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Intro to Psychology
Ch. 1.1: Why study Psychology?
Ch. 1.2: A Brief History of Psychology
PSYCHOLOGISTS
• DO NOW: What are some assumptions,
traits, and functions of a Psychologist?
• A Psychologist is a person who _______?
PSYCHOLOGY’S ORIGIN
“Psychology” comes
from two Greek
words”
Psyche – mind or
soul
Logia – study or
investigation.
PSYCHOLOGY
• Psychology is the scientific study of
behavior and mental processes.
– involves both human and animal behavior.
• Psychological behaviors are tested
through scientific research
PSYCHOLOGY AND YOU
• READ ONLY: Your friend makes a simple comment
about your hair, clothes, or favorite hobby and you blow
up, getting violently angry. Why?
• Psychologists have determined that emotions occur as
the result of physical stimulation coupled with some
social or personal event.
• READ ONLY: Consider the following situation: You just
drank two cans of heavily caffeinated soda. Your heart
is beating hard, and your stomach is tense. Then your
friend makes a critical comment. When you hear them,
you get angry – but you get angrier than usual because
you body is already stimulated. On the other hand, if
you are very tired, you might not react to an emotional
event so violently.
• QUESTION: What other types of physical stimulation
can cause a strong emotional response?
How does your perspective of this painting change upon
closer examination of it?
GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Description, Explanation,
Prediction, & Influence
Description: describe or
gather information about
the behavior being
studied and present
what is known.
EXPLANATION
• After describing behavior, Psychologists then
seek to explain why people behave as they do
by offering hypotheses.
• HYPOTHESIS: an assumption, educated guess,
or prediction about behavior or phenomenon
that is tested through scientific research.
• As research on each hypothesis is completed,
more complex explanations called THEORIES
are constructed.
– A THEORY is a set of complex explanations based
on findings from a large number of experiments
PREDICTION
• The third goal of the
psychologist is to predict
what humans will do,
think, or feel in various
situations.
• By studying descriptive
and theoretical accounts
of past behaviors,
psychologists can
predict future behaviors.
• Finally, psychologists seek
to influence behavior in
helpful ways. They do this
in two very different ways.
• First, they practice BASIC
SCIENCE or research.
Basic research (science) is
the pursuit of knowledge
for its own sake. An
example is the study of an
infants ability to see visual
patterns.
• Second, when a
psychologist tries to correct
a behavior he/she is
practicing APPLIED
SCIENCE. A.S. is a way to
use scientific findings to
accomplish practical goals.
INFLUENCE
SCIENTIFIC METHOD
• Scientists investigate a question they have by
using the Scientific Method
• Why do scientists use this method?
– To ensure their conclusions are not full or errors or
bias
• Scientists reach their conclusions by identifying
a problem or question, formulating a hypothesis,
collecting data, and analyzing the data.
SCIENTIFIC METHOD MADE
SIMPLE
EXPLORING PSYCHOLOGY
• READ ONLY: It’s 4 A.M. and “Bob”, a 9thgrader is engulfed in his computer screen,
one minute pretending he’s a cruel mafia
lord organizing a gambling empire and the
next minute imagining he’s an evil sorcerer
or an alien life form. Bob is playing a
Multiple User Dungeon game that is
played by sending messages online to
other players. After logging on for hours,
Bob finds himself sleeping through
classes, forgetting homework, and slipping
into “Internet Addiction.”
LET’S TRY TO
EXPLAIN BOB
• From a Psychologists perspective, Bob is demonstrating complex
behavior.
• He ignores PHYSIOLOGICAL needs, or the needs having to do with
such things as hunger and sleep and an organism’s physical
processes.
• He engages in this behavior because of COGNITIVE or private,
unobservable mental reasons that have to do with and organism’s
thinking and understanding.
• QUESTIONS: 1)Why do you think Bob is spending
so much time on the Internet when he knows that his
schoolwork is suffering?
2) How might a psychologist doing
basic science and a psychologist practicing applied
science differ in their approach to the issue of
internet addiction?
TRUE OR FALSE: TEST YOUR INTUITION
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
THE BEHAVIOIR OF MOST LOWER
ANIMALS (INSECTS, REPTILES,
RODENTS) IS INSTINCTIVE AND
UNAFFECTED BY LEARNING
FOR THE FIRST WEEK OF LIFE A
BABY SEES NOTHNG BUT A GRAYBLUE REGARDLESS OF WHAT HE
OR SHE LOOKS AT.
SLOW LEARNERS REMEMBER
MORE OF WHAT THEY LEARN
THAN FAST LEARNERS
IN SMALL AMOUNTS ALCOHOL IS
A STIMULANT.
PSYCHIATRY IS A SUBDIVISION OF
PSYCHOLOGY.
HIGHLY INTELLIGENT PEOPLE
TEND TO BE PHYSICALLY FRAIL
AND LONERS
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
MOST STEROTYPES ARE
COMPLETELY TRUE.
IN ALL CULTURES, WOMEN ARE
MORE EMOTIONAL AND
SEXUALLY LESS AGGRESSIVE
THAN MEN.
YOU CANNOT PREDICT FROM A
PERSON’S GRADES AT SCHOOL
AND COLLEGE WHETHER THEY
WILL DO WELL IN A CAREER.
THE BEST WAY TO GET A
CONSTANTLY NOISY CHILD TO
SETTLE DOWN AND PAY
ATTENTION IS TO PUNISH THEM.
A CHILD LEARNS TO TALK MORE
QUICKLY IF ADULTS AROUND
THEM REPEAT WORDS HE OR
SHE IS TRYING TO SAY USING
PROPER PRONUNCIATION.
A THIRD OR MORE OF PEOPLE
WITH PSYCHOLOGICAL
DISORDERS ARE POTENTIALLY
DANGEROUS
A BRIEF HISTORY OF
PSYCHOLOGY
VOCABULARY:
1)
STUCTURALIST
2)
DUALISM
3)
INTROSPECTION
4)
FUNCTIONALIST
5)
PSYCHONANALYST
6)
BEHAVIORIST
7)
HUMANIST
8)
COGNIVIST
9)
PSHYCHOBIOLOGIST
Vocabulary will be defined throughout the PowerPoint.
OBJECTIVES: To explain important trends in the history of
psychology and to identify the various approaches to the study of
psychology
DUALISM and the ORIGINS of
PSYCHOLOGY
• Psychology is a history of alternative
perspectives.
• Philosophers in the 17th century (1600’s)
popularized the idea of DUALISM which is the
concept that the mind and body are separate
and distinct.
HISTORICAL
APPROACHES
• Wilhelm Wundt known as the person who
established modern psychology as a separate
science.
• Wundt developed a theory known as
Structuralism. A STRUCTURALIST is a person
(scientist) who is interested in the basic
elements that make up conscious (aware, or
mindful of) mental experiences.
INTROSPECTION
• Wundt also
developed a
technique known as
INTROSPECTION:
a method of selfobservation in
which participants
report their thoughts
and feelings.
EXPERIMENT
• This next activity (experiment) will explore the concept of
free association.
• Directions: Write down the first thought that comes into
your minds as I read aloud the following list of words.
Do not CALL OUT LOUD or write your name on your
paper:
Time
Death
Red
Mother
Fear
Home
School
Friend
Love
Hate
FUNCTIONALISM and
WILLIAM JAMES
• William James is considered the father of American Psychology
and developed the idea of Functionalism.
• A FUNCTIONALIST studies the “function” of the mind rather than
the structure
– not concerned with WHERE something occurs in the mind, but
HOW.
• "A great many people think they are thinking when they
are merely re-arranging their prejudices."
SIR FRANCIS GALTON
• Sir Francis Galton wanted to understand
how heredity influenced a person’s
abilities, character, and behavior.
• Heredity includes all traits that are passed
along biologically from parent to child.
• Studied the biographies of famous, wellknown people and concluded that
greatness runs in families.
• Declared that the “most fit” humans were
those with high intelligence.
– Darwinian
LET’S QUESTION SIR
FRANCIS
• What factors did Galton fail to take into account
in his studies?
• Galton failed to consider the stimulation in one’s
environment
– social and economic factors as influences on
intelligence.
– A person’s heredity and that person’s environment
interact to produce intelligence.
GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY
• Is perception more often different
from reality?
• Some psychologists argued
perception is more than the sum of
its parts.
• The German word Gestalt means a
whole pattern or structure
• Gestalt psychology:
looks at the human mind and
behavior as a whole.
– Founded by Max Wertheimer,
• Response to structuralism
• A set of dots outlining the shape of
a star is likely to be perceived as a
star, not as a set of dots.
– We perceive the whole
HOW DO WE SEE THIS PICTURE, AS A WHOLE OR IN
INDIVIDUAL PARTS?
THE MOST IMPORTANT APPROACHES TO
THE STUDY OF PSYCHOLOGY TODAY
•
•
•
•
•
•
Psychoanalytical
Behavioral
Humanistic
Cognitive
Biological
Sociocultural
SIGMUND FREUD
• Freud's approach to psychology is
often termed PSYCHOANALYTIC
PSYCHOLOGY.
• A PSYCHOANLAYST studies how
unconscious motives and conflicts
determine human behavior.
• Unconscious mind is "part" stores
repressed (held back) memories.
– Freud: our behavior is determined
by unconscious processes.
– Early experiences have an intense
influence on the development of
the unconscious mind
• The unconscious could be accessed
through analysis of dreams.
– Freud believed that when
dreaming your unconscious is free.
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lig
53eW2ptg
• https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7v
Ff5CS27-Y
BEHAVIORAL PSYCHOLOGY
and IVAN PAVLOV
•
•
•
•
Psychologists who stress studying
observable behavior:
BEHAVIORISTS
Behaviorism: primarily concerned
with observable behavior
– Only observable behavior is
worth studying
– How do behaviors result from
stimuli within our environment
and within ourselves? (Heffner)
– Only observable (i.e. external)
behavior can be objectively
and scientifically measured.
Pavlov found that behavior may be
the product of prior experience.
Experiment:
– Pavlov rang a tuning fork each
time he gave a dog some meat
powder.
– Repeated the procedure
several times
– Result: the dog would salivate
when it heard the ring of the
fork even if no food appeared.
JOHN B. WATSON
• Watson first to consider how the
process of learning affects
behavior
• Watson’s opinion: the analysis of
behaviors and reactions to
stimuli was the only objective
method to get insight into human
behavior.
• Believed that children had no
inborn tendencies, but rather
were shaped by their
environments
• Psychology should "take as a
starting point, first the observable
fact that organisms, man and
animal alike, do adjust
themselves to their environment"
and "secondly, that certain
stimuli lead the organisms to
make responses." (Watson,
1913)
B.F. SKINNER
•
•
•
Introduced the concept of reinforcement – or
operant conditioning
– Response to a behavior that increases the
likelihood the behavior will be repeated.
Reinforcement can only occur when a behavior
is learned
– "How can you get a new behavior to occur
so you can reinforce it…?"
Shaping: Begin by reinforcing any
approximation of the desired behavior.
– For example: If a child can't pronounce the
word you desire for them to pronounce you
begin by reinforcing any approximation of
that word that they can make.
– Then slowly you provide reinforcement only
for those approximations
– Gradually the pronunciation of the word is
shaped until it becomes the correct
pronunciation. (Hannon)
HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
Carl Rogers and Abraham Maslow
•
•
•
•
•
A Humanist emphasizes the study of the whole person.
Emphasizes how each person is unique, has a selfconcept and potential.
– Rejected Behaviorist and Psychoanalytical theory =
dehumanizing
– Humanism: Everyone is unique and has potential
Rogers: Psychology is not about behavior
– How individuals perceive and interpret events
– Redirected Psychology towards the study of the self
Maslow: Motivational Theory:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedd
ed&v=yM8SwZkvCIY
– People are motivated by wants and needs
– Theses wants and needs motivate us to do what we
do
Can you think of an example of a need that people are
motivated by?
COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
• Cognitivists focus on how we process, store and
use information
– How does this information influences our thinking,
language, problem solving and creativity?
• Jean Piaget, Noam Chomsky, and Leon
Festinger:
– Behavior is more than a simple response to a
stimulus.
• Behavior is influenced by a variety of mental
processes:
– Perceptions, memories, and expectations.
BIOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY
William James
• Biological Psychology emphasizes the impact of biology
on our behavior.
• Genetic factors and chemicals in the brain have a major
influence on human behavior
–
–
–
–
ADD
ADHD
Depression
Anxiety Disorders
• Darwinian?
Cognitive and Sociocultural
Psychology
Jean Piaget and Lev S.Vygotsky
•
Cognitive Psych studies how we process, store and
use information
– How learning the info influences our behavior
– Based mainly on lab experiments
•
S.P. studies the influence of culture and ethnic
similarities and differences on behavior
– Structures and processes revealed by individuals
can be traced to their interactions with others
(Vygotsky)
Ex. Ethnocentrism: belief in the fundamental
superiority of a nation/people, culture, or group to
which one belongs.
– Often a tendency to also look down upon others
who are not members of a particular ethnic group.
•