Location via proxy:   [ UP ]  
[Report a bug]   [Manage cookies]                
Scribd
Upload
9 views

introduction to Psy 2020

Uploaded by

mbceesay617
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
9 views

introduction to Psy 2020

Uploaded by

mbceesay617
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
You are on page 1/ 38

Lesson Aim -

To introduce psychology and


understand the science of psychology.

• Define psychology and trace the history of


the discipline
• Be able to explain the different methods of
studying behaviour that have emerged in
psychology
• identify different areas of psychology and
describe them
Introduction to psychology
 Psychology is the scientific study of behavior
and mental processes and how they are
affected by an organism’s (our being)
physical state, mental state, and external
environment

 Thehuman mind is the most complex


machine on Earth.

 Itis the source of all thought and


behaviour.
 Behavior and mental processes include
overt, observable instances but also
include subtle kinds of instances, like
brain activity.
 Humans and many other creatures are
included in the scientific study of
behavior and mental processes
 Mental state does not have to be
conscious
 -we can study mental states in many
creatures without their conscious
awareness

 All
organisms function in an environment
that is constantly presenting them with
problems and challenges that must be
solved.
 Psychologist use scientific methods to study the human mind.
 Most people think of psychology as the study of differences
between people, but it also includes the study of similarities
between people.
 What is Scientific study?
• Scientific study requires several things:
1. Theoretical framework
2. Testable Hypotheses
3. Empirical evidence

 Psychologists adopt a similar approach to scientists in other fields

 Psychologists take human behaviour as the raw data for testing their
theories about how the mind works.
 Critical thinking - assess claims on the
basis of well-supported reasons and
evidence - not on emotional or anecdotal
(unreliable) reasoning
 Involves asking questions - one of the
most important is, “WHY?”
 Involves defining terms - must be clear
and concrete
 Involves examining evidence - “Let me
have my opinion!” doesn’t count
 Involves analyzing assumptions and biases
- scientific thinkers do not take anything
as proven fact and work hard to overcome
their own biases in thinking
 Involves avoiding emotional reasoning - do
not let gut feelings replace clear thinking
- emotional conviction does not settle
arguments
 Involves avoiding oversimplification - the
obvious answer is often wrong and
misleading - do not argue based on own
untrustworthy evidence
 Involves consideration of other
interpretations - the best interpretations
are supported by the most evidence and
explain the most variables
 Involves tolerating uncertainty -
sometimes evidence is unclear or does not
even exist
 Involvesasking questions that can be
tested in this world

 Whatis the difference between these two


statements?

I like Fords better than Hondas.


 Fords are better than Hondas.
Philosophy asks questions about the mind:
 Does perception accurately reflect
reality?
 How is sensation turned into perception?

 The Problem – with philosophy is there is No


“scientific” way of studying the problems
Psychology has its modern roots in the
thinking of French Philosopher Rene
Descartes (1596 – 1650)
Descartes argued that the mind and the
body were two separate entities which
interacted.
 Hisnotion of interactionism gave
rise to two very different schools of
thought in psychology: materialism
and empiricism.
 John lock the English Philosopher
(1632 – 1704) suggested that the
mechanisation of the whole world
became complete.
 Lock did not exempt the mind from
the mechanical law of the universe.
 Therefore, Descartes rationalism –
pursuit of truth through reason was
replaced by empiricism – pursuit of
truth through observation and
experience.
Lock proposed that all
knowledge come through
experience.
His model of the mind was a
tablet of soft clay (tabula rasa)
smooth at birth and ready to
accept to writing of experience
imprinted upon it.
 Lock believed that that our
knowledge of complex experiences
was nothing more than links
between simple ideas combined to
form complex ones.
 Hume (1711 – 1776) developed Lock
notion; he argued that the study of
human nature could best be
undertaken through experience and
observation.
 He described behaviour in terms of
custom and habit.
 For example, a simple behaviour
such as switching on a light.
 The knowledge of that switching a
light on will illuminate a room, will
result our habitually pressing of the
switch if we need light.
 The notion of habit and causality
became very important in the
twentieth century with the
development of behaviourism and
the work of Swiss developmental
psychologist Jean Piaget (1896 –
1981)
 Wundt (1832 – 1920) was the first
person to call himself a psychologist.
 Wundt (1832 – 1920) was the first person
to call himself a psychologist .
WW insists that Psych methods be as rigorous
as the methods of chemistry & physics.
Focuses on the scientific study of the mind
 Wundt’s students started labs across the USA (1880-
1900)
 Harvard University
 Yale University
 Columbia University
 Uni. of Pennsylvania
 Cornell University
 Stanford University
Wundt and his colleagues work
gave rise to structuralism.
Structuralism: the idea that the
mind was made up of
components which could be
broken apart and studied.
 Ebbinghaus at about the same time
contributed important methods for
objectively measuring learning and
forgetting.
 Francis Galton founded the scientific
study of individual differences in
human behaviour and suggested that
certain psychological characteristic
could be inherited.
 John Watson founded the school of
behaviourism.
 According to behaviourist, behaviour
is viewed strictly in terms of
stimulus and response.
 Humanist Psychologist is concerned
with special nature of humanity and
emphasises human experience,
choice, creativity and the potentials
for personal growth.
 The cognitive revolution arose from
the belief that behaviourism missed
some of the complexity of human
cognition and behaviour
 Cognitive psychology interpreted
human behaviour in terms of
information processing.
Cognitive Psychologists return
to the study of learning,
memory, perception, language,
development & problem solving
 Sincethe German psychologist Wilhelm
(1832-1920) opened the first experimental
psychology lab in 1879, we have learned an
enormous amount about the relationship
between brain, mind and behaviour.

 Other famous psychologists include:


 Freud (1856 – 1939) Psychodynamic theory
 B. F Skinner (1904-1990) behaviourist
 Maslow (1908-1970) Humanist
 Piaget: developmental psychologist
Thoughts, memories & desires
exist below conscious awareness
and exert an influence on our
behavior

Unconscious expressed in
dreams & “slips of the tongue”
 PsychoanalyticTheory attempts to explain
personality, mental disorders & motivation in
terms of unconscious determinants of
behavior
 Psycho-biologist: study the biological basis of
behaviour
 Forensic and criminological psychologist
study the ways in which psychological
knowledge can be applied in criminal and
legal settings.
 Clinical Psychologist study the causes of
mental disorders and problems of
adjustment.
 Consumer Psychologist study what
motivates people to consume and
how consumer’s perceptions are
formed
 Organisational and occupational
psychologist study the behaviour of
individual and group in the
workplace.
 Cognitive Psychologist study the
complex human behaviours such as
memory and attention.
 Social Psychologist study the effects
of people on the behaviour of other
people
 Neuro-psychology is allied with
biology, since the aim is to map
different areas of the brain and
explain how each underpins
different brain functions like
memory or language.

 Health psychologists study the


way in which lifestyle and
behaviour affects illness and
health.
 Developmental psychologists study
the development of behaviour
throughout the lifespan
 Educational Psychologist assess the
cognition, social and emotional
development of children in the
school environment.
Biological
Behavioral/Clinical
Psychology
Cognitive
Social-Cultural Psychology
 BiologicalFocus
 How the body and brain create emotions,
memories and sensory experiences.

 Behavioural Focus
 How we learn from observable responses.
 How to best study, assess and treat
troubled people
 Cognitive Focus
 How we process, store and retrieve
information

 Social cultural Focus


 How behavior and thinking vary across
situations and cultures.
 Taking a look at Psychology by asking five
broad questions.
• How did we get here?
• How do we act?
• How do we think/know?
• How do we interact?
• How do we differ?
 Examples of ideas that we will discuss and
evaluate:
 What happens to our brains when we eat
chocolate?
 Are women just gold-diggers and men just
superficial?
 How do people overdose on drugs?
 Why are we fooled by magic tricks?

You might also like