CHAPTER# 01

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
What is psychology, and what are its goals?
The word psychology itself is thousands of years old, coming from the ancient
Greek roots psyche, which means “mind,” and logos, meaning “knowledge or
study.”
Definition
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Behaviors
refers to observable actions or responses in both humans and animals
Mental processes
not directly observable, refer to a wide range of complex mental processes, such
as thinking, imagining, studying, and dreaming.
What does behavior refer to in the definition of psychology?
Anything you do — eating, hanging out, sleeping, talking, or sneezing — is a
behavior. So are studying, snowboarding, gambling, watching television, tying
your shoelaces, wrapping presents, learning Spanish, and reading this book.
Naturally, we are interested in overt behaviors (directly observable actions and
responses). But psychologists also study covert behaviors. These are private,
internal activities, such as thinking, dreaming, remembering, and other mental
events ( Jackson, 2008).
Scientific observation
An empirical investigation structured to answers questions about the world in a
systematic and intersubjective fashion (observations can be reliably confirmed by
multiple observers.
Psychology’s Goals
What do psychologists hope to achieve? Psychology’s ultimate goal is to benefit
humanity (O’Neill, 2005). Specifically, the goals of the science of psychology are
to describe, understand, predict, and control behavior.
Describe
first goal of psychology is to describe the different ways that individuals behave
Explain
second goal of psychology is to explain the cause of behavior
Predict
third goal of psychology is to predict how individuals will behave in certain
situations
Control
the fourth goal of psychology is to control an individuals behavior.
➢ What is the nature of this behavior? (description)
➢ Why does it occur? (understanding and explanation)
➢ Can we forecast when it will occur? (prediction)
➢ What conditions affect it? (control)
Historical perspective
How did psychology begin?
✓ Structuralism: Elements of the Mind
✓ Functionalism: Functions of the Mind
✓ Gestalt Psychology: Sensations versus Perceptions
✓ Behaviorism: Observable Behaviors

Structuralism
The formal beginning of psychology as a scientific discipline is generally
considered to be in the late 19th century, when, in Leipzig, Germany, Wilhelm
Wundt established the first experimental laboratory devoted to psychological
phenomena.
When Wundt set up his laboratory in 1879, his aim was to study the building
blocks of the mind. He considered psychology to be the study of conscious
experience.
His perspective, which came to be known as structuralism, focused on uncovering
the fundamental mental components of perception, consciousness, thinking,
emotions, and other kinds of mental states and activities.
To determine how basic sensory processes shape our understanding of the world,
Wundt and other structuralists used a procedure called introspection.
Introspection
To look within; to examine one’s own thoughts, feelings, or sensations.
Functionalism
Functionalism which was the study of the function rather than the structure of
consciousness, was interested in how our minds adapt to our changing
environment.
The functionalists admired Charles Darwin, who deduced that creatures evolve
in ways that favor survival. According to Darwin’s principle of natural selection,
physical features that help animals adapt to their environments are retained in
evolution. Similarly, the functionalists wanted to find out how the mind,
perception, habits, and emotions help us adapt and survive.
Gestalt Psychology
It was observations like these that launched the Gestalt school of thought. German
psychologist Max Wertheimer (VERT-hi-mer) was the first to advance the Gestalt
viewpoint. It is inaccurate, he said, to analyze psychological events into pieces,
or “elements,” as the structuralists did. Accordingly, Gestalt psychologists studied
thinking, learning, and perception as whole units, not by analyzing experiences
into parts. Their slogan was, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”. In
fact the German word Gestalt means “form, pattern, or whole.”
Behaviorism
Functionalism and structuralism were soon challenged by behaviourism, the
study of observable behavior. Behaviorist John B. Watson objected strongly to
the study of the “mind” or “conscious experience.” He believed that introspection
is unscientific because there is no way to settle disagreements between observers.
Current Psychological Perspectives
Biological
Cognitive
Behavioral
Psychoanalytic
Humanistic
Cross cultural
Biological approach
focuses on how our genes, hormones, and nervous system interact with our
environments to influence learning, personality, memory, motivation, emotions,
and coping techniques
Cognitive approach
examines how we process, store, and use information and how this information
influences, what we attend to, perceive, learn, remember, believe, and feel
Behavioral approach
studies how individuals learn new behaviors or modify existing ones, depending
on whether events in their environments reward or punish these behaviors.
Psychoanalytic approach
stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires, and motivations on thoughts,
behaviors, and the development of personality traits and psychological problems
later in life.
Humanistic approach
emphasizes that each individual has great freedom in directing his or her future,
a large capacity for personal growth, a considerable amount of intrinsic worth,
and enormous potential for self-fulfillment
Cross-cultural approach
examines the influence of cultural and ethnic similarities and differences on
psychological and social functioning of a culture’s members
The Scientific Method
The scientific method is a form of critical thinking based on careful collection of
evidence, accurate description and measurement, precise definition, controlled
observation, and repeatable results ( Jackson, 2008).
In its ideal form the scientific method has six elements:
1. Making observations
2. Defining a problem
3. Proposing a hypothesis
4. Gathering evidence/testing the hypothesis
5. Publishing results
6. Theory building
Observation
Observation is one method for collecting research data. It involves watching a
participant and recording relevant behavior for later analysis. For example, Many
people believe that women are more chatty than men. Is there any truth to this
belief University of Arizona psychologist Mathias Mehl and his colleagues
observed that the results of a few published reports do seem to support this
stereotype.
Defining a Problem
However, the researchers noticed that none of the studies had actually recorded
men’s and women’s normal conversations over long periods. Thus, they defined
their problem as, “How can we record natural conversations without bothering
people and perhaps biasing our observations?”
Proposing a Hypothesis
What exactly is a “hypothesis”? A hypothesis (hi-POTH-eh-sis) is a tentative
statement about, or explanation of, an event or relationship. In common terms, a
hypothesis is a testable hunch or educated guess about behavior.
Gathering Evidence/Testing the Hypothesis
Now let’s return to the question of whether women talk more than men do. To
gather data, the researchers used an electronically activated recorder (EAR) to
track people’s conversations. This device recorded sounds for 30 seconds every
12.5 minutes. Participants could not tell when they were being recorded, so they
acted and spoke normally. Researchers counted the number of words spoken
when the recorder was on and used that to estimate the total number of words
spoken each day. On average, women spoke 16,215 words a day, with men close
behind at 15,699. This difference is too small to be meaningful, so we can
conclude, as Mehl did, that there is no evidence that women talk more than men
(Mehl et al., 2007).
Publishing Results
Scientific information must always be publicly available. That way, other
researchers can read about the results and make their own observations if they
doubt the study’s findings. If others are able to replicate (repeat) the results of a
study, those results become more credible. The results of psychological studies
are usually published in professional journals.
Theory Building
In research, a theory acts as a map of knowledge. Good theories summarize
observations, explain them, and guide further research (• Figure 1.3). Without
theories of forgetting, personality, stress, mental illness, and the like,
psychologists would drown in a sea of disconnected facts (Stanovich, 2007).
Ethics
Most psychologists take pride in following a professional code that stresses
(1) high levels of competence, integrity, and responsibility;
(2) respect for people’s rights to privacy, dignity, confidentiality, and personal
freedom; and, above all,
(3) protection of the client’s welfare. Psychologists are also expected to use their
knowledge to contribute to society.
Many do volunteer work in the communities in which they live (Barnett et al.,
2007; APA, 2002).
Fields of psychology and their application
Personality psychologist- “I’m a personality theorist. I study personality traits,
motivation, and individual differences. I am especially interested in the
personality profiles of highly creative college students.”
Experimental psychologists - conduct lab studies of learning, motivation,
emotion, sensation and perception, and cognition
Educational and school psychologists - study the process of education; focus
on the intellectual, social and emotional problems of children in the school
environment
Clinical psychology - specialize in the evaluation, diagnosis and treatment of
mental and behavioral disorders
Counseling psychology - overlaps with clinical, but work with less severe
problems
Developmental Psychology - studies the course of human growth and
development from conception to death
Cognitive Psychology - examines higher order mental processes: thought,
memory, intelligence, creativity and language
Gender and/or cultural psychology - examines similarities and differences
between men and women and between people of different cultures
Industrial/organizational psychology - applies psychology to the workplace:
personnel selection and evaluation, job satisfaction, group motivation
Social Psychology - investigates the role of social forces and interpersonal
behavior, including aggression, prejudice, love, attitudes