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9th Grade Social Studies
Mrs. Anderson
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Definition of psychology
Definition of psychologist
Subfields in psychology
Things psychologists do
Well-known psychologists
Categories related to psychology
Your own definition of psychology
 Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior.
 Psychology is a science based on a large body of social
science and behavioral science research and which is
expanding its boundaries to overlap with neuroscience
and health science.
 http://www.psychologymatters.org/psycdefinition.html
 Psychologists study two critical relationships: one
between brain function and behavior, and one between
the environment and behavior.
 As scientists, psychologists follow scientific methods,
using careful observation experimentation and analysis
to learn more about the world in which we live and its
inhabitants.
 http://www.psychologymatters.org/psycdefinition.html
 Clinical Psychologists
 Cognitive and perceptual psychologists
 Counseling psychologists
 Developmental psychologists
 Educational psychologists
 Engineering psychologists
 Evolutionary psychologists
 Experimental psychologists
 Forensic psychologists
 Health psychologists
 Industrial/organizational psychologists
 Neuropsychologists
 Quantitative and measurement psychologists
 Rehabilitation psychologists
 School psychologists
 Sports psychologists
 Conduct research
 Study social development
 Help people learn
 Promote physical and mental health
 Study and contribute to the work environment
A. B.F. Skinner (1904-1990); U.S.
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Skinner is best known for his experiments that lead to
the theory of operant conditioning. Operant
conditioning has to do with how we learn to behave
through rewards and punishments for certain
behaviors. Operant conditioning explains that we
make a connection between a behavior and a
consequence for that behavior.
B. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939); Austria
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Freud is known for a lot of dealing with psychology. To name a
few dream analysis, defense mechanisms, personality (id, ego
and superego), psychosexual development and psychoanalysis.
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The id is known as your pleasure principle; it strives for
immediate gratification of your desires, needs and wants;
present at birth.
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The ego is your reality principle; it develops from your id; it’s
main job is to monitor the impulses of your id and make sure
that they are expressed in a socially acceptable and appropriate
manner.
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The superego is last to develop; develops around age 5; our
sense of right and wrong; made up of two parts, the ego ideal
and the conscience.
C. Jean Piaget (1896-1980); Switzerland
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Piaget is best known for his findings about the stages of
cognitive development that children go through. He
said there were four stages:
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Sensorimotor: Birth to 2 years old
Preoperational: Ages 2 to 6; development of language
Concrete operational: Ages 7 to 11; start gaining an
understanding of mental operations
Formal operation: Ages 12 to adulthood; development of abstract
reasoning
D. Erik Erikson (1902-1994); Germany
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Erikson is best known for his theory about
psychosocial development. According to Erikson
there are 8 different stages that we go through as we
develop through social interaction. They are
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Stage 1: Trust v. Mistrust
Stage 2: Autonomy v. Shame and Doubt
Stage 3: Initiative v. Guilt
Stage 4: Industry v. Inferiority
Stage 5: Identity v. Confusion
Stage 6: Intimacy v. Isolation
Stage 7: Generativity v. Stagnation
Stage 8: Integrity v. Despair
E. Ivan Pavlov (1849-1936); Russia
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Pavlov is best known for his experiments that lead to his
theory about classical conditioning. In classical
conditioning, Pavlov took a conditioned stimulus that
was a neutral stimulus and paired it with an
unconditioned stimulus so that eventually he would get
a conditioned response from the conditioned stimulus
alone without the unconditioned stimulus.
This is used to either increase or decrease a particular
behavior
F. Abraham Maslow (1908-1970); U.S.
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Maslow is best known for his hierarcy of needs. He said
that there were five different levels to a human’s need:
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1: Physiological needs: basic needs for survival
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2: Security needs: needs for safety and security
3: Social needs: needs for belonging, love and affection
4: Esteem needs: needs for things that reflect personal worth,
social recognition, accomplishment
5: Self-actualizing needs: level of self-awareness; concerned
about personal growth and less concerned about the opinions of
others
A. Phobias: an intense, almost paralyzing fear
centering on a specific situation or object. It
can seem irrational.
B. Emotions: mental states that happen because our
nervous system is responding to external or
internal stimuli
C. Mental health disorders: when a persons mental
states are having an adverse affect on them
D. Problem solving: ability to look at a problem and take
a positive approach to solving it
E. Environment v. heredity: both of these factors affect
who we are; environment is the people, places and things
that we are surrounded by; heredity is certain traits that
were passed on to us from our parents (nature v. nurture)
F. Personality: it is a combination of characteristics
(behavioral, emotional, mental and temperamental) that
make an individual unique
G. Perception & Learning: perception is how we
perceive things; learning is a cognitive process by
which we gain knowledge
H. Creativity: the ability to use your imagination to
come up with new ideas, solutions and/or images
 All of the categories previously mentioned are related
to psychology because they have to do with our mental
capabilities and how that can affect our mental health
and behaviors which is exactly what psychology is
about (the study of the mind and behavior)
 ??