Discipline: General Psychology, Lecturer: Yelnura N.

Autalipova
Group: 1st course
LECTURE 2
MENTAL PHENOMENA AND APPROACHES OF PSYCHOLOGY

Unit Structure:
1. The structure of mental phenomena
2. Psychological approaches of personality
3. References
4. Home task

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 The psyche manifested itself in the form of mental processes, states, and properties.
I. A mental process is any process (cognitive, emotion, volition) that takes place in the mind. They're formed in the course
of the individual's interaction with the environment. It is considered in dynamics, in action, in development. By that are included
in more complex types of mental activity.
1. While studying behaviour it is one of the most important tasks for psychologists to understand the cognitive processes
which collectively influence a particular behaviour. Cognitive processes - it provides a reflection of the surrounding world.
There are eight types of cognitive processes in psychology. These psychological cognitive processes are:
Sensation - is the cognitive function, allows us to reflect on objects and phenomena through the senses at the moment. It
refers to our awareness about various stimuli which we encounter in different modalities such as vision, hearing, touch and taste.
Perception - is the cognitive function, allows us to make out the meaning of information. In the case of perception we
process information and make out the meaning of the stimuli available to us. For example, we look at a pen and recognize it as an
object used for writing.
Attention - is the cognitive function, allows us to selectively focus on a particular stimulus among many stimuli available to
us. For instance while listening to a lecture in the classroom we attend to the words pronounced by the teacher and, try to ignore
the other stimuli present in the classroom, such as noise from the window.
Memory - is the cognitive function that allows us to code, store, and recovers information from the past. The information we
process and learn is registered and stored in the memory system. Memory also helps us to easily retrieve the stored information
when it is required for use. For example, writing the answers in the examination after studying the course.
Thinking - is the cognitive function, allows us to form new ideas, images, mental representations by transforming available
information. It means in the case of thinking, we use our stored knowledge to solve various tasks. We logically establish the
relationships among various objects in our mind and take rational decision for a given problem. We also evaluate different events
of the environment and accordingly form an opinion.
Speech - is the cognitive function, as a system of human sounds, written signs and symbols used to represent, process, store
and transmit verbal information. Speech is the main acquisition of mankind.
Imagination - is the cognitive function, as the creative ability that allows us to form images, ideas, and sensations in the
mind based on past perception.
Representation - is the cognitive function, allows us to reflect on objects or phenomena that are not perceived at the
moment.
Learning - is the cognitive function, allows us acquiring new knowledge and skills through experience and practice. The
acquired knowledge and skills further bring a relative change in our behavior and facilitate our adjustment in varied settings. For
example, we learn language, riding a bicycle and applying mathematical skills to solve various problems.

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 2. Emotion - it provides a reflection of the surrounding world. American Psychologist P. Ekman proposed seven basic
emotions: sad, joy, anger, surprise, fear, disgust, contempt. The specific quality of the emotion is determined by the specific
significance of the event. Emotion typically involves feeling but differs from feeling in having an overt or implicit engagement
with the world. One of the key differences is term. Emotion (unconscious) is a short-term mental phenomenonа, feeling
(conscious) is a long-term mental phenomenonа.
3. Will (volition) - it is a conscious management of behavior and activities; this is expressed by the ability to make
decisions, as well as by the ability to overcome internal and external difficulties on the way to achieving the aim.Any volitional
action has its own motive (cause) that motivate (directs) and gives motivation (energy) to be active on the way to achieving the
aim.

II. Mental state is the condition or status of an entity or system at a particular time. It is characterized by relative stability or
when conditions change, they can be dynamic and changeable. Emotional states include: anxiety, frustration, stress, affect and
etc.

III. Mental properties - it is the typical characteristic of a person's peculiarities, such as character, temperament, ability
and skill.

Task 2. Writing assignment. State whether the following statements are True or False:
a. Speech helps to transmit verbal information.
b. In sensation stimuli are stored in the brain.
c. In thinking we use stored knowledge to solve various tasks.
d. In attention, we attend to all the stimuli present in the environment.
e. In learning, we acquire new skills through training and experience.
Additional questions (writing assignment):
1. Give the definition of sadness, joy, anger, surprise, fear, disgust, contempt (according to P. Ekman).
2. Give the definition of anxiety, frustration, stress, affect (according to by APA dictionary https://dictionary.apa.org/).

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 2. Psychological approaches of personality
Psychologists use a variety of approaches to describe, predict and control behaviour and mental processes. The main
approaches are briefly described below.
Biological Approach: This approach focuses on biological structures and phenomena such as brain, genes, hormones,
endocrine system and neurotransmitters in order to understand the dynamics of behaviour. Its main focus is on the role of
different parts of brain in regulating feelings, memories, emotions and other aspects of behaviour. Similarly the impact of over-
secretion or under-secretion of different kinds of hormones in governing behaviour is studied. Behaviour genetics as one of the
sub desciplines studies the genetic determinants of behaviour. Moreover, this approach looks for physiological basis of human
behaviour.
Psychoanalytic Approach: The father of psychoanalytic approach Sigmund Freud focused on unconscious in describing the
present state of the individual. He studied mind in terms of hierarchical arrangements of experiences in the form of different
layers of consciousness (e.g. conscious, preconscious, and unconscious). Freud explored the nature and quality of unconscious
through analysis of dreams, slips of the tongue, neuroses, psychoses, work of art, and rituals. He assumed that majority of human
behaviours are triggered by unconscious motivation. Thus to understand the present human behaviour the analysis of unconscious
mental contents is considered most important.
Humanistic Approach: Contrary to Freud, the father of humanistic approach Carl Rogers put greater emphasis on conscious
experiences of the present situation, role of interpersonal experiences across the course of life, and people’s capacity to grow
toward psychological maturity. This approach basically assumes that a person is an active and self-actualizing agent and has a
choice in deciding his behaviour. As a part of the self- actualizing process a person seeks to maintain a congruence between self
and experience. However, because of past experiences with conditional positive regard, he may deny or distort the experiences
that threaten one’s self- system. Such a self- system can be changed in the therapeutic setting through genuineness, unconditional
positive regard, and empathic understating of the client’s problem by the therapist.
Behaviorist Approach: The unit of analysis for this approach is explicit, objective and overt behavior and its relationship
with environmental stimulation. The father of behaviorism J. B. Watson emphasized on objective analysis of behaviour. He
advocated that behaviour is largely governed by the association between stimulus and response and the behaviour can be shaped
in a desired direction by manipulating this association.
Cognitive Approach: The cognitive approach emerged as an alternative to the mechanistic paradigm of behaviourism. This
approach mainly focuses on the study of information processing capacity of the individual in terms of perception, remembering,
thinking, language, reasoning, problem solving and decision making which are called higher mental processes. It proposes that
we look out for information in the world and our behaviour depends upon the way we process this information. This approach
largely relies on computational models and assumes that behavior and mental processes can best be understood by treating them
in terms of information processing.
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Task 2. A) Writing assignment. Fill in the blanks:
1. ———————— ——————— focuses on the role of different parts of brain in regulating feelings, memories, emotions
and other aspects of behaviour.
2. Focus of the ———————— — ——————— is on the information processing capacity of the individual.
3. ———————————— ————————— assumes that the person is active and self- actualizing agent and has a
choice in deciding his behaviour.
4. According to the ——————— ————— ———————————— majority of human behaviours are triggered by
unconscious motivation.
5. The unit of analysis for the —————————— ————————— is explicit, objective and overt behaviour and its
relationship with environmental stimulation.
B) Writing assignment: Make a table lists within the approaches of psychology with a key words (Table 2):
Table 2. Approaches of psychology
Field Key words
For example: unconscious
Psychoanalytic approach

Additional questions (writing assignment): What is the difference between fields and approaches of psychology?

Task 3. Make the glossary from the lecture.

3. References:
1. Маклаков А. Г. М15 Общая психология. - СПб.: Питер, 2001. — 592 с.
2. Mayers, G. D. (2011). Psychology - 10th Edition. Publisher: Hardcover, 864 pages. 2. OpenStax College (2014). Psychology.
Publisher: Houston, Texas, 743 pages.
3. Vivek Singh. (2012 ). Psychology Book -1. Published by the Secretary, National Institute of Open Schooling.

4. Home task: Task 1, task 2, task3. Home tasks need to be done in the copybook.
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