Today's learning output would be:

Define psychology and know its goals

Describe various fields in psychology
Describe the origins of psychology and identify
those who made significant contributions to the field
Identify theoretical perspectives of modern
psychologists toward behavior and mental
processes

What is Psychology?

Psychology
is the scientific study of human behavior and
mental processes

goals of psychology
Description tells what occurred
explanation tells why a given event or behavior occurred
prediction happens when researchers can specify the conditions
under which a behavior or event is likely to occur

influence happens when researchers know how to apply a

principle or change a condition in order to prevent unwanted

occurrences

psychology describes, explains, influences, & predicts behavior

and mental processes

What Psychologist do?

Research
Pure research- research conducted
without concern for immediate
applications
Applied research - conducted in an effort
to find solutions to particular problems
Practice
Teaching

Fields of Psychology

Clinical

Experimental

Counseling

Industrial

School

(organizational,

Educational

human factor,

Developmental
Personality

consumer)
Health

Social

Sport

Environmental

Forensic

Where did psychology

came from?

Democritus
Aristotle - wrote Peri Psyches
Socrates
Introspection-research method

first suggested by Socrates which

up to know remained as the motto

of psychology "know thyself"

Gustav Theodor Fecher -Elements of

Psychophysics (1860)

Wilhem Wundt - father of Psychology

established the first laboratory for
psychology

Schools of thought
Classical

Structuralism
Wilhem Wundt
Structuralism breaks conscious experiences into
Objective sensations (sight, taste),&
Subjective feelings (emotional responses, will)
Mental images (memories, dreams)
Mind functions by combining objective and subjective
elements of experiences

Functionalism - William James

Behaviorism - John B. Watson

Functionalism, concerned not with structure of

consciousness, but with how mental processes
function, that is how humans and animals use
mental processes in adapting to their environment
Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882) NATURAL
SELECTION. ideas about evolution and continuity
of species
Francis Galton (1822 - 1911) ARTIFICIAL
SELECTION.
William James (1842 - 1910) taught that mental
processes are fluid and have continuity rather than
the rigid, or fixed, structure.

contributions of functionalism
broadened the scope of psychology to include
the study of behavior as well as mental processes
allowed the study of children, animals, and the
mentally impaired groups that could not be
studied by structuralist
focused on applied, more practical use of
psychology by studying the educational practices,
individual differences & adaptation in work place

How today's Psychologists View

Behavior and Mental Processes

Major Perspectives of Psychology

Behaviorism
John B. Watson (1878 - 1958) redefined psychology as
the science of behavior. it confines itself to the study of
behavior because behavior is observable, measurable,
therefore, objective and scientific
emphasis:
the role of environment in shaping and controlling
behavior
the observable, measurable behavior are the
appropriate subject matter for psychology

Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud (1856 - 1939)
Psychoanalysis Theory maintains that the
unconscious is the primary focus which
determines thoughts, feelings, and behavior
based his data from case studies of his patients

the iceberg metaphor of the human psyche

Cognitive Psychology
sees humans not as passive recipients who are
manipulated by environmental forces, but as
active participants who seek out experiences,
alter and shape those experiences, and use
mental processes to transform information in
the course of their own cognitive development
the role of mental processes - perception,
thinking, and memory underlie behavior

Evolutionary Psychology
Leda Cosmides & John Tooby
focuses on how human behaviors required for
survival have adapted in the face of
environmental pressures over the long course
of evolution
The roles of inherited tendencies that have
proven adaptive in humans

Biological (Physiological) Psychology

determines links between specific behaviors and
particular biological factors that often help explain
individual differences (study of the structure of the
brain and the central nervous system, the functioning of
neurons, heredity, etc)
belongs to the interdisciplinary field known as
neuroscience which combines the work of
psychologists, biologists, biochemists, medical
researchers, and others in the study of the structure and
function of the nervous system

Humanistic - Existential Perspective

Stresses human capacity for selffulfillment

Existentialism stresses free choice and

personal responsibility

Psychodynamic Perspective

Focus on conscious choice and selfdirection then psychoanalysis

Perspective on Learning
Social Cognitive
People modify and create their

environment

Observation

Socio-cultural Perspective
Focuses on the influence of differences
among people on behavior and mental
processes

Ethnicity, gender, culture,

socioeconomic status

How Psychologists study Behavior

and Mental Processes

critical thinking
independent thinking
suspension of judgment
willingness to modify or abandon prior
judgement

hindsight bias: (I-knew-it-all-along phenomenon)

is the tendency to perceive an outcome that has
occurred as being obvious and predictable
overconfidence
intuition

hindsight bias and overconfidence often lead us to

overestimate our intuition. but scientific inquiry, fed
by curious skepticism and by humility, can help us
sift reality from illusions

how to think like a scientist?

apply critical thinking which is the

foundation of the scientific method, it is

the process of objectively evaluating

claims, propositions and conclusions to

determine whether they follow logically
the evidence presented

method

description

DESCRIPTIVE

observation and

METHODS

Naturalistic and

laboratory method

Case study

recording of behavior in

its natural setting or in a

laboratory

in-depth study of one or a

behavior studied in every setting is researchers' expectation can

more natural. a laboratory allows

precise measurement of variables.

can provide basis for hypothesis
to be tested

source of information for

natural setting researcher

has little or no control over

conditions

may not be generalizable.

and/or psychological

basis for hypothesis to be

interviews and/or

can provide accurate

responses maybe inaccurate.

number of people. can track

representatvie.

observation, interview,

questionnaires used to gather

information about attitudes,
beliefs, experiences, or
Random assignment of

participants to groups.

manipulation of the independent

or events. can provide

tested later

information about large

changes in attitudes and

behavior over time

enables identification
of cause-effect

METHOD

variables an and measurement of

the effect on the dependent

relationships

correlational

method used to determine

can assess strength of

method

distort observations. in

rare or unusual conditions

behaviors of a group of people

EXPERIMENTAL

limitation

few individuals using

testing

Survey

advantage

variable

the relationship

(correlation) between to

events, characteristics, or
behavior

relationship between
variables. provide
basis for prediction

time-consuming. subject
to misinterpretation by
researcher
sample may nt be

characteristics of interviewer
may influence responses

laboratory setting may inhibit

natural behavior of participants.

findings may not be generalizable

to the real world. in some cases,
experimaent is unentichal or
impossible

does not
demonstrate cause
and effect

assignment
because psychology is a science, should it be free of value
judgement? explain your answer

aren't psychology theories mere common sense? explain your answer

is it ethical to experiment on people and animals? why and why not?
how is Psychology relevant to your course?
which of the psychological research methods discussed would be
applicable to research in your respective field of study. give

examples of topics in their course that may be studied using these

research