Introduction to Psychology

What is Psychology?
Scientific study of behaviors and mental processes.

• It compasses not just what people do but also their

thoughts, emotions, perceptions, reasoning processes,
memories, and even biological activities that maintain
bodily functioning.
 What do psychologists do?
• Psychologists try to describe, predict, and explain
human behavior and mental processes, as well as
helping to change and improve the lives of people
and the world in which they live in.

• Psychologists use scientific methods

https://youtu.be/94PrGUTU21w
 Psychological Truths?
Most people refuse to give painful electric
shocks to other people.
True or False?
 Psychological Truths?

In order to predict human behaviors for example, they

need to do research because they can not trust only
speculations which might seem true but not accurate
actually.
 Subfields of Psychology

What are the biological foundations of

behavior?
– Behavioral neuroscience: examines
how the brain and nervous system –
but other biological processes as
well- determine behavior.
• E.g., Parkinson's and tremors, emotions
and physical changes
 Subfields of Psychology
How do people sense, perceive, learn and
think about the world?
– Experimental psychology
• Methodological study of sensing,
perceiving, learning and thinking about
the world-Pavlov’s dog
– Cognitive psychology
• focuses on higher mental processes,
including thinking, memory, reasoning,
problem solving, judging, decision
making, and language.
– e.g., the no of words we can remember
 Subfields of Psychology
What are the sources of change and
stability in behavior across life span?
– Developmental Psychology: studies
how people grow and change from
the moment of conception through
death
– Personality Psychology: focuses on
the consistency in people’s behavior
over time and the traits that
differentiate one person from another
 Subfields of Psychology
How do psychological factors affect
physical and mental health?
– Health Psychology: explore the
relationships between psychological
factors and physical ailments or diseases
– Clinical Psychology: deals with the
study, diagnosis, and treatment of
psychological disorders
– Counseling Psychology: focuses
primarily on educational, social, and
career adjustment problems.
 Subfields of Psychology
How do our social networks affect
behavior?
– Social Psychology: study of how
people’s thoughts, feelings, and
actions are affected by others
– Cross-cultural Psychology:
investigates the similarities and
differences in psychological
functioning in and across various
cultures and ethnic groups
 Subfields of Psychology
Industrial and Organizational
Psychology: Principles of Psychology
are applied to the
workplace/business.

- Performance
- Work-family balance - Selection/recruitment
- Assessment - Motivation
- Job analysis - Coaching
- Training - Organizational Development
- Leadership
 Test yourself
• Which subfield of psychology deals with the
question below?
What chemicals are released in the human body as a
result of a stressful event? What are their effects on
behavior?

Behavioral neuroscience
 Test yourself
• Which subfield of psychology deals with the
question below?
At what age do children generally begin to
acquire an emotional attachment to their
fathers?
Developmental
Psychology
 Test yourself
• Which subfield of psychology deals with the
question below?
Kaan is unique in his manner of responding to
crisis situations, with an even temperament and
a positive outlook

Personality Psychology
 Expanding Psychology’s
Frontiers
Evolutionary Psychology
– how behavior is influenced by our
genetic inheritance from our ancestors
– Charles Darwin – natural selection
enables the fittest to survive thus
reproduce more comparatively
– Not only physical traits but also certain
personality traits and social behavior
are subject to natural selection e.g.,
shyness, jealousy, aggression
 Expanding Psychology’s
Frontiers
Behavioral Genetics
– Focuses on biological mechanisms
that enable inherited behavior to be
seen
– Understand how we inherit certain
behavioral traits and how the
environment influences whether we
actually display such traits
 Expanding Psychology’s
Frontiers
Clinical Neuropsychology
– Unites the areas of neuroscience
and clinical psychology
– Focuses on the origins of
psychological disorders in biological
factors
– Medical treatments for
psychological disorders
 Expanding Psychology’s
Frontiers

Diversity Science
– Use scientific methods to focus how
society’s diversity affects individual
and group behavior
– Race, ethnicity, gender, sexual
orientation, people with disabilities,
economic class, age, etc.
– Diminish prejudice, discrimination,
explore structures of societies with
inequality
 Figure 3 - The Breakdown of where
U.S. Psychologists Work

https://vimeo.com/103258566
1-20
 Psychologists: A Portrait
• In the earlier years, women were actively discouraged
from becoming psychologists
– With the passage of time, women have started
outnumbering men in the field
• The underrepresentation of racial and ethnic
minorities among psychologists is due to:
– Lack of diverse perspectives and talents
– Deterring new members from entering the field
– Preference of receiving therapy from their own ethnic
group
1-21
 The Education and Careers for a
Psychologist
Education Careers
— PhD • Administrator
— Doctor of philosophy • Serving as a counselor
— PsyD • Providing direct care
• Social services
— Doctor of psychology
• Education, etc.
— MA or MS
— Master’s degree
— BA or BS
— Bachelor’s degree
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 The Roots of Psychology
• When we trace psychology’s
current questions back through
human history

– Buddha: sensations and perceptions,

forming ideas

– Confucius: power of ideas and of an

educated mind (551-479 BCE) .

– Socrates & Plato: mind is separable

from body (Socrates (469-399 BCE), Plato (428-348
BCE)).
 John Locke Socrates Plato Descartes
(1632-1704) (1596-1650)

- tabula rasa - pre-existing knowledge,

(blank states) some knowledge was inborn
in humans
 First Psychology Laboratory
Wilhelm Wundt: (1832-1920)
– “Father” of experimental
psychology
– First psychology laboratory
in Leipzig, Germany, 1879
Structuralism (perspective): Focuses on uncovering the
fundamental mental components of consciousness, thinking, and
other kinds of mental states and activities
Introspection: Procedure used to study the structure of the mind
in which subjects are asked to describe in detail what they are
experiencing when they are exposed to a stimulus
 Structuralism
• Criticisms of structuralism
– Introspection not a scientific technique
– People had difficulty describing some kinds
of inner experiences
• These drawbacks led to the development of
newer approaches
 Functionalism
William James (1842-1910)
– goal should be to investigate the
function, or purpose of
consciousness rather than its
structure.
–Concentrated on what the mind
does and how behavior functions
Functionalism: an early approach to psychology 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.
 Structuralism
self-reflective introspection
(looking inward)
– “Smell this rose and tell
me how it makes you
feel”
Functionalism
how mental and behavioral
processes function
– Thinking, like
smelling, developed
because it is adaptive

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SW6nm69Z_IE
 Gestalt Psychology
- How perception is organized?
- Not individual parts that
make up thinking, but
wholes.
- “The whole is different from
its parts”
– Our perception, or understanding of
objects is greater than and more
meaningful than the individual
elements that make up our
perceptions.
Today’s Perspectives in Psychology
 Today’s Perspectives in Psychology
1. Neuroscience: View behavior from the
perspective of biological functioning
2. Cognitive: Examines how people
understand and think about the world
3. Behavioral: focuses on observable
behavior
4. Humanistic: contends that people can
control their behavior and that they
naturally try to reach their full potential
5. Psychodynamic: Believes behavior is
motivated by inner, unconscious forces
over which a person has little control
 Neuroscience
• Views behavior from the perspective of the brain,
the nervous system, and other biological functions
– humans are basically animals made of skin and bones
– E.g.:
• How individual nerve cells are joined together?
• How the inheritance of certain characteristics from
parents and other ancestors influence behavior?
• How the functioning of the body affects hopes and
fears?
• How the functioning of brain is related to our
decision making?
 Neuroscience

Neuroscience and free will

https://vimeo.com/106089707
 Psychodynamic
• Behavior is motivated by inner forces and
conflicts about which we have little awareness
or control.
Psychodynamic Perspective

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yTHM2o3d
vao
 Behavioral Perspective
• The approach that suggests that observable,
measurable behavior should be the focus of study.
• John B. Watson (1924), B. F. Skinner (1953)
behaviors can be learned
- John Watson’s Little Albert study
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9hBfnXACsOI
 Cognitive Perspective
• The approach that focuses on how people
think, understand, and know about the world.
• Thinking is information processing
• Experiments in labs.
Cognitive Perspective

• McGurk effect
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G-
lN8vWm3m0
 Humanistic Perspective
– All individuals naturally strive to grow,
develop, and be in control of their lives
– Feelings and yearnings (e.g., self-esteem, love,
etc.) play a big role in life, humans are not
animals
– Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow
– Free will in contrast with determinism

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MRd-
ajUbN98
 Psychology’s Key Issues

• Subfields and perspectives

• not “either/or” terms but opposite ends of
continuum
 Nurture vs. Nature

• How much of our behavior is due to heredity

and how much is due to environment?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ji6edLCfV60
 Conscious vs. Unconscious
determinants of behavior

How much of our behavior is produced by

forces of which we are fully aware?
• Conscious:
• Behavioral, humanistic
• Unconscious:
• Neuroscience, psychodynamic
• Both conscious and unconscious:
• Cognitive
 Observable Behavior vs.
Internal Mental Processing
Should psychology concentrate only on
behavior that can be seen by outside
observers, or should it focus on unseen
thinking processes?
 Free Will vs. Determinism
How much of behavior is a result of
free will?
- Free will: the idea that behavior is caused primarily by
choices that are made freely by the individual.
(cognitive, humanistic)
- Determinism: the idea that people’s behavior is
produced primarily by factors outside of their willful
control
(neuroscience, behavioral,
psychodynamic)
 Individual Differences vs.
Universal Principles
How much of our behavior is a consequence
of our unique and special qualities, and
how much reflects the culture and society
in which we live in?
 Culture, Ethnicity, and Race
Influencing Behavior
• Recognized that some psychological laws are
not universal
– Not work on groups of people
– So, need to understand what is universal and what
is culturally bound

• More research is needed in other cultures, on

people from other races and ethnic orientations
 Psychology’s Future
• Psychology will become increasingly specialized
and new perspectives will evolve
• Prevention of psychological disorders rather than
treatment
• Neuroscientific approaches will likely influence
other branches of psychology
– e.g., brain scans of social behavior such as
persuasion (social neuroscience)
• Psychology’s influence on issues of public
interest-violence, terrorism, prejudice, disasters
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dd0xdJjDuyg