Areas of Psychology

Biological Psychology
• Biological perspective seeks to explain our behavior in terms of
biological principles, such as brain processes, evolution, and genetics.
• By using new techniques, biopsychologists are producing exciting
insights about how the brain relates to thinking, feelings, perception,
abnormal behavior and other topics. Biopsychologists and others who
study the brain and nervous system such as biologists and
biochemists, are part of the broader field of neuroscience.
 Biological Psychology is also called
physiological psychologists, use high-tech
scanning devices and other methods to study
how biological processes in the brain and
other organs affect, and are affected by,
behavior and mental processes. Have you ever
Biological experienced déjà vu, the feeling that a new
Psychology experience, such as entering an unfamiliar
house, has actually happened to you before?
The sudden feeling of familiarity during déjà
vu could be linked to nerve cell activity in a
healthy brain, as the brain processes new
information and tries to connect it to existing
memories.
Evolutionary Psychology
• Evolutionary Psychologists look at how human evolution and genetics
might explain our current behavior. Evolutionary psychologists
presume all human behaviours reflect the influence of physical
and psychological predispositions that helped human ancestors
survive and reproduce. For example, psychologists who take this
approach see cooperation as an adaptive survival strategy,
aggression as a form of territory protection, and gender
differences in mate-selection preferences as reflecting strategies
that have been successful in previous generations
The Psychological Perspective
• Behavior is shaped by psychological process occurring at the level of
the individual. It now includes cognitive behaviorism and cognitive
psychology. These perspective acknowledge that mental processes
underlie much of our behavior. In cognitive Psychology, researchers
have devised ways to objectively study covert behaviors. Cognitive
psychologists and other researchers interested in cognition, such as
computer scientists and linguistics, form the broader field of cognitive
science.
Sociocultural Perspective
• The sociocultural perspective stresses the impact that social and cultural contexts have on our
behavior. Cultural Diversity: significant meaning contained in an environment is reflective of the
unique perspectives held by different populations about the way the world works and their
understanding of their place in that world.
• Cultural Relativity: What if someone told you their culture was the internet? Would that make
sense to you? Culture is the beliefs, behaviors, objects, and other characteristics shared by groups
of people. Given this, someone could very well say that they are influenced by internet culture,
rather than an ethnicity or a society! Culture could be based on shared ethnicity, gender, customs,
values, or even objects.
• Social norms are informal rules that govern behavior.
• Diversity at broader level: Social norms are the rules that define acceptable and expected behavior
for members of various groups. The unstated standard for judging what is average, normal or
correct has been the behavior of white, middle-class males. To fully understand human behavior,
psychologists need to know how people differ and in which ways we are alike. Human diversity
can enrich your life, as well as understanding of psychology.
• Biopsychologists: These psychologists are also sometimes called
biological psychologists or physiological psychologists. They study and
perform research on the brain and behavior. By examining the neural
bases of behavior, biopsychologists are able to understand different
biological factors that might impact how people think, feel, and act.
• Clinical Psychologists: Clinical psychologists assess, diagnose and
treat individuals experiencing psychological distress and mental
illness. They also perform psychotherapy and develop treatment
plans.
• Cognitive psychologist: Cognitive psychologists investigate how
people think, including topics such as decision-making and problem-
solving. This type of psychologist is interested in how the brain
processes, learns, stores, recognizes, and utilizes information.
• Community psychologists: This type of psychologist conducts
research on community health issues. They also seek to educate the
community and develop prevention programs. These professionals
are focused on helping lead positive changes at both the individual
and community levels.
• Comparative psychologists: Comparative psychologists study the
behavior of different species, particularly how animal and human
behavior differs. Studying the behaviors and responses of animals
such as rats and dogs can provide insights into human behaviors as
well.
• Consumer psychologists: Also known as marketing psychologists,
consumer psychologists research consumer behavior and develop
marketing strategies to promote businesses.
• Counseling psychologists: Counseling psychologists provide
psychotherapy to people experiencing psychological disturbances,
behavioral problems, emotional difficulties, stress, and related issues.
These professionals share many commonalities with clinical
psychologists.
• Cross-Cultural Psychologists: Cross-cultural psychologists look at how
people vary across cultures and how cultural affiliations influence
behavior. They often explore how different aspects of behavior may be
either universal or varied across different cultures.
• Developmental Psychologists: Developmental psychologists research
human development across the entire lifespan. Some developmental
psychologists may focus on research and add to our understanding of
developmental issues that can arise throughout life. Other professionals
may perform applied work with clients who need assistance in coping
with developmental issues.
• Educational psychologists: These psychologists study how people
learn and the educational process. This might involve developing
instructional strategies and teaching techniques. Some educational
psychologists study giftedness or learning disabilities.
• Engineering Psychologists: Engineering psychologists are focused on
discovering ways to enhance human abilities by improving machines,
equipment, technology, and work environments. Engineering
psychologists may be tasked with developing technology that can be
used in the healthcare industry to help patients recover faster. They
also help design and refine products that people use each and every
day, including mobile phones and motor vehicles.
• Environmental Psychologists: studies the relationship between
people and their surroundings, including natural environments as well
as created environments. These professionals may work as
researchers to study the impact that humans have on their
environments. Some environmental psychologists also work in
government to shape environmental policies.
• Forensic Psychologists: Forensic psychologists focus on the
relationship between psychology and the law. This might involve
acting as a consultant in criminal cases or civil disputes, performing
child custody evaluations, and offering psychotherapy services to
crime victims.
• Health Psychologists: Health psychologists are centered on how
psychology, biology, social groups, and behavior influence wellness,
illness, and overall health. They work with clients to help maximize
well-being and improve both mental and physical health.
• Industrial-Organizational Psychologists: I-O psychologists study
workplace behavior such as how to select the best employees for
particular jobs and how to increase worker productivity. An I-O
psychologist might utilize his or her knowledge of psychological
principles to design assessments to screen candidates for specific job
roles.
• Military Psychologists: Military psychologists practice psychology in a
military setting. This can include such things as treating soldiers who
have a mental illness or emotional distress, researching different
aspects of military life, and helping soldiers transition back to civilian
life.
• Personality Psychologists: Personality psychologists study the
different aspects of personality and how individual traits influence an
individual's life and behavior. Researchers in the field of personality
psychology are interested in a wide range of topics that can have
applications in everyday life. They might also investigate whether
certain personality traits are tied to specific illnesses or disorders,
how personality influences the decisions people make, and the many
factors that contribute to the development of personality.
• School Psychologists: School psychologists help children cope with
emotional, academic, social, and behavior problems in school
settings. Professionals who work in this field of psychology play a vital
role in the educational system, typically collaborating with parents,
teachers, students, and other school staff to ensure that the learning
environment is healthy, safe, supportive, and productive.
• Social Psychologists: Social psychologists study the behavior of
groups, including how people behave in social settings and how
groups influence individual behavior. A social psychologist might
investigate a wide range of topics, including attitudes, prejudice,
communication, interpersonal relationships, aggression, and
persuasion.
 Approaches to the Science of Psychology
The history of psychology is partly the history of the different aspects of behavior and mental
processes—such as conscious experiences, unconscious conflicts, or overt actions—that have been
emphasized by different groups of psychologists. Psychologists have to make the same kinds of
decisions, not only about where to focus their research but also about what kind of treatment
methods to use, or what services to provide to schools, businesses, government agencies, or other
clients. Their decisions are guided mainly by their overall approach to psychology—that is, by the
assumptions, questions, and methods they believe will be most useful in their work. The approaches
we described earlier as structuralism and functionalism are gone now, but the psychodynamic and
behavioral approaches remain, along with others known as biological, evolutionary, cognitive, and
humanistic approaches. Some psychologists adopt just one of these approaches, but most
psychologists are eclectic.
The Biological Approach
Assumes that behavior and mental processes are largely shaped by biological
processes. Psychologists who take this approach study the psychological effects of
hormones, genes, and the activity of the nervous system, especially the brain.
Example:
The biological approach explains that excess dopamine levels in specific brain
regions cause the positive symptoms of schizophrenia. And that lower dopamine
levels in other regions contribute to the negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Evidence of the role of neurochemicals in mental illnesses is that antipsychotics
that target the abundance of neurotransmitters re-absorbed and available in the
synapse have shown to be an effective treatment for reducing positive and
negative symptoms of schizophrenia.
Biological assumptions
• Genes determine our behaviour.
• Brain functions are localised.
• Neurochemicals are the basis of behaviour.
Treatment
• Drug therapy
• Electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) is a medical procedure designed to alleviate
psychological disorder in which electric currents are passed through the brain,
deliberately triggering a brief seizure.
When it was first developed, the procedure involved strapping the patient to
a table before the electricity was administered. The patient was knocked out by
the shock, went into severe convulsions, and awoke later, usually without any
memory of what had happened. Today ECT is used only in the most severe
cases when all other treatments have failed, and the practice is more humane.
The patient is first given muscle relaxants and a general anesthesia, and
precisely calculated electrical currents are used to achieve the most benefit
with the fewest possible risks.
• transcranial magnetic stimulation (TMS), seems to work by activating
neural circuits in the prefrontal cortex, which is less active in people
with depression, causing an elevation of mood. TMS can be
performed without sedation, does not cause seizures or memory loss,
and may be as effective as ECT.
• Psychosurgery, that is, surgery that removes or destroys brain tissue in
the hope of improving disorder, is reserved for the most severe cases.
Biological Approach Strengths & Weaknesses
• Objective scientific and biological evidence can be found using
technology. Continually building on scientific evidence increases this
research field's reliability and validity.
• The approach oversimplifies humans and our physiology. Other
factors may influence our behaviour, and one biological treatment
may not help those affected by external issues. Free will, individual
differences.
The Evolutionary Approach
• The study of behavior, thought, and feeling as viewed through the lens of
evolutionary biology. Evolutionary psychologists presume all human behaviors
reflect the influence of physical and psychological predispositions that helped
human ancestors survive and reproduce. The Origin of Species. Darwin argued that
the forms of life we see today are the result of evolution—of changes in life forms
that occur over many generations. The Evolution occurs through natural selection,
which promotes the survival of the fittest individuals. Genes that result in
characteristics and behaviors that are adaptive and useful in a certain environment
will enable the creatures that inherited them to survive and reproduce, thereby
making it more likely that those genes will be passed on to the next generation.
Genes that result in characteristics that are not adaptive in that environment are
not passed on to subsequent generations, because the creatures possessing them
don’t survive to reproduce. So evolutionary theory says that many (but not all) of
the genes we possess today are the result of natural selection.
• For example, psychologists who take this approach as an adaptive
survival strategy, aggression as a form of territory protection.
• “It would make sense from an evolutionary perspective for humans to
fear darkness, as we don’t see as well at night, and that makes us
more vulnerable to predators,”
o Key Points:
o Our Brain is a physical system that instructs you to behave in a
manner appropriate and adaptive to your environment.
o Unaware of the underlying process involved.
o Traits that increase the chance of survival are more likely to be
genetically passed on to future generations. This creates a process
where undesirable traits are more likely to fade over time, while
desirable traits carry on strongly.
The Psychodynamic Approach
Psychodynamic theory (sometimes called psychoanalytic theory)
explains personality in terms of unconscious psychological processes
(for example, wishes and fears of which we’re not fully aware), and
contends that childhood experiences are crucial in shaping adult
personality.
Psychodynamic theory is most closely associated with the work of
Sigmund Freud, and with psychoanalysis, a type of psychotherapy that
attempts to explore the patient’s unconscious thoughts and emotions
so that the person is better able to understand him- or herself.
• As you might imagine, when Freud suggested in 1900 that much of
our behavior is determined by psychological forces of which we’re
largely unaware—that we literally don’t know what’s going on in our
own minds.
• People were displeased, When he suggested in 1905 that we humans
have strong sexual feelings from a very early age, and that some of
these sexual feelings are directed toward our parents.
Core Assumptions of the Psychodynamic
Perspective
• Primacy of the Unconscious: Many of our mental activities—
memories, motives, feelings, and the like—are largely inaccessible to
consciousness.
• Critical Importance of Early Experiences: According to the
psychodynamic model, early experiences—including those occurring
during the first weeks or months of life—set in motion personality
processes that affect us years. This is especially true of experiences
that are outside the normal range (for example, losing a parent or
sibling at a very early age).
• Psychic Causality: Nothing in mental life happens by chance—that there is no
such thing as a random thought, feeling, motive, or behavior.
• Freud introduced his topographic model of the mind, which contended that the
mind could be divided into three regions: conscious, preconscious, and
unconscious.
The conscious part of the mind holds information that you’re focusing on at this
moment—what you’re thinking and feeling right now.
The preconscious contains material that is capable of becoming conscious but is
not conscious at the moment because your attention is not being directed toward
it. You can move material from the preconscious into consciousness simply by
focusing your attention on it. Consider, for example, what you had for dinner last
night. A moment ago that information was preconscious; now it’s conscious,
because you “pulled it up” into consciousness.
• The unconscious—the most controversial part of the topographic
model—contains anxiety-producing material (for example, sexual
impulses, aggressive urges) that are deliberately repressed (held
outside of conscious awareness as a form of self-protection because
they make you uncomfortable. Research has provided considerable
support for Freud’s thinking regarding conscious and preconscious
processing (Erdelyi, 1985, 2004).
• Psychosexual stage model, which argued that early in life we progress
through a sequence of developmental stages, each with its own
unique challenge and its own mode of sexual gratification. Freud’s
psychosexual stages—oral, anal, oedipal , latency, and genital—
Frustration or overgratification during a particular stage was
hypothesized to result in “fixation” at that stage, and to the
development of an oral, anal, or Oedipal personality style.
• As when conflicts at other psychosexual stages are not resolved, a
fixation at that point in development can result.
• When someone says that a person has an Oedipus complex, it often
describes an unhealthy attachment or dependence on their opposite-
sex parent in adulthood.
• An unresolved Oedipus complex can lead to challenges in achieving
mature adult romantic relationships, and conflicts with same-sex
competitiveness. Psychoanalysis focuses on helping resolve these
conflicts.
• consistent with the developmental challenges that the child confronts
during each stage—oral fixation is hypothesized to result in a
dependent personality, whereas anal fixation results in a lifelong
preoccupation with control. Oedipal fixation leads to an aggressive,
competitive personality orientation.
• Oedipus complex: Freud suggested that the child develops a sexual
attraction to his or her opposite-sex parent and hostility toward the same-
sex parent. According to Freud, the boy wishes to possess his mother and
replace his father, who the child views as a rival for the mother's affections.
• Electra Complex: A pattern described by Freud in which a young girl
develops an attachment to her father and competes with her mother for
his attention.
• The Structural Model: The structural model—which posits the existence of
three interacting mental structures called the id, ego, and superego. The id
is the seat of drives and instincts, whereas the ego represents the logical,
reality-oriented part of the mind, and the superego is basically your
conscience—the moral guidelines, rules, and prohibitions that guide your
behavior. (You acquire these through your family and through the culture in
which you were raised.)
• When the id predominates and instincts rule, the result is an impulsive
personality style. When the superego is strongest, moral prohibitions
reign supreme, and a restrained, overcontrolled personality ensues. When
the ego is dominant, a more balanced set of personality traits develop.
• The Ego and Its Defenses: In addition to being the logical, rational, reality-
oriented part of the mind, the ego serves another important function: It
helps us manage anxiety through the use of ego defenses. Ego defenses
are basically mental strategies that we use automatically and
unconsciously when we feel threatened. They help us navigate upsetting
events, but there’s a cost as well: All ego defenses involve some distortion
of reality. For example, repression (the most basic ego defense, according
to Freud) involves removing from consciousness upsetting thoughts and
feelings, and moving those thoughts and feelings to the unconscious.
When you read about a person who “blocked out” upsetting memories of
child abuse, that’s an example of repression.
• Another ego defense is denial. In denial (unlike repression), we are
aware that a particular event occurred, but we don’t allow ourselves
to see the implications of that event. E.g, Ahmed has received various
negative job evaluations about his inability to communicate
empathetically with clients. Since Ahmed believes he communicates
very effectively, he dismisses these negative evaluations using several
arguments. He argues that his manager is wrong, his manager is
jealous, that he was stressed that one day with the client, that the
client was unclear, and that the other client was hostile. All of these
denials help protect Ahmed from having to incorporate the negative
feedback into his self-concept.
• Defense mechanisms, which are unconscious tactics that protect
against anxiety and guilt by either preventing threatening material.
Defense Mechanism
Defense Mechanism Brief description
Projection taking your own unacceptable
qualities or feelings and ascribing
them to other people
Displacement Displacement involves taking out
our frustrations, feelings, and
impulses on people or objects that
are less threatening.
Denial to protect the ego from things with
which the person cannot cope and
is used often to describe situations
in which people seem unable to
face reality or admit an obvious
truth
Example
if you have a strong dislike for
someone, you might instead
believe that they do not like you.
Being angry at your boss but taking
it out on your spouse instead.
People living with drug or alcohol
addiction often deny that they have
a problem, while victims of
traumatic events may deny that the
event ever occurred
Repression Unconsciously keeping unpleasant
information from your conscious mind
Sublimation Converting unacceptable impulses into more
acceptable outlets
Regression Reverting to earlier behaviors
a person may handle stress or anxiety by
acting out behaviors associated with an earlier
developmental stage of life (like childhood or
adolescence)
a person who has repressed
memories of abuse suffered as
a child may later have difficulty
forming relationships.
a person experiencing extreme
anger might take up kickboxing
as a means of venting frustration
A child reverts to earlier
behaviors when their sibling is
born as a means to gain
attention
An adult who doesn’t get their
way may cope by being overly
emotional about it as a child
might
Methodology of psychodynamic

• Case Studies
• Dream Analysis
• Free Association
• Projective Tests (TAT, Inkblots)
• Clinical interviews
• Hypnosis
 The Behavioral Approach
• Behaviorism characterizes behavior as primarily the result of learning.
From a strict behaviorist point of view, biological, genetic, and
evolutionary factors simply provide “raw material,” which is then shaped
by learning experiences into what we see in each individual’s actions.
• Behaviorists seek to understand all behavior—whether it is aggression
or drug abuse, shyness or sociability, confidence or anxiety—by looking
at the individual’s learning history, especially the patterns of reward and
punishment the person has experienced.
• They also believe that people can change all sorts of problematic
behaviors, from overeating to criminality, by unlearning old habits and
developing new ones.
5 Principles Of Behaviorism
1. All behavior is learned from the environment:
One assumption of the learning approach is that all behaviors are
learned from the environment. They can be learned through classical
conditioning, learning by association, or through operant conditioning,
learning by consequences.
Behaviorism emphasizes the role of environmental factors in
influencing behavior to the near exclusion of innate or inherited factors.
This amounts essentially to a focus on learning. Therefore, when born,
our mind is “tabula rasa” (a blank slate).
• Classical conditioning refers to learning by association, and involves
the conditioning of innate bodily reflexes with new stimuli.
• Pavlov’s Experiment
• Ivan Pavlov showed that dogs could be classically conditioned to
salivate at the sound of a bell if that sound was repeatedly presented
while they were given food.
• He first presented the dogs with the sound of a bell (NS); they did not
salivate so this was a neutral stimulus. Then he presented them with
food (UCS) , they salivated.
• The food was an unconditioned stimulus and salivation was an
unconditioned (innate) response.
• Pavlov then repeatedly presented the dogs with the sound of the bell
first and then the food (pairing) after a few repetitions, the dogs
salivated when they heard the sound of the bell.
• The bell had become the conditioned stimulus and salivation had
become the conditioned response.
Examples of classical conditioning applied to
real life include:
• taste aversion – using derivations of classical conditioning, it is
possible to explain how people develop aversions to particular foods
• learned emotions – such as love for parents, were explained as paired
associations with the stimulation they provide
• advertising – we readily associate attractive images with the products
they are selling
• phobias – classical conditioning is seen as the mechanism by which –
we acquire many of these irrational fears.
Operant Conditioning
• Skinner argued that learning is an active process and occurs through
operant conditioning. When humans and animals act on and in their
environmental consequences, follow these behaviors.
• If the consequences are pleasant, they repeat the behavior, but if the
consequences are unpleasant, they do not.
• Reinforcements
• Punishments
2. Behavior is the result of stimulus-response:
• Reductionism is the belief that human behavior can be explained by
breaking it down into smaller component parts.

• Reductionists say that the best way to understand why we behave as

we do is to look closely at the very simplest parts that make up our
systems, and use the simplest explanations to understand how they
work.
3. Psychology should be seen as a science:
• Theories need to be supported by empirical data obtained
through careful and controlled observation and measurement of
behavior.
• Behaviorism introduced scientific methods to psychology.
Laboratory experiments were used with high control of
extraneous variables.
4. Behaviorism is primarily concerned with observable behavior, as opposed to internal
events like thinking and emotion:

• The starting point for many behaviorists is a rejection of the

introspection (the attempts to “get inside people’s heads”) of the
majority of mainstream psychology.
• Although theorists of this perspective accept that people have
“minds”, they argue that it is never possible to objectively
observe people’s thoughts, motives, and meanings – let alone
their unconscious desires.
5. There is little difference between the learning that
takes place in humans and that in other animals:

• There’s no fundamental (qualitative) distinction between human and

animal behavior. Therefore, research can be carried out on animals
and humans.
Weakness of Behaviorism
• Free will vs. Determinism: Strong determinism of the behavioral
approach as all behavior is learned from our environment through
classical and operant conditioning. We are the total sum of our
previous conditioning.
• Nature vs. Nurture: Behaviorism is very much on the nurture side of
the debate as it argues that our behavior is learned from the
environment.
• Holism vs. Reductionism: The behaviorist approach and social learning
are reductionist; they isolate parts of complex behaviors to study.
• Idiographic vs. Nomothetic: It is a nomothetic approach as it views all
behavior governed by the same laws of conditioning.

• However, it does account for individual differences and explains them

in terms of differences in the history of conditioning.