INTRODUCTION OF PSYCHOLOGY
What is Psychology?
• It is the scientific study ofbehavior and
mental processes.– behavior: outward or overt
actions andreactions– mental processes: internal
and covertactivity of our minds.
Psychology is a Science
• Prevent possible biases from leading tofaulty
observations
• Precise and careful measurement.
Four Goals of Psychology
1. Description– What is happening?
2. Explanation– Why is it happening?– theory:
general explanation of a set of observations or
facts
3. Prediction– Will it happen again?
4. Control– How can it be changed?
History of Psychology
*Plato
*Aristotle
*Rene Descartes
*John Locke
*Charles Darwin
*Francis Galton
*Ernst Weber
*Gustuv Fechner
*Herman Von Helmholtz
School of Thoughts
Structuralism (Wilhelm Wundt)
• He is the father of modern psychology.
• He established first experimental laboratory of
Psychology in Leipzig, Germany (1879).
• He developed the technique of objective
introspection: the process of objectively
examining and measuring one’s thoughts and
mental activities.
Structuralism (Edward Titchener)
• It focused on thestructure or basicelements of
the mind.
• He was Wundt’sstudent; broughtstructuralism to
America.
• Structuralism died outin the early 1900s.
Functionalism (William James)
• It focused on how the mindallows people to
adapt, live, work, and play to theirsurroundings.
• It is very much influenced byCharles Darwin’s
Theory ofEvolution.
• Influenced the modern fields of:
– educational psychology
– evolutionary psycholog
- industrial/organizationalpsychology.
Gestalt Psychology (Max Wertheimer)
• Gestalt– “good figure” psychology
• Gestalt ideas now part of the studyof cognitive
psychology
• cognitive psychology: fieldfocusing not only on
perceptionbut also on learning, memory, thought
processes, and problemsolving
• Believed that the human mind imposesmeaning
to related experiences. Itadvocates that the study
of humanbehavior should be holistic.
• “The whole is greater than the sum ofits.
Psychoanalysis (Sigmund Freud)
• It stressed the importance of early childhood
experiences.
• Sigmund Freud – the father of psychoanalytic
theory.
• He believd that personality was formed in the
first 6 years of life.
• He proposed that there is an unconscious mind
into which we repress our urges and desires.
• Followers: Alfred Adler, Carl Jung, Anna Freud
Behaviorism (I John B. Watsonto)
• It is focuses on observable behavioronly.– must
be directly seen and measured
• Proposed by John B. Watson
– based on the work of Ivan Pavlov, who
demonstrated that a reflex could be conditioned
(learned)
– Watson believed that phobias
werelearned case of “Little Albert”: baby
taught John B. Watsonto fear a white rat
Psychodynamic .• It is a combination of two areas of study:
• It is the modern version ofpsychoanalysis. • Social Psychology
• It focuses on the role of theunconscious mind – study of groups, socialroles, and rules of social
and its influence onconscious behavior and actions andrelationships
earlychildhood experiences.
.• Cultural Psychology
– more focused on the development of a senseof
self and the discovery of motivations behinda – study of cultural norms,values, and expectations.
person’s behavior other than sexualmotivations
Biopsychological
Behavioral (Burrhus Frederic Skinnerre)
• It focuses on influences of hormones,
• It focuses on how behavioral responses are brainstructures and chemicals, and diseases.
learned through classical or operant conditioning.
• It attributes human and animal behavior to
– B. F. Skinner studied operant conditioning of biological events occurring in the body, such as
voluntarybehavior genetic influences, hormones, and the activity of
the nervous system.
– Behaviorism became a major force in the
twentiethcentury Evolutionary
– Skinner introduced the concept of inforcement • It focuses on the biological bases ofuniversal
tobehaviorism mental characteristics that allhumans share.
Humanistic (Abraham Maslow Carl Rogers) • It looks at the way the mind works andwhy it
works as it does
• It focuses on human potential, free will, and
possibility of selfactualization. .• Behavior seen as having an adaptiveor survival
value.
• It is the “third force” in psychology.
– People have free will: the freedom to choose
their own destiny
– Emphasizes the human potential, Abraham
Maslowthe ability of each person to become the
best person he or she could be
self-actualization: achievingone’s full potential
or actualself
– Early founders:
*Abraham Maslow
*Carl Rogers
Cognitive
• It became a major force in the field
ofpsychology in the 1960s.
• It focuses on how people think, remember,store,
and use information.
• It also focuses on memory,
intelligence,perception, problem solving, and
learning
.• Cognitive Neuroscience
Sociocultural
• It focuses on the relationship between
socialbehavior and culture