Introduction to Psychology

Meaning & Historical Background Of

Psychology
• The word psychology is derived from Greek
word psycho & logos. ‘Psycho’ means “soul”
and ‘logos’ means “science”. The science of
soul.
• First Stage: Psychology was defined as the
“study of the soul”
• Second Stage: It was again defined as the
“study of the mind”
 Conti…
• Third Stage: Again it was defined by William James
(1890) as the “Study of Consciousness”
• Fourth Stage: “Study of total Behaviour”
(consciousness and unconsciousness).
• It is scientific because it is systematic study of
observable events/behavior and behavior is unlearned
process where in include reflexes, physiological
process and instincts and it is learned behavior also
because all behavior acquire through practice.
• Today Psychology is scientific method of collecting
data about individual and groups to analyze and
predict their behavior.
 Definitions
• “Psychology is the scientific study of the
activities of the individual in relation to his
environment”
by: Woodworth & Marquis

“Psychology today concerns itself with the

scientific investigation of behaviour”
by: N.L. Munn
 Psychology

Pure Psychology Applied Psychology

Clinical
Crime
Legal
Military Plant
Industrial Animal
Educational
 BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY
Basic branch Applied branches
• General psychology • Educational Psychology
• Abnormal psychology • Clinical psychology
• Developmental Psychology • Industrial psychology
• Experimental Psychology • Forensic Psychology
• Social Psychology • Health Psychology
• Personality Psychology
• Abnormal Psychology:
*study unusual pattern of behavior.

 General Psychology:
*study human development, emotions,
motivation, learning, perception, thinking, memory,
intelligence and processing.

 Behavioral Psychology:
*study the behaviors of living organisms.
 Biological Psychology:
Behavioral neuroscience, also known
as biological psychology, biopsychology, or
psychobiology is the application of the principles
of biology (in particular neurobiology), to the
study of physiological, genetic, and
developmental mechanisms of behavior in
humans and non-human animals.

 Cognitive Psychology:
Cognitive psychology is the study of
mental processes such as "attention, language
use, memory, perception, problem solving,
creativity, and thinking."
• Comparative Psychology:
Comparative psychology refers to the
scientific study of the behavior and mental
processes of non-human animals, especially as
these relate to the phylogenetic history, adaptive
significance, and development of behavior.

 Cross- Cultural Psychology:

Cross-cultural psychology is the
scientific study of human behavior and mental
processes, including both their variability and
invariance, under diverse cultural conditions.
• Developmental Psychology:
Developmental psychology is the
scientific study of changes that occur in human
beings over the course of their life span.

 Educational Psychology:
Educational psychology is the branch
of psychology concerned with the scientific study
of human learning.

 Experimental Psychology:
The branch of psychology concerned
with the scientific investigation of the responses
of individuals to stimuli in controlled situations.
• Forensic Psychology:
Forensic psychology is the intersection
between psychology and the justice system.

Health Psychology:
Health psychology is the study
of psychological and behavioral processes
in health, illness, and healthcare.
 Personality Psychology:
Personality psychology is a branch
of psychology that studies personality and individual
differences.
Its areas of focus include: Constructing a
coherent picture of a person and his or her major
psychological processes.
Investigating individual differences, that is, how
people can differ from one another.

 Social Psychology:
The branch of psychology that deals with social
interactions, including their origins and their effects on the
individual.
 PSYCHOLOGY - METHODS

• Introspection Method
• Observation Method
• Anecdotal Method
• Experimental Method
• Case Study Method
• Questionnaire Method
• Introspection Method:
examination of one's own conscious
thoughts and feelings. In psychology the process
of introspection relies exclusively on observation
of one's mental state, while in a spiritual context
it may refer to the examination of one's soul.

 Observation Method:
the observation and description of a
subject's behavior. Researchers utilizing
the observational method can exert varying
amounts of control over the environment in
which the observation takes place.
• Anecdotal Method:
Method based on personal
recollections of a case, as opposed to specific,
empirically derived investigation. Can provide
ideas to fuel further research.

 Experimental Method:
The experimental method involves
manipulating one variable to determine if
changes in one variable cause changes in another
variable.
This method relies on controlled
methods, random assignment and the
manipulation of variables to test a hypothesis.
• Case study method:
In order to prepare a case history
of data are taken from many sources for
example his or her family history, educational
life, medical history and social life.
This method is very popular in clinical
psychology and life span developmental
psychology.
 Questionnaire Method:
• A questionnaire consists of a set of questions to
which the individual is required to respond.

• The items (questions) of the questionnaire can be

either in closed-ended form or in open-ended
form.

• In the case of closed-ended item the individual is

provided with limited alternative and he or she
has to choose only one alternative which reflects
his or her view on the item.
• In open-ended items the individual is free to give
his or her response the way he or she likes.
 Structuralism

Functionalism
Existential School

SCHOOLS OF PSYCHOLOGY

Humanistic School Behaviorism

Sigmund Freud’s
Gestalt School school of
Psychoanalysis
• 1. STRUCTURALISM: This school of psychology
was started by wundt. The goal of structuralism
was to find the elements which make up the
mind. The main method used by them to discover
the elementary units of mind as introspection.

• 2.FUNCTIONALISM: The functioning of mental

process and how the mind works was seen as the
subject matter of psychology observations of
actual behaviour was used to supplement data
gathered from introspection.
 3.BEHAVIORISM:
• This school is proposed by J.B Watson. It is
rooted in Thorndike’s theory of trial and error
learning which stress that behaviours formed
through association between stimulus and
response that are stamped into the behaviours of
the organism through the 3 basic laws of
frequency, recurancy, and law of effect.
• Later Pavlov postulated that through associate a
previous neural stimulus could be condition to
elicit a response. Classical conditioning stands as
one of the most important paradigm of learning.
 Conti…
• Skinner’s theory of instrumental or operant
conditioning stresses that the rate of an organism
responses(increase or decreases) is directly
influenced by the subsequence delivery of a re-
enforcer or a punisher.
• The behaviour according to behaviourists
whether adaptive or in adaptive is learned and
psychology should concern itself only that which
objectively observable and measurable.
 4.SIGMUND FREUD’S SCHOOL OF
PSYCHOANALYSIS:
• Sigmund Freud would has been great Hollywood
screenwriter. His stories of personalities is one of
desire, power, control and freedom. Our personality
represent a drama of sort, acted out in our mind. The
ancient Greek thought that all peoples were actor in
the drama of the god above. For Freud, we are simply
actors in the drama of our mind, pushes by desire,
pulled by conscience.
• According to Freud, there is conscious, sub-conscious
and unconscious levels in person and there are three
dimension of a personality which call id, ego and
super-ego .
 5.GESTALT SCHOOOL:
• Wertheimer, Kohler and Kafka were the proponents of
this school. This group made their greatest
contribution and perception and learning theory from
which cognitive theory was eventually evolved.
• The formation of Gestalt as configuration is arrested by
innate tendencies of organism, its perceptual
experience on the basis of similarity continuity and
closure.
• The Gestalts state that the mind should be thought of
as a result from the whole bottom at sensory activities
and the relationship within this pattern,. They
maintained or mentioned that of mind is not made up
of a combination of simple elements..
 6.HUMNISTIC SCHOOL:
• Karl Roger is the proponent of this school. They believe
that man is essentially good and rational with I-me-
myself as the centre of experience. The most important
striving is self – actualization . People react to way,
consistent to their perceptions of world.
• Perceived that threats is followed by defense, rigidity,
narrowing at perception and defense mechanisms.
• The therapist must view the client as an individual with
the capacity of self-direction and be able to express a
sense of positive unconditional regards.
 7.EXISTENTIAL SCHOOL:
• The ultimate challenge to human existence is the
sense at personal identity and to build
meaningful links with the world.
• Modern man suffers from confusion and the
strain of blind conformity and striving for
increased self determination.
• Man is viewing as a choosing, free, and
responsible agent anxiety in many ways is
unavoidable however, the individual can be
neurotic or can comfort and challenged.
 The goals of psychology
• Describe
• Understand
• Predict
• Control & modify behavior and mental
process.