Introduction to Psychology

Ahmed Ali Qureshi

What do you think?

What psychology is?

Mostly people think

It is just about giving people advice It isn't really science, its just a common sense Psychology is just the study of mental illness

It is just about giving people advice

55% psychologist advice and councel

It isn't really science, its just a common sense

Festinger 1957, nature of attitude change
$20 and $1

Who falls in love more quickly, men or women Scientific method (more or less)
Hypothesis Collect data Objective checking procedures to test data Results Recommendations

Psychology is just the study of mental illness

Some psychologists do specialize in metal illess Others wok in academic settings, industry, education etc

So what is psychology?
It is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. It is science because Behavior include
Actions Feelings Biological states psychologist conduct research in accord with the scientific method. They analyze the behavior of other species as well as humans

Mental processes
Problem solving Intelligence Memory etc

 Behavior is
Overt Manifest Obvious easy to study Covert Underlying Hidden not easy to study.

The mental processes that help carryout these behaviors are

Besides behavior, what causes these behaviors to occur and the mental processes involved in it is an important area of interest for a psychologist.

 Psychologists study animals behavior too; to

better understand and predict human behavior Ethical issues in some experiements

Main Goals of Psychology

To understand the nature and mechanisms of behavior and mental processes To develop an understanding of the relationship between behavior and mental processes To apply this understanding to real life situations and, on the basis of this understanding, predict for the future To employ the scientific approach for developing this understanding


In short, the main goals of psychology are:
Observation, Description, Understanding, Explanation, Prediction, and Control of human behavior and mental processes.

 Psychologists wont always agree on why people behave s they do Liking and disliking of certain teacher Place Actions of Child (blaming on others, friends, school, parents etc)

 Psychologists explanation of a particular behavior thus is typically presented within the context of a theory
Theory is an explanation of why and how a behavior occurs

Divisions of Psychology
Division 1 General Psychology Division 2 Teaching of Psychology Division 3 Experimental Psychology Division 4 (vacant) More info Division 5 Evaluation, Measurement, and Statistics Division 6 Behavioral Neuroscience and Comparative Psychology Division 7 Developmental Psychology Division 8 Personality and Social Psychology Division 9 Psychological Study of Social Issues Division 10 Psychology and the Arts Division 11 (vacant) More info Division 12 Clinical Psychology Division 13 Consulting Psychology Division 14 Industrial and Organizational Psychology Division 15 Educational Psychology Division 16 School Psychology Division 17 Counseling Psychology Division 18 Psychologists in Public Service Division 19 Military Psychology Division 20 Adult Development and Aging Division 21 Applied Experimental and Division 22 Rehabilitation Psychology Division 23 Consumer Psychology Division 24 Theoretical and Philosophical Psychology Division 25 Behavior Analysis Division 26 History of Psychology Division 27 Community Psychology Division 28 Psychopharmacology and Substance Abuse Division 29 Psychotherapy Division 30 Psychological Hypnosis Division 31 State, Provincial, and Territorial Psychological Association Affairs Division 32 Humanistic Psychology Division 33 Mental Retardation and Developmental Disabilities

Division 34 Population and Environmental Psychology Division 35 Psychology of Women Division 36 Psychology of Religion Division 37 Child, Youth, and Family Services Division 38 Health Psychology Division 39 Psychoanalysis Division 40 Clinical Neuropsychology Division 41 Psychology-Law PsychologyDivision 42 Psychologists in Independent Practice Division 43 Family Psychology Division 44 Psychological Study of Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Issues Division 45 Psychological Study of Ethnic Minority Issues

Division 46 Media Psychology Division 47 Exercise and Sports Psychology Division 48 Peace Psychology Division 49 Group Psychology and Group Psychotherapy Division 50 Addictions Division 51 Psychological Study of Men and Masculinity Division 52 International Psychology Division 53 Clinical Child and Adolescent Psychology Division 54 Pediatric Psychology Division 55 Pharmacotherapy

Misconception about Psychology

Anybody who has studied psychology can read peoples personality Psychologists can predict fate or destiny Psychologists are doctors Psychologists give medicines

Origins of Psychology
Long past and short history (Hermann Ebbinghaus, 1908) People have always been interested in explaining behaviour
Childs behaviour


In ancient Egypt, Greece and Rome, roots of Rome, Psychology
Philosophy medicine

 Philosophers debated whether the mind could be studied scientifically and discussed the nature of the mind and where it was located Because of the relation of the mind with the body, much of what we consider today as Psychology was part of medicine then. then.

 Father of medicine, Hippocrates (460-377) medicine, 460-377) thought of personality as part of mixture of chemicals in the body and thus tried to control the abnormal behavior with the help of medicine. medicine.

Schools of Thought
Structuralism Functionalism Behaviorism Psychoanalysis Humanism

Structuralism

Wilhelm Wundt German Doctor and psychologist 18321832-1920

http://psychology.about.com/od/historyofpsychology/f/first-psychology-lab.htm

First Psychology Lab

1879 at the University of Leipzig, Germany. Leipzig, Germany. 1883, at John Hopkins University, USA, 1883, Wundt's student G. Stanley Hall created the first experimental psychology lab. lab.

Structuralism
The term coined by Edward Brad Tichener 1867-1927 1867 Student of Wilhelm Wundt His work stems from that of his Teacher

What is Structuralism
Titchener attempted to classify the structures of the mind Hydrogen and oxygen water For Titchener
Sensations and thoughts as structures of the mind. mind.

 Titchener believed that if the basic components of the mind could be defined and categorized then the structure of mental processes and higher thinking could be determined. determined.
What each element of the mind is how those elements interact with each other why they interact in the ways that they do will

 Main tool

Introspection

Introspection
The self-observation and reporting of conscious selfinner thoughts, desires and sensations. sensations. It is a conscious mental and usually purposive process relying on thinking, reasoning, and examining one's own thoughts, feelings, and, in more spiritual cases, one's soul. It can also be soul. called contemplation of one's self. self. Opposite extrospection the observation of things external to one's self. self.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Introspection

Structuralism Exercise
How do you identify an apple Stimulus error

Criticism of Structuralism
By todays scientific standards, the experimental methods used to study the structures of the mind were too subjectivethe use of subjective introspection led to a lack of reliability in results. results. Other critics argue that structuralism was too concerned with internal behavior, which is not directly observable and cannot be accurately measured. measured.

Importance of Structuralism
Structuralism is important because it is the first major school of thought in psychology. psychology. Structuralism also influenced experimental psychology. psychology.

Functionalism

Functionalism
Second paradigm The primary interest in this approach is in the function of mental processes. processes. Not the creation of any single scholar. scholar. William James was most famous advocate. advocate.

 psychological philosophy that considers mental life and behavior in terms of active adaptation to the person's environment. environment. As such, it provides the general basis for developing psychological theories not readily testable by controlled experiments and for applied psychology. psychology. School of Psychology concerned with how behavior and mental abilities help people adapt to their environment. environment.

Functionalism
It focuses on the acts and functions of the mind rather than its internal contents.

 First major non German school of psychology Influenced by Charles Darwin Theory of Evolution

 James came to believe that psychological processes developed not from the structure of the mind but through the process of evolution

 Evolution refers to the development of a species the process by which through a series of changes over time humans have acquired behaviors characteristics that distinguish them from other species. species.

 For James, the question was not what elements contribute to ones experience but rather what functions does the event serve for the organism. organism. How does a particular behavior help an organism adapt to the environment and thereby increase its chances of surviving and evolving

Natural Selection
The process by which traits become more or less common in a population due to consistent effects upon the survival or reproduction of their bearers. It is a key mechanism of evolution.

 The natural genetic variation within a population of organisms may cause some individuals to survive and reproduce more successfully than others in their current environment. environment.

 Natural selection acts on the phenotype, or the observable characteristics of an organism, but the genetic (heritable) basis of any phenotype which gives a reproductive advantage will become more common in a population. population. Over time, this process can result in adaptations that specialize populations for particular ecological niches and may eventually result in the emergence of new species. species. In other words, natural selection is an important process (though not the only process) by which evolution takes place within a population of organisms. organisms.

 Darwin's illustrations of beak variation in the finches of the Galpagos Islands, which hold 13 closely related species that differ most markedly in the shape of their beaks. beaks. The beak of each species is suited to its preferred food, suggesting that beak shapes evolved by natural selection. selection.

 Natural variation occurs among the individuals of any population of organisms. organisms. Many of these differences do not affect survival (such as differences in eye color in humans), but some differences may improve the chances of survival of a particular individual. individual. A rabbit that runs faster than others may be more likely to escape from predators, and algae that are more efficient at extracting energy from sunlight will grow faster. faster. Individuals that have better odds for survival also have better odds for reproduction. reproduction.

 The concept of natural selection predates the understanding of genetics, which is the study of heredity. heredity. In modern times, it is understood that selection acts on an organism's phenotype, or observable characteristics, but it is the organism's genetic makemake-up or genotype that is inherited. inherited. The phenotype is the result of the genotype and the environment in which the organism lives

 Resistance to antibiotics is increased though the survival of individuals which are immune to the effects of the antibiotic, whose offspring then inherit the resistance, creating a new population of resistant bacteria. bacteria.

 It is an approach that concentrated on what the mind does; the functions of mental activity, and the role of behavior in allowing people to adapt to their environments. This school founded by the American psychologist William James, became prominent in the1900s.

Behaviorism
Behaviorism became the dominant school of thought during the 1950s. 1950s Based upon the work of thinkers such as John B. Watson, Ivan Pavlov, and B. F. Skinner, behaviorism holds that all behavior can be explained by environmental causes, rather than by internal forces. forces. Behaviorism is focused on observable behavior. behavior. Theories of learning including classical conditioning and operant conditioning were the focus of a great deal of research. research.

Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud was the found of psychodynamic approach. This school of approach. thought emphasizes the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior. Freud behavior. believed that the human mind was composed of three elements: the id, the ego, and the elements: superego. superego. Other major psychodynamic thinkers include Anna Freud, Carl Jung, and Erik Erikson. Erikson.

Humanistic psychology
Humanistic psychology developed as a response to psychoanalysis and behaviorism. Humanistic behaviorism. psychology instead focused on individual free will, personal growth, and self-actualization. self-actualization. Major humanist thinkers included Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Rogers.

Gestalt Psychology
Gestalt psychology is based upon the idea that we experience things as unified wholes. This approach to wholes. psychology began in Germany and Austria during the late 19th century in response to the molecular approach 19th of structuralism. Rather that breaking down thoughts structuralism. and behavior to their smallest element, the gestalt psychologists believed that you must look at the whole of experience. According to the gestalt thinkers, the experience. whole is greater than the sum of its parts. parts.

Cognitive Psychology
Cognitive psychology is the branch of psychology that studies mental processes including how people think, perceive, remember, and learn. As part of the larger field learn. of cognitive science, this branch of psychology is related to other disciplines including neuroscience, philosophy, and linguistics. linguistics.