LECTURE:3

Areas of Psychology

Pure and Applied Psychology

Applications of Psychology

Discussion: Is Psychology a Science?

AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGY
CONTEMPORARY PSYCHOLOGY CAN BE ROUGHLY
BROKEN DOWN INTO TWO GROUPS, PURE OR BASIC
AND APPLIED.
Pure or Basic

Applied
Applied Psychologists use
knowledge acquired by
psychologists in the basic areas,
and by their own applied research
studies, to solve and prevent
significant human problems, such
as emotional stability, marital
difficulties , underachievement in
school and job dissatisfaction.

Psychologists in the basic areas conduct

research on Psychological processes such as
emotions , thinking, learning, prejudice and
gender identity by using the scientific
methods.

About 20 % of all psychologists work in basic

experimental areas of psychology. They are
broadly trained but they tend to specialize in
the study of a single psychological process.
Most psychologists in the basic areas work in
colleges and universities.

They are the remaining 80%.

Most of the applied psychologists

work in clinical settings,
industrial settings, schools,
medical and health centers
whereas some also teach and
conduct research.

BASIC AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Following are the largest specialties within the
basic experimental areas :
1. Biological Psychology: Psychologists in this
field study the ways in which the nervous system
and other organs provide the basis for behavior
2. Sensation and perception: This specialty is
concerned with how the sense organs operate and
how we interpret incoming information in the
process of perception

BASIC AREAS CONT.

3. Learning and memory: The ways in which we
learn and remember new information, skills, habits
and new ways of relating to other people are
studied in this specialty.
4. Cognition: Psychologists in this area are
concerned with intelligent action: thinking,
perceiving, planning, imagining, creating,
dreaming, speaking, listening and problem solving.
5. Developmental psychology: this field is
concerned with the changes that take place people
during their life span as they grow from birth to old
age.

BASIC AREAS CONT.

6. Motivation and emotion: Here the needs and
states that activate and guide behavior are studied
such as hunger, thirst, sex, the need for
achievement and the need to have relationships
with others.
7. Personality: The field of personality focuses on
consistent ways of behaving that characterize our
personality.

BASIC AREAS CONT.

8. Social psychology: This specialty area studies
the influence of other people on our behavior the
behavior of people in groups, mobs, or
organizations; Interpersonal attraction and
intimate relationships: and attitudes and prejudice
towards others.
9. Sociocultural psychology: Focus here is
placed on ethnic and cultural factors, gender,
sexual orientation and related issues.

APPLIED AREAS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Following are the major specialties within applied

psychology:

1. Clinical Psychology: Clinical psychologists try to

understand and treat serious emotional problems and correct
abnormal behavior.
2. Counseling Psychology: Specialists in this field help
people with personal and with career choices.
3. Educational and School Psychology: Educational
psychology is concerned with the ways children learn in the
classroom and with the construction of psychological and
educational tests. School psychologists consult with teachers
about children who are experiencing learning or behavioral
problems. And they test children to see whether they could
benefit from special educational programs.

CONTD.
4. Industrial and Organisational Psychology:
This field focuses on ways to match employees to
jobs, to train and motivate workers and to promote
job satisfaction and good relationships among
workers.
5. Health Psychology: Specialists in this field
focus on the ways in which pressures, conflicts,
hardships and other factors contribute to poor
health. They seek to prevent health problems such
as heart disease by teaching people to relax,
exercise, control diets and stop high-risk
behaviors , such as smoking.

APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY
1. Human beings are biological creatures: We
often take our biological nature so much for
granted that we do not realize how much it
influences our behavior. We experience emotional
highs and lows because of the way part of the
nervous system is constructed. Even though biology
determines our behavior, the limit it places on us
are elastic meaning that we can stretch them e.g.
muscle strengthening.

APPLICATIONS OF PSYCHOLOGY
2. Every person is different yet very much the
same: Every human being is truly unique. With the
exception of identical twins each persons heredity is
unique and each person's experiences are different
from anyone elses.
3. People can be understood fully only in
context of their culture, ethnic identity and
gender identity: We are shaped by our experiences
with the other members of the culture. Our beliefs
about right and wrong, our food preferences, our
language, our religious beliefs and many other
facets of our lives comes from cultural experiences

APPLICATIONS CONT
4. Human lives are a continuous process of
change: From birth to death human beings are
changing, we grow from helpless infants through
the adult work and rearing children to old age.
Unless the process is disturbed all children grow
from infancy to old age, other aspects of change
come from experiences in life e.g. making a new
friend.

APPLICATIONS CONT.
5. Behavior is motivated: Human behavior is not
aimless rather most of our actions can be viewed as
attempts to meet our needs. We work to earn
money for food shelter and clothing. We study hard
to aim towards a better job after graduation by
earning a good CGPA.
6. However not all our motives are simple and
selfish. Some spend long hours tutoring the
children with physical challenges to see the joy of
accomplishments. Others are motivated to express
in paintings, writing etc.

APPLICATIONS CONT.
7. Humans are social animals: Like hives of bees
and flock of geese people gather in social groups,
the progress of modern civilization and indeed the
very survival of human species has been possible
only because people work together in groups for the
mutual benefit of all. From hunting large animals
to operating in an assembly line social groups are
able to accomplish things that individuals cannot.

APPLICATIONS CONT
8. People play an active part in creating their
experiences: Aristotle compared the mind of an
infant to a blank clay tablet on which experiences
leave their mark . In his view we passively let the
experiences teach us about the world and become
the person they lead us to become. This idea has
been rejected by many contemporary psychologists
have rejected it seems to us today that people have
a more active role in creating their experiences.
Some people regularly choose relaxed low pressuresimulations others get themselves into exciting
circumstances

APPLICATIONS CONT.
9. Behaviors can be adaptive or maladaptive:
Humans have an amazing ability to adapt to the
demands of life we are flexible, capable creatures
who generally use our wits to adjust to whatever
life dishes out in the way of challenges. However
sometimes we deal with situations in life that are
harmful to us or others for e.g some are too
aggressive or too timid whereas some use clinging
dependency to get their ways these maladaptive
ways of living can result from a combination of
biological influences such as excessive stress or
improper ways of learning.

Research Methods in
Psychological Research
Scientific

study of Behaviour
Survey Method
Naturalistic Observation
Case Studies
Experimental Method

RESEARCH METHODS IN
PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

1.
2.
3.
4.

Research is critical thinking in action

The psychological scientists ask:
What is the evidence?
How good is the evidence?
What are the alternative explanations for the
evidence?
What needs to be learned next?

SCIENTIFIC STUDY OF BEHAVIOUR

The basis of scientific method and all the sciences

is making observations in a systematic way
following strict rules of evidence and thinking
critically about the evidence.

DESCRIPTIVE STUDIES

1.
2.
3.

This is the simplest method of scientific

inquiry
These involve studying people as they
live their lives
The three descriptive methods that are
widely used in psychology today are the
Survey method
Naturalistic observation
Case Studies

SURVEY METHOD
It is one of the most direct ways to obtain
information that allows us to describe human
behaviour or mental processes is simply to ask
people questions
Surveys are most widely used today by
psychologists who want to describe peoples
opinions about television programmes, soft
drinks, and similar subjects.

SURVEYS

1.
2.
3.

ADVANTAGE: The primary advantage of

surveys is that you can get a relatively great
deal of information in a relatively short time.
DISADVANTAGES: The main disadvantage
is that the results of the surveys can be
influenced by atleast three factors.
The sample of people who are surveyed can
influence the results
Dishonesty in the answers given e.g. on
sensitive issues such as sex or drugs
Subtle factors e.g. feminists views adopted if
interviewer is a woman

NATURALISTIC OBSERVATION
Basically defined as the careful observation and
recording of real life settings
Also used to study human behaviour.
German scientist Eibesfeldt used naturalistic
observation to find out if the gestures that we use
to greet people differ in different cultures. He
found that smiling nodding the head and briefly
raising the eyebrows are universal greeting
behaviours across many cultures.
Naturalistic observation is also method of
studying such topics as the play and friendship
patterns of young children and leadership tactics
of effective business managers.

CASE STUDIES
Case

Study is another methodology within

social sciences to conduct research. It
consists of longitudinal studies (over a
period of time) to examine, individuals,
groups or events by gathering data and
analysing that information and producing
results.
Consists of possible effects of media
violence on children and adolescents.

EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

A research method in which an investigator

manipulates one or more factors (independent
variables) to observe the effects on some
behaviour or mental processes (the dependent
variable). By random assignment of participants
the experimenter controls other relevant factors.

CONTD.
Placebo:

an inert substance or condition

that may be administered instead of a
presumed active agent, such as a drug, to
see if it triggers the effects believed to
characterize the active agent
Double blind procedure: an experimental
procedure in which both the research
participants and the research staff are
ignorant (blind) about whether the
research participants have received the
treatment or a placebo commonly used in
drug evaluation studies.

CONTD.
Placebo

effect: any effect on a behaviour

caused by a placebo
Experimental condition: the condition of
an experiment that exposes participants
to the treatment, that is, to one version of
the independent variable
Random assignment: assigning
participants to experimental and control
condition by chance, thus minimizing the
pre-existing differences between those
assigned to the different groups

CONTD.
Independent

variable: the experimental

factor that is manipulated; the variable
whose effect is being studied

Dependant

variable: the experimental

factor-in psychology, the behaviour or
mental process-that is being measured;
the variable that may change in response
to manipulations in the independent
variable