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The document discusses the emergence and key issues of modern psychology, including its scientific methods and research techniques. It highlights the importance of various psychological perspectives and the role of biology in understanding human behavior, particularly through the study of neurons and the nervous system. Ethical considerations in psychological research, such as informed consent and the use of deception, are also addressed.

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hardikgay34
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2 views

ss1-2-3

The document discusses the emergence and key issues of modern psychology, including its scientific methods and research techniques. It highlights the importance of various psychological perspectives and the role of biology in understanding human behavior, particularly through the study of neurons and the nervous system. Ethical considerations in psychological research, such as informed consent and the use of deception, are also addressed.

Uploaded by

hardikgay34
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

PSYCHOLOGY
A SCIENCE AND A
PERSPECTIVE
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY: WHAT IT IS AND
HOW IT ORIGINATED?
EMERGENCE OF MODERN
PSYCHOLOGY
▪Contributory Disciplines to Psychology
▪Philosophy: Rationalism and empiricism
▪Natural science: Human behavior could be studied
through scientific means.

▪Structuralism, functionalism, and behaviorism, three


early schools suggested, respectively, that psychology
should study the structure of consciousness, the
functions of consciousness, or observable behavior.
EMERGENCE OF MODERN
PSYCHOLOGY
▪Challenges to these schools
▪Emergence of modern psychology

▪Psychology is the science of behavior and cognitive


processes.
PSYCHOLOGY: ITS GRAND ISSUES

▪The three “grand issues” about behavior addressed by psychology


▪Stability versus change,
▪Nature versus nurture
▪Rationality versus irrationality.

▪NewTrends
▪The multi-cultural perspective
▪The “exportation of psychology”
PSYCHOLOGY: KEY PERSPECTIVES
SUB-DISCIPLINES OF PSYCHOLOGY
PSYCHOLOGY AND THE SCIENTIFIC
METHOD

▪ Psychology can be viewed as a branch of science because psychologists adopt the scientific method.
▪ Induction
▪ Deduction
▪ Falsifiability
▪ Assumptions in Positivism: Empiricism, Determinism, Parsimony
▪ Scientific findings should be cumulative, verifiable, public,
▪ Values central to the scientific method include accuracy, objectivity, skepticism, and open-mindedness.
▪ Theories organize existing knowledge and make predictions that can be tested in research. They help scientists
attain explanations of natural phenomena–understanding of why certain events or processes occur as they do.
▪ Common sense often suggests inconsistent and contradictory conclusion about behavior, and it is influenced by several
important forms of bias.
RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY: HOW
PSYCHOLOGISTS ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT
BEHAVIOR
▪ Naturalistic observation involves carefully observing behavior in the
setting where it normally occurs.
▪ Correlational Method is a basic method in which researchers carefully
observe two or more variable to see if changes in one are related to
changes in the other. Psychologists use it to make predictions about one
variable from observations of another variable.
▪ Even strong correlations don’t necessarily indicate causality because
changes in both variables may stem from the influence of some other
variable.
▪ In experimentation, researches produce systematic changes in one
variable (the independent variable) in order to observe whether these
changes affect another variable (the dependent variable).
RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY: HOW
PSYCHOLOGISTS ANSWER QUESTIONS ABOUT
BEHAVIOR
▪ Randomization: Because if participants are not randomly
assigned to each condition, it may later be impossible to tell
whether differences in their behavior stem from differences
they brought with them to the study, from the impact of the
independent variable, or both.
▪ Confounding occurs when one or more variables other than
the independent variable are permitted to vary during an
experiment.
▪ Experimenter effects are unintentional effects on research
participants’ behavior produced by researchers. Such effects
can be prevented by double-blind procedures, in which
experimenters who have contact with research participants
do not know the hypothesis or the condition to which
participants have been randomly assigned.
ETHICS IN RESEARCH METHODS IN PSYCHOLOGY

▪ Deception? Informed consent? Debriefing: Deception is the


temporary withholding of information about a study from research
participants. Obtaining informed consent involves informing
participants about all procedures to be used in a study before they
agree to participate in it. Debriefing involves providing participants
with full explanation of all aspects of a study after they participate
in it.
▪ Critics of such research suggest that it is unethical to expose
animals to treatments or conditions that can potentially harm them.
2.

BIOLOGY
AND HUMAN
BEHAVIOR
CHAPTER OUTLINE

▪Neurons: Building Blocks of the Nervous System


▪The Nervous System: Its Basic Structure and Functions
▪The Brain: Where Consciousness……….Is
▪The Brain and Human Behavior: Where Biology and
Consciousness Meet
▪Heredity and Behavior: Genetics and Evolutionary Psychology
▪Culture and Behavior
NEURONS: BUILDING BLOCKS OF THE NERVOUS
SYSTEM

▪ Neurons are cells specialized for receiving, processing, and moving information. They are made up of a cell body, an axon, and one
or more dendrites.
▪ Action potentials are rapid changes in the electrical properties of the cell membranes of neurons. They constitute a mechanism by
which information travels through the nervous system. Graded potentials occur within a neuron in response to a physical stimulus
or stimulation by another neuron; they weaken quickly, and their strength is directly proportional to the intensity of the physical
stimulus that produced them. Neurons communicate that by means of neurotransmitters across the tiny gaps (synapses) that
separate them.
▪ Neurotransmitters produce one of two effects: Excitatory effects make it more likely that a nerve cell will fire; inhibitory effects
make it less likely that the cell will fire.
▪ Many drugs produce their effects by influencing synaptic transmission. Agonists are drugs that mimic the impact of
neurotransmitters at specific receptors; drugs that inhibit their impact are termed antagonists.
STRUCTURE AND FUNCTION OF A
NEURON

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