
3. Intervention
- Treat and prevent
 Cognition and Neuroscience in
Psychology
13

Cognition = mental processes involved in acquiring

knowledge

1950s and 1960s – Piaget, Chomsky, and Simon

 Application of scientific methods to studying internal mental
events
 Cognitive psychology: the new dominant perspective?

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 Biological Psychology:
The Biological Basis of Behaviour
14

 Biological perspective – behaviour explained

in terms of physiological processes
(Neuroscience)
– James Olds (1956)
 Electrical stimulation of the brain evokes emotional
responses in animals
– Roger Sperry (1981)
 Left and right brain specialization
– Donald Hebb (1949)
 Cell-assemblies describe neural networks

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 Psychology Adapts: The Emergence of
Evolutionary Psychology
15

Central premise: natural selection occurs for

behavioural, as well as physical, characteristics
Buss, Daly & Wilson, Cosmides & Tooby – 1980s and
1990s
– Studied natural selection of mating
preferences, jealousy, aggression, sexual
behaviour, language, decision making,
personality, and development
• Thought-provoking perspective gaining in
influence, but not without criticism

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 Positive Psychology
16

Positive psychology uses theory and research to

better understand the positive aspects of human
existence
Positive subjective experiences
Individual traits
Positive institutions and communities

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