INTRODUCTION

TO
PSYCHOLOGY

B r i e f H i s t o r y o f P s y c h o l o g y

LECTURER: HAFSAH AZIZ

 WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?

• Psychology comes from the root psyche, which

means “Mind”, & logos, meaning “Knowledge
or Study”.
• It touches us in many ways. It is about memory,
stress, therapy, perception, learning and so on.
• It is both a science & profession.
However, when did you last see or “touch” a
“mind”?
 CONT…
• Because the mind can’t be studied directly,
Psychology is defined as the scientific study
of behavior & mental processes.
• What does behavior refer to in the definition of
psychology? (Anything you do- eating,
sleeping, talking, or sneezing- is a behavior).
• So are dreaming, gambling, watching T.V,
learning German, & reading these slides.
 Overt
(Observable
Actions &
responses)

Behavior
s

Covert (Hidden,
Internal events)
 SEEKING EMPIRICAL EVIDENCE

• At various times in the last 100 years, experts have stated

that, “Radio has no future”, “Computers will never serve any
practical purpose”. Obviously all of these ideas proved to be
wrong.

• Self-appointed “authorities”, are also often wrong by human

behavior. Because of this, Psychologists have a special
respect for empirical evidence (information gained from
direct observation).

• We study behavior directly & collect data (observed facts) so

that we can draw valid conclusions.
 PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH

• Many fields, such as history, arts, law, &

business, are interested in Human behavior.
How is Psychology different? Psychology's
great difference is that it uses scientific
observation (An empirical investigation that is
structured so that it answers questions about
the world) to answer questions about human
behavior.
 SCIENCE & CRITICAL THINKING

• Many People would believe that spanking

(punishment) is a good way to reinforce
learning in children. However, scientific studies
have shown that spanking is a poor way to
discipline young children.

• Critical thinking is the ability to evaluate,

analyze, compare, analyze, critique &
synthesize information.
• Critical thinkers analyze the evidence
supporting their beliefs, they question
assumptions & they look for alternative
conclusions.

• For e.g, with regard to spanking, a critical

thinker would ask, “Does punishment work”?
If so, when? Under what conditions does it
work? What are its drawbacks? Are there better
ways to guide learning?
 GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
1. Description (or naming & classification, is typically
based on making a detailed record of behavioral
observations).

2. Explanation/Understanding (Usually means we

can state the causes of a behavior).

3. Prediction (an ability to forecast behavior

accurately).

4. Control (Altering conditions that influence

behavior).
 DESCRIBING…
OBSERVATIONS ABOUT
BEHAVIOR
• Collecting behavioral data
• Level of analysis
• Objectivity
 PSYCHOLOGICAL
EXPLANATIONS FOR
BEHAVIOR
• Psychological explanations for behavior often recognize that
organismic and situational (or environmental) variables each
play a role in determining behavior.
1. Organismic variables operate within the individual, such
as genetic makeup, motivation, intelligence, and self-esteem.
2. Situational (or environmental) variables are external
events that influence behavior.
 PREDICTING BEHAVIOR

• Predicting Behavior involves statements about the

likelihood that a certain behavior will occur or that a given
relationship will be found.
What is the nature of this behavior?
(description)

Why does it occur? (Understanding &

explanation)

Can we forecast when it will occur?

(Prediction)

What conditions affect it? (control)

 IMPROVING QUALITY OF
LIFE…

• All therapeutic programs and interventions, such as

those designed to help individuals stop smoking, stop
doing drugs, or lose weight, are attempts to use
psychological principles to control behavior.
Psychological principles can be used not only to help
individuals live more successfully, but also to improve the
functioning of groups of people and societies.
PSYCHOLOGY
&
R E L AT E D
FIELDS
 Biology:
S.S. of life
processes
and
biological
structures
Anthropoloy :
Medicine: S.S. of culture
S.S. of origin,
health, evolution and
disease, variation
causes & Psychology: the
treatment scientific study
of behavior &
mental Process

Sociology: S.S.
Computer of human Social
Science: S.S. of Relations &
info processing System
and manipulation
of data
RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL
AREAS IN PSYCHOLOGY

Developmental
Psychology

Social Psychology

Experimental Psychology

Physiological Psychology

Cognitive Psychology
 RESEARCH AND PROFESSIONAL
AREAS IN PSYCHOLOGY
Developmental: Looks at human development across the life
span. Developmental psychology once focused primarily on
child development but today devotes a great deal of research to
adolescence, adulthood, and old age.

Social: Focuses on interpersonal behavior and the role of social

forces in governing behavior. Typical topics include attitude
formation, attitude change, prejudice, conformity, attraction,
aggression, intimate relationships, and behavior in groups.

Experimental: Encompasses the traditional core of topics such

as sensation, perception, learning, conditioning, motivation and
emotion.

Physiological: Examines the influence of genetic factors on

behavior and the role of the brain, nervous system, endocrine
system, and bodily chemicals in the regulation of behavior.
 CONT…
Cognitive: Focuses on “higher” mental processes such as memory,
reasoning, information processing, language, problem solving, decision
making, and creativity.

Personality: Interested in describing and understanding individuals’

consistency in behavior, which represents their personality. This area is
interested in factors that shape personality and with personality
assessment.

Clinical: Concerned with evaluation, diagnosis, and treatment of

individuals with psychological disorders, as well as treatment of
individuals with psychological disorders, as well as treatment of less
severe behavioral and emotional problems. Principal activities include
interviewing clients, psychological testing, and providing group and
individual psychotherapy.
 CONT…
Counseling: Overlaps with clinical psychology in that specialists in both
areas engage in similar activities – interviewing, testing, and providing
therapy. Counseling psychologists usually work with a somewhat
different clientele, providing assistance to people struggling with everyday
problems of moderate severity – they specialize in family, marital, or
career counseling.

Educational: Work to improve curriculum design, achievement testing,

teacher training, and other aspects of the educational process. School
psychologists usually work in elementary or secondary schools, where
they test and counsel children having difficulties in school and aid parents
and teachers in solving school-related problems.

I/O: Perform a wide variety of tasks in the world of business and

industry. These tasks include running human resources departments,
working to improve staff morale and attitudes, striving to increase job
satisfaction and productivity, examining organizational structures and
procedures, and making recommendations for improvements.
 APPLICATIONS OF
PSYCHOLOGY IN EVERYDAY
LIFE

• The building of relationships: Psychology makes

it easier to live with others by understanding them
more and working with their behavior.

• Improving communication: A greater

understanding of how humans think and behave
will help people communicate better. They will be
more effective in understanding what a person
really means by gestures and actions.
CONT..
• Building self-confidence: By understanding more
about yourself and your personality, you can gain
more self-confidence. You will learn more about
your weaknesses and can build on them.

• Enriching careers: You will be able to

understand your coworkers more and stand a
better chance of building friendships. It helps to
deal with their actions to enrich your career.
 CONT…

• Clinical psychologists: Central to its practice are psychological assessment

and psychotherapy, although clinical psychologists may also engage in
research, teaching, consultation, forensic testimony, and program
development and administration. Some clinical psychologists may focus on
the clinical management of patients with brain injury—this area is known as
clinical neuropsychology.
CONT…

• In Pakistan a Developmental psychologists can work in a variety of

settings, including academia, government agencies, health care
facilities and schools. Those working in colleges and universities tend
to focus primarily on research or teaching. Others working in applied
settings, such as health care facilities or clinics, help to assess,
evaluate and treat people living with developmental disabilities.
Developmental psychologists may also work in assisted living homes
for the elderly, hospitals, mental health clinics and centers for the
homeless.
CONT…

• Educational psychology applies scientific evidence from the

fields of psychology and education as a means to promote
optimal learning, teaching, and motivation across contexts.
Educational Psychologists develop instructional materials,
modify teaching strategies, and design learning environments
with the goal of enhancing performance.
CONT…
• Organizational Psychology is a field of psychology that
applies the fundamental scientific principles of psychology
to the workplace environment to make work more fun and
more productive. OR Industrial and organizational
psychology, or I-O psychology, focuses on the psychology of
the workforce, customer, and consumer, including issues
such as the psychology of recruitment, selecting employees
from an applicant pool, training, performance appraisal, job
satisfaction, work motivation. Work behavior, stress at work
and management. In short, I-O psychology is the application
of psychology to the workplace. A core aspect of this field is
job analysis, the detailed study of which behaviors a given
job entails.
 CONT…
• The students in Pakistan are very much confused and are unsure
regarding the field in which they should start their career and that is
one major situation in which we need the career counselor who can
guide the students that which field or which specific area is more
suitable for them and in which they can get more success as per the
situation of the state and the skills and abilities of the individuals.
The scope of the career counselor is very much bright and charming
in Pakistan, and wither working privately or even by working with
the collaboration with any educational institute is worthy of doing.
 A BRIEF HISTORY OF
PSYCHOLOGY

• Psychology began long ago as a part of

Philosophy, The study of Knowledge,
reality & Human Nature.

• In contrast, Psychology’s brief history as a

science dates back only about 120 years.
 INTO THE LAB

• 1879 at Leipzig, Germany

• Father of Psychology “ Wilhelm Wundt set up a Laboratory

to study conscious experience

• Wundt's observed & measured stimuli of various kinds (lights,

sounds, weights)

• A stimulus is any physical energy that evokes a sensory

response

• Wundt then used introspection (Looking “inward”, “within”,

to examine ones own thoughts, feelings or sensations.
• (If you stop reading right now & carefully
examine your thoughts, feelings & sensations,
you will have done some introspecting)

• Wundt called his approach experimental self

observation because he used both trained
introspection & objective measurement.
• There were many limitations to Wundt's method.
 STRUCTURALISM
• Wundt’s ideas were carried to the US by Edward B.
Titchener.

• Titchener called Wundt’s ideas structuralism because

he dealth with structure of mental life.

• Essentially, structuralists hoped to analyze experience

into basic “elements” or “building blocks”.
• They analyze experience by using introspection.
•Introspection proved to be a poor way to
answer many questions.

•Despite such limitations, “looking inward” is

still used in studies of problem solving,
hypnosis, meditation, moods and many other
topics.
 FUNCTIONALISM
• William James, an American scholar, broadened
psychology to improve animal behavior, religious
experience, abnormal behavior, & other interesting
topics.

• James’s brilliant first book, Principles of Psychology

(1890) helped established the field as a serious
discipline.

• The term functionalism comes from an interest in how

the mind functions to help us survive and adapt.
• It concerned on what mind does- the functions of mental
activity- & the role of behavior in allowing people to adapt to
their environments.

• The functionalists admired Charles Darwin, who deduced that

creatures evolve in ways that favor survival.

• According to Darwin’s principle of Natural Selection, physical

features that help animals adapt to their environments are
retained in evolution.

• Similarly, the functionalists wanted to find out how the mind,

perception, habits, & emotions help us adapt & survive.
•Functionalism brought the study of animals into
psychology.

•It also promoted educational psychology.

•Learning make us more adaptable, so the

functionalists tried to find ways to improve
education.

•For similar reasons, functionalism gave rise to

industrial psychology, the study of people at work.
 BEHAVIORISM

• Functionalism, was soon challenged by behaviorism, the study

of observable behavior.

• Behaviorist J. B.Watson objected strongly to the study of mind

or conscious experience.

• Introspection, he said, is unscientific.

• Watson, realized that he could study the behavior of animals

even though he couldn’t ask them questions or know what they
are thinking.
• He simply observed the relationship between stimuli
(events in the environment) & an animals responses
(any muscular action, glandular action or other
identifiable behavior).

• Watson soon adopted Russian physiologist Ivan

Pavlov’s concept of conditioning to explain most
behavior.

• Behaviorism helped make Psychology a natural science,

rather than a branch of philosophy.
CONT…

• In fact, Watson believed that it was possible to elicit any desired

type of behavior by controlling a person’s environment. This
philosophy is clear in his own words:
• “Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own
specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any
one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I
might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and yes, even
beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants,
tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors” (Watson,
1924).
 GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY
• The German word Gestalt means “form, pattern or whole”.

• Gestalt Psychologists studied thinking, learning, perception in whole

units, not by analyzing experiences into parts.

• Their slogan was, “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts”.

• Max Wertheimer, a German Psychologist, was the first person to advance

the Gestalt viewpoint.

• Studies of Perception & personality have been especially influenced by

Gestalt viewpoint.
 PSYCHOANALYTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• Freud believed that mental life is like an iceberg: only a small part is
exposed to view.

• He called the area of mind that lie outside of personal awareness the
unconscious.

• According to Freud, our behavior is deeply influenced by unconscious

thoughts, impulses, & desires.
• Freud theorized that many unconscious thoughts are threatening;
hence, they are repressed (held out of awareness).
• But, sometimes, he said, they are revealed by dreams, emotions, or
slips of the tongue.
 PSYCHOANALYTIC
PERSPECTIVE
• Founder: Sigmund Freud
• States that the mind is divided into 3 parts:
• The conscious – the part of which we are aware of
• The Preconscious- the part which stores thoughts which
could be brought in the consciousness fairly easily
• The unconscious – the part of which we are not aware of
• Freud is known for creating psychoanalysis, the first “talking therapy”.
• Freudian Psychotherapy explores unconscious conflicts and emotional
problems.

• Several who modified Freud’s ideas became known as neo-Freudians

(neo-new or recent).
• They accept much of Freud's theory but revise parts of it.
• Many, for instance, place less emphasis on sex & aggression & more
on social motives & relationships.
• Some well-known neo Freudians are Alfred Adler, Anna freud, Karen
Horney, Carl Jung, Otto rank & Eric Erickson.

• Today, Freuds legacy is evident in various Psychodynamic theories,

which emphasize internal motives, conflicts & unconscious forces.
 HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY

• It is of view that focuses on subjective human experience.

• Humanistic Psychologists are interested in human problems,
potentials and ideas.

• Carl Rogers, Abraham Maslow and other humanists rejected the

Freudian ideas that we are ruled by unconscious forces. They were
also uncomfortable with behaviorist emphasis on conditioning.

• Humanists help stimulate interest in psychological needs for love,

self-esteem, belonging, self-expression, creativity & spirituality .
• They stressed subjective factors such as ones self-image (is
your perception of your own body, personality & capabilities),
self-evaluation (appraising yourself as good or bad), & frame
of reference (mental perspective used to represent events.

• Maslows concept of self actualization (fully developing ones

potential & becoming the best person possible) is a special
feature of humanism.

• According to humanists, everyone has this potential.

• Humanists seeks ways to help it emerge.
CONT…
• The approach that suggests that all individuals naturally strive
to grow, develop, and be in control of their lives and behavior.

• According to Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow, who were

central figures in the development of the humanistic
perspective, people strive to reach their full potential if they
are given the opportunity.

• The emphasis of the humanistic perspective is on free will ,

the ability to freely make decisions about one’s own behavior
and life.
 THE NEUROSCIENCE
PERSPECTIVE
• The neuroscience perspective considers how people and
nonhumans function biologically: how individual nerve
cells are joined together, how the inheritance of certain
characteristics from parents and other ancestors
influences behavior.

• The approach that views behavior from the perspective

of the brain, the nervous system, and other biological
functions.
 PSYCHOLOGY TODAY-FIVE VIEWS
OF BEHAVIOR

• Today, many psychologists are eclectic: They draw from a

variety of perspectives.
• Even so, five major views shape modern Psychology:
These are Psychodynamic, behavioristic & humanistic
views, Plus modern cognitive & bio psychological
perspectives.
• Bio Psychologists tend to explain all behavior in terms of
physical mechanism, such as brain activity & genetics.
• Cognitive Psychologists study thoughts, language,
perception, problem solving & other mental processes.
• Cognitive Neuroscience is an attempt to discover connections
between mental events & activity in the brain. For instance, we
would like to know what happens in the brain when you think,
remember, feel happy or pay attention.

• Positive Psychology is the study of human strengths, virtues &

optimal behavior.
 THE ROLE OF WOMEN IN PSYCHOLOGY’S
EARLY DAYS
• Women were actively discouraged from seeking
advanced degrees in the late 1800s.
• Nevertheless, women have contributed to
Psychology from the beginning.

• By 1906 in America, about 1 psychologist in every

10 was women. Who were these “foremothers” of
psychology?
• Three who became well known are Mary Calkins,
Christine Ladd-Franklin, & Margaret Washburn.
• Mary Calkins did valuable research on memory. She was also
the first women president of APA, in 1905.

• Christine Ladd-Franklin studied color vision. In 1906 she was

ranked among the 50 most important psychologists in America.

• In 1908 Margaret Washburn published an influential textbook

on animal behavior, titled The Animal Mind. She was the first
women who awarded a PHD in psychology in 1894.

• Over next 15 years many women followed her pioneering lead.