GENERAL PSYCHOLOGY (Psyc 201)

CHAPTER ONE

The Essence of Psychology

1.1. Meaning and Definition of Psychology

a) Meaning of the Term: The term ‘psychology’ comes from two ancient Greek words psyche and
logos. While psyche refers to mind, soul or spirit, as distinguished from the body and ‘logos’ means
study, knowledge or discourse. Therefore, the term Psychology simply refers to the study of the
mind, soul, or spirit and it is often represented by, the Greek letter Psy (‘sy’).

b) Definition of Psychology: Most psychologists today would agree that ‘Psychology’ is the scientific
study of behavior and mental processes. The scientific study implies the use of systematic methods
such as observation and experimentation to gather information about human and animal behavior and
cognition (mental processes). Psychology’s methods are not casual. They are carefully and precisely
planned and conducted. Psychology doesn’t accept assumptions about human nature at face value,
however reasonable they may sound. It is a rigorous discipline that tests assumptions. While behavior
in the definition refers to actions that can be readily observed (such as physical activities and
speaking), mental processes are trickier to define. They are the thoughts, feelings and motives that
each of us experiences privately. These include perceiving, thinking, remembering, and feeling.

 Goals of Psychology: Psychologists are not interested in only describing behavior. They go beyond
this to try to explain, predict and ultimately modify it to enhance the lives of individuals and of society
in general.

1.2 The beginnings of psychology as a science

HOW DID THE FILED OF PSYCHOLOGY EMERGE? WHO WERE ITS EARLIEST CONTRIBUTERS?

 For centuries, philosophers enjoyed arguing and debating questions like, “How do we acquire
knowledge? Does information come to us through our senses and our experiences with the
environment, or is it inborn?” although such speculation fuelled a great deal of intellectual passion, it
didn’t yield much in the way of concrete answers. It wasn’t until the late nineteenth century, in
Germany that Psychology emerged as a science. In other words, until the 19 th century, psychology was
not a formal discipline. Of course most of the great thinkers of history raised questions that today
would be called psychological.
 For instance, the early Greek philosophers Socrates and Aristotle urged us to know ourselves, to use
logic to make inferences about mind, and to systematically observe behavior. It was Aristotle who
argued that an empirical approach, rather than dialogue, was the best route to knowledge. Direct
observation remains an important dimension of psychology today. However, these scholars of the past
did not rely heavily on empirical evidence. Often their observations were based simply on anecdotes
or descriptions of individual cases.
 Hence, credit for the establishment of psychology as a science usually goes to Wilhelm Wundt [VIL-
helm-voont), who formally founded the first Psychological laboratory in 1879, in Leipzig, Germany.
 With Wundt Psychology began as the science of mental life. His focus was on understanding mental
processes, focusing on inner sensations, feelings and thoughts. Until the 1920’s, psychology remained
as the science of mental life.

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  From 1920’s to 1960’s, American psychologists led by J.B. Watson refined psychology as the science
of observable behavior. They focused only on observable and measurable behavior.
 After the 1960’s, psychology is considered to be concerned both with mental processes and outer
behavior.
 During the first decades of psychology’s existence as a formal discipline, psychologists came to hold
quite different views about the nature of the mind and the best ways to study it.
 About the same time fundamental questions were raised about what should be studied in Psychology:
Should Psychology be the study of the mind, should it study Behavior, or should both mind and
Behavior be included?
 Different influential psychologists of the time held quite different views on the nature of mind and the
proper subject matter for psychology. Schools of thought formed around these leaders as their students
adopted their ideas. These schools of thought are known as the schools of Psychology.

1.2.1 Early schools of Psychology

a. Structuralism
 Perhaps, the most important contribution of the Leipzig lab was its students; they took ideas of Wundt
to universities around the world and popularized it. One of such students was Edward Bradford
Titchner who gave Wundt’s approach the name Structuralism.
 The goal of the structuralists was to find out the units, or elements, which make up the mind. They
thought that as in chemistry, the first step in the study of the mind should be the description of the
basic or elementary units of sensation, image, and emotion, which compose the mind.
 Structuralists hoped to analyze sensations, images and feelings into basic elements, much as a chemist
might analyze water into hydrogen and oxygen atoms.
 Structuralists wanted to strip perception of its associations in order to find the very atoms of thought.
The main method used by the structuralists to discover these elementary units of the mind was
introspection. Introspection is a technique whereby specially trained people carefully observe
and analyze their own mental experiences. In this method, subjects were trained to report their own
sensations, mental images and emotional reactions disregarding the meanings they had come to
associate with that stimulus.
 Although Wundt hoped that his methods would produce reliable, verifiable results, most psychologists
eventually rejected trained introspection as too subjective. But, Wundt still gets the credit for initiating
to make psychology a science.

b. Functionalism
 Functionalists such as William James, John Dewey, James R. Angel and Harvey Carr emphasized
the function or purpose of Behavior
 Functionalists argued that our minds are characterized by a continuous flow of information (stream of
consciousness) about our experiences rather than by discrete components.
 They were interested in the fact that mind and Behavior are adaptive- they enable an individual to
adjust to a changing environment.
 The functionalists did experiments on the ways in which learning, memory, problem solving, and
motivation help people and animals adapt to their environments. The inspiration for this was partly
attributed to the evolutionary theories of British Naturalist Charles Darwin.
 The functionalists developed many research methods other than introspection, including
questionnaires, mental tests and objective descriptions of Behavior.
 The functionalists’ emphasis on the causes and consequences of behavior set the course of
psychological science.

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c. Gestalt psychology
 This school of psychology was founded in Germany in the early 20 th century by Max Wertheimer and
his colleagues Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler.
 These psychologists argued that the mind is not made up of a combination of elements. The German
word gestalt refers to form, whole, configuration or pattern.
 Accordingly, the Gestaltists maintained that the mind should be thought of as resulting from the whole
pattern of sensory activity and the relationships and organizations with in this pattern.
 In brief, the Gestaltists acknowledged consciousness; they just refused to look at it in little pieces.
They held that the whole is the sum of its parts, a view that had a particular impact on the study of
perception.
 Their goal was to understand the phenomenon of conscious experience in holistic terms and their
subject matter was subjective experience with emphasis on perception, memory and thinking.

d. Behaviorism
 This school of psychology came into being with John B. Watson. Other proponents include E.
Thorndike and B.F. Skinner.
 For Watson, Psychology was the study of observable, measurable Behavior- and nothing more.
 In addition to its focus on Behavior as the proper subject matter of psychology, behaviorism had three
other important characteristics:
a. Emphasis on conditioned response as the elements or building blocks of behavior.
b. Emphasis on learned rather than unlearned Behavior.
c. Its focus on animal Behavior.

e. Psychoanalysis
 While researchers in Europe and America were working in their laboratories, struggling to make
psychology more scientific, Sigmund Freud, an obscure neurologist, was in his office, listening to his
patients’ reports of depression, nervousness and obsessive habits.
 Freud became convinced that many of his patients’ symptoms had mental, not bodily causes. Their
distress, he concluded, was due to conflicts and emotional traumas that had occurred in early
childhood and that were too threatening to be remembered consciously.
 Freud argued that conscious awareness is merely the tip of the mental iceberg. Beneath the visible tip,
he said, lies the unconscious part of the mind, containing hidden wishes, passions, guilty secrets,
unspeakable yearnings, and conflicts between desire and duty. We are not aware of our unconscious
urges and thoughts as we go blithely about our daily business, yet they make themselves known- in
dreams, slips of the tongue, apparent accidents, and even jokes.
 Freud’s ideas evolved into a broad theory of personality and a method of personality and a method of
psychotherapy, both of which became known as Psychoanalysis.
 Freud believed that unlearned biological instincts influence the way individuals think, feel, and
behave.
 The discourse made by the structural, Gestalt, and functional schools of psychology have become part
of the general store of psychological knowledge; but the schools as such, have vanished.
 Behaviorism and Psychoanalysis on the other hand are still, in modified forms among the current
psychological perspectives.

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1.2.2 MODERN PERSPECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY
 Modern psychologists tend to examine human nature through several lenses.
 These lenses that dominate psychology today are the biological, learning, cognitive, socio-cultural,
psychodynamic and humanistic perspectives.
 These lenses reflect different questions about human behavior, different assumptions about how the
mind works, and, most important, different kinds of explanations why people do what they do.

a) The Neurobiological Perspective

 Some of the labels attached to researchers who take this approach, albeit in rather different ways,
are bio-psychologist, neuro-psychologist, psycho-biologist and physiological psychologist.
 This perspective focuses on how bodily events/ functioning of the body affect behavior, feelings
and thoughts. Psychologists have long recognized this fact and generally agree that understanding
theses biological roots is an essential component of the field.
 This perspective holds that an understanding of the brain and the nervous system is central in the
understanding of behavior, thought and emotion.

b) The Learning Perspective

 The learning perspective is concerned with how the environment affects the person’s (or an
animal’s) actions. With in this perspective Behaviorists focus on the environmental conditions-
the rewards and punishers that maintain or discourage specific Behaviors.
 Social learning theorists, on the other hand, combine elements of behaviorism with research on
thoughts, values, expectations and intentions. They believe that people learn not only by adapting
their behavior to the environment, but also by imitating others and by thinking about the events
happening around them.
 In other words, these theorists believe that behavior is determined not only by its own controlling
environmental conditions, but also by how thought processes modify the impact of environment on
behavior.
 Historically, the behaviorists’ insistence on precision and objectivity has done much to advance
psychology as a science, and learning research in general has given psychology some of its most
reliable findings.

c) The cognitive perspective

 This perspective emphasizes the mental processes involved in knowing: How we direct our
attention, how perceive, how we remember, and how we think and solve problems.
 One of this perspective’s most important contributions has been to show how people’s thoughts
and explanations affect their actions, feelings and choices.
 The cognitive approach is one of the strongest forces in psychology today, and it has inspired
an explosion of research on the intricate workings of the mind.

d) The socio-cultural perspective

 The socio-cultural perspective focuses on social and cultural forces outside the individual. It
emphasizes that culture, ethnicity, and gender are essential to understanding behavior, thought
and emotion.
 Most of us underestimate the impact of other people, group affiliations, and cultural rules on
our actions. We are like fish that are unaware they live in water; so obvious is water in their
lives.
 Socio-cultural psychologists study the water- the social and cultural environment that people
“swim” in everyday.
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  Within this perspective, social psychologists focus on social rules and roles, how groups affect
attitudes and behavior, why people obey authority, and how other people- spouses, lovers,
friends, bosses, parents and strangers, affect each of us.
 Cultural psychologists examine how cultural rules and values- both explicit and unspoken-
affect people’s development, Behavior and feelings.

e) The Psychodynamic Perspective

 This perspective emphasizes the unconscious aspects of the mind, conflict between biological
instincts and society’s demands, and early family experiences. It deals with unconscious
dynamics within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or instinctual energy. It has its
origins in Freud’s theory of psychoanalysis, but many other psychodynamic theories exist.
 Psychodynamic psychologists try to dig below the surface of a person’s behavior to get to its
unconscious motives; they think of themselves as archaeologists of the mind.

f) The Humanistic perspective

 Human Behavior, in the humanists view (Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow), is not
completely determined by either unconscious dynamics or the environment. They stress a
person’s capability for personal growth, freedom to choose their destiny and positive qualities.
 The goal of humanist psychology was to help people express themselves creatively and achieve
their full potential. It has had its greatest influence in psychotherapy and in the human-potential
and self-help movements.
 Although all the differences among the perspectives mentioned are real, not all psychologists
feel that they must wear allegiance to one approach or another.
 Many perhaps most, are eclectic, applying in their research or practice what they believe to be
the best features of diverse schools of thought.

1.3 Methods in Psychology

 Some people have difficulty thinking of psychology as being a science in the same way that
physics, chemistry
 In the discussion on psychology as a science, it was emphasized that the discovery of new
knowledge about behavior is based on systematic research.
 Psychologists use several different techniques for conducting this systematic research. This
subsection will describe the most important of these procedures.

The Naturalistic Observation Method

 In observational studies, the researcher observes, measures, and records Behavior taking care
not to be intrusive or to interferer with the people (or animals) being observed. Observational
studies usually involve many participants (“subjects”).
 Often an observational study is the first step in a program of research; it is helpful to have a
good description of Behavior before you try to explain it.
 The primary purpose of naturalistic observation is to find out how people or animals act in
their social normal environments. Psychologists use naturalistic observation wherever people
happen to be- at home, on playgrounds or streets, in schoolrooms, or in offices.
 Observational studies like other descriptive studies are more useful for describing Behavior
than for explaining it.

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Case Studies
 A case study (or case history) is a detailed description of a particular individual, based on
careful observation or on formal psychological testing. It may include information about the
person’s childhood, dreams, fantasies, experiences, relationships, and hopes-anything that will
provide insight into the person’s behavior.
 Clinicians most commonly use case studies, but, sometimes, academic researchers use them as
well, specially when they are just beginning to study a topic or when practical or ethical
considerations prevent them from gathering information in other ways.
 Case studies illustrate psychological principles in a way that abstract generalizations and cold
statistics never can, and they produce a more detailed picture of an individual than other
methods do.

Surveys
 Surveys are questionnaires and interviews that gather information about people by asking them
indirectly about their experiences or attitudes.
 Surveys can be done on many topics, including consumer preferences, sexual behavior,
political opinions, religious affiliation, child rearing practices, use of internet, and just about
any attitude you can think of.

Correlational studies
 In descriptive research, psychologists often want to know whether two or more phenomena are
related and, if so, how strongly. To find out, psychologists do correlational studies.
 The word correlation is often used as a synonym for relationship. Technically, however, a
correlation is numerical measure of the strength of the relationship.
 Correlations always occur between sets of observations. In psychological research. A positive
correlation means that high values of one variable are associated with high values of the other,
and that low values of one variable are associated with low values of the other. A negative
correlation means that high values of one variable are associated with low values of the other.
If there is no relationship between two variables, we say that they are uncorrelated.
 The statistic used to express a correlation is called the coefficient of correlation. A perfect
positive correlation has a coefficient of + 1.00, and a perfect negative correlation has a
coefficient of –1.00. When there is no association between two variables, the coefficient is zero
or close to zero.

Experimental Methods
 Researchers in plenty of illuminating information from descriptive studies, but when they want
to actually track down the causes of Behavior, they rely heavily on the experimental method.
 An experiment allows the researcher to control the situation being studied. Instead of
recording what is going on, the researcher actively does something to affect people’s behavior
and then observes what happens. These procedures allow the experimenter to draw conclusions
about cause and effect- about what causes what.
 The aspect of an experimental situation manipulated or varied by the researcher is known as
the independent variable.
 The reaction of the subjects- the behavior that the researcher tries to predict- is the dependent
variable. Every experiment has at least one independent and one dependent variable.
 Ideally, everything in the experimental situation except the independent variable is held
constant- that is, kept the same for all participants. Holding everything but the independent

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 variable constant ensures that whatever happens is due to the researcher’s manipulation and
nothing else. It allows you to rule out other interpretations.
 Experimental and Control conditions: Experiments usually require both an experimental
condition and a comparison, or control condition. In the control condition, subjects are treated
exactly as they are in the experimental condition, except that they are not exposed to the same
treatment, or manipulation of the independent variable. With out a control condition you cannot
be sure that the behavior you are interested in would not have occurred anyway, even without
your manipulation.

Sub-fields in Psychology
Clinical Psychology
 Clinical psychologists diagnose and treat emotional and behavioral disorders that range from
mild to very severe. They are trained to do psychotherapy with highly disturbed people, as well
as with those who are simply troubled or unhappy or who want to learn to handle their
problems better.
 Most clinical psychologists have a Ph. D, Ed.D. and a smaller but growing number have a
Psy.D.
 Clinical Psychologists typically do four or five years training of graduate work in psychology,
plus at least a year’s internship under the direction of a practicing psychologist.
 People often confuse clinical psychologist with three other terms: psychotherapist,
psychoanalyst, and psychiatrist. But these terms mean different things.
 A psychotherapist is simply anyone who does any kind of psychotherapy (psychological
treatment)
 A psychoanalyst is a person who practices/ uses the particular psychotherapeutic techniques,
which originated with Sigmund Freud and his followers. Anyone who has the training to use
these techniques can be a psychoanalyst.
 A psychiatrist is a medical doctor (M.D.) who has done 3 to 4 years of residency training in
psychiatry, the medical specialty concerned with mental disorders, maladjustment, and
abnormal behavior. During the residency period, a psychiatrist learns to diagnose and treat
mental disorders under the supervision of more experienced physicians.
 Psychiatrists and clinical psychologists do similar work, but psychiatrists, because of their
medical training, tend to focus on possible biological causes of mental disorders and to treat
these problems with medication. They can write prescriptions, whereas clinical psychologists
cannot (or at least not yet; in many states, psychologists are pressing for prescription- writing
privileges). Psychiatrists are however, are often untrained in current psychological theories and
methods.

Counseling Psychology
 Counseling psychologists are concerned with “normal” problems of adjustment that most of us
face sooner or later, such as choosing a career or coping with marital problems.
 They deal with countless personal problems that do not involve psychological disorders.
 A number of counseling psychologists try to help people who are having problems with; family
living; these are marriage and family counselors.

School Psychology
 Much of the school psychologist’s job consists of diagnosing learning difficulties and trying to
remedy them.

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 Using tests and information gained from consultations with the students and his parents, the
school psychologist tries to pinpoint the problem and suggest action to correct it.
 For instance, a school psychologist might suggest that a poor reader be assigned to a remedial
reading class.
 Other school psychologists are involved in vocational and other forms of counseling. These
are the school counselors.

Educational Psychology
 Educational psychology may include school psychology, but educational psychologists as such
are usually involved with more general, less immediate problems than are most school
psychologists or school counselors.
 Educational psychologists are especially concerned with increasing the efficiency of learning
in school by applying their psychological knowledge about learning and motivation to the
curriculum.

Industrial and/or Organizational Psychology

 Industrial/or Organizational psychologists study behavior in the workplace.
 They address the problems of training personnel, improving working conditions, and studying
working effects of automation on humans.
 The primary concern of industrial/or organizational psychologists is to make-work as pleasant
and productive as possible.
 They apply psychology to problems of management and employee training, to supervision of
personnel, to improving communication with in the organization, to counseling the employees,
and to alleviate industrial strife.

Social Psychology
 Social psychologists study the way we affect and are influenced by other people, both in
groups and in intimate relationships.
 This focus covers a wide range of possible interests. For example, it includes the study of the
ways in which we perceive other people and how those perceptions affect our behavior
toward them.
 Similarly, it involves concerted efforts to understand the determinants of interpersonal
influences and of attitude change.
 Thus, social psychologists might study how perceptual stereotypes affect interactions or how
the decisions of a committee member are influenced by what others on the committee do or
say.

Developmental Psychology
 The developmental psychologists study mental, physical and social development of humans
over the entire life span (from the prenatal period through childhood, adolescence,
adulthood, and old age.
 Child psychology, the study of children’s behavior, comprises a large part of developmental
psychology. But, developmental changes also occur in adolescence, adulthood, and old age;
and so the study of these changes is also a part of developmental psychology.