Download THE FIELD OF PSYCHOLOGY

Psychology
 Psyche: mind
 Logos: Knowledge or study of
 Definition: The scientific study of human and animal
behavior and mental processes
Behaviors
 Observable actions and responses
 Overt – can be directly observed
 Covert – cannot be directly observed
Personality
 An individual’s characteristic pattern of thinking,
feeling, and acting.
 Trait Psychology

Big 5 Traits – inherited/genetic (extraversion, agreeableness,
conscientiousness, openness to experience, emotional
stability)
 Internal/External Locus of Control (learned
helplessness)
 Temperments
 Reciprocal Determinism – traits, environment, and
behavior all interact and influence each other
Types of Personalities
Type A
Type B
 Feel time pressure.
 Relaxed and easygoing.
 Easily angered.
 But some people fit in
 Competitive and ambitious.
 Work hard and play hard.
 More prone to heart
disease than rest of
population.
neither type.
Goals of Psychology
 Describe behavior
 Explain/Understand behavior
 Predict behavior
 Influence/Control behavior
Phrenology – Examining
bumps on the skull to determine
intellect and character traits (19th
century)
Past attempts at understanding human
behavior (weird or not) have led to what we
know today and shaped the current
Approaches to Psychology
Wilhelm Wundt
• “Father of psychology”
• Started 1st lab to study humans (1879)
• Established Psychology as formal field of study
• Introspection – self observation, report thoughts and
feelings
•Tichener – brought Wundt’s ideas to U.S. and renamed
Structuralism
William James
• “Father of MODERN Psychology”
or “Father of Psychology in the U.S.”
• Principles in Psychology = 1st Psychology Textbook
• Influenced by Darwin
• Functionalism
Gestalt Psychology
• Led by Max Wertheimer, these guys focused not on
how we feel, but on how we experience the world.
• The whole of an experience can be more than the
sum of its parts.
This may seem like
one picture, but it can
be perceived as 3
different faces. Can
you find them?
Think for a moment of all the reasons that you love your mom.
If you add all those reasons up, do they equal your love for your
mom?
Hopefully not!!!
• Psychoanalytic
• Behavioral
• Humanistic
• Cognitive
• Biological
• Sociocultural
PSYCHOANALYTIC
• Key ideas
• childhood experiences
• unconscious forces
• Techniques:
• Free association
• Psychoanalysis (Dr. centered)
• Projection/Projective tests
TAT
• Rorschach Ink Blot
• Dream analysis
•
• Sigmund Freud (1856 – 1939)
• Unconscious motivations are responsible for human
behavior
Sigmund Freud
 Thanatos vs. Eros
 Conscious, Subconscious (preconscious), unconscious
 Iceberg analogy
 Ego, Superego, ID
 Libido
 Freudian Slips
 Penis envy
 Fixation
More Freud….
 Psychosexual Stages of Personality Development
 Oral
 Anal
 Phallic

Oedipus Complex
 Latent
 Genital
Defense Mechanism
 Repression
 Denial
 Displacement
 Projection
 Reaction formation
 Regression
 Rationalization
 Sublimation
Carl Jung
 Collective unconscious
 Archetypes
 Persona
 Trickster
 Hero
 Anima and animus
Erik Erikson
 Psychosocial stages of personality development
Other Neo-Freudians
 Alfred Adler
 Dominance/overcoming feelings of inferiority
 Birth order
 Karen Horney
 Love
 Felt Freud was sexist – womb envy
BEHAVIORAL
• Key ideas
• Observable Behavior
• Conditioning/Learning
• Prior experience (reward and punishment)
• John Watson (1878 – 1958)
• Behavior the result of conditioning – “We are what we
learn to be”
• Little Albert experiments with Rosalie Raynor
• B.F. Skinner (1904 – 1990)
• Psychology must be tangible and scientific
• Operant Conditioning - Reinforcement
Behaviorism Continued
 Pavlov
 Classical Conditioning
 Bandura
 Social Learning Theory
 Modeling
HUMANISTIC
• Key ideas
• Self-directed (Client-Centered)
• Uniqueness
• Potential to develop
• Emphasis on “self-concept”
• Carl Rogers – Unconditional positive regard
• Abraham Maslow – Hierarchy of needs
Humanism continued…
 Abraham Maslow
 Hierarchy of needs
COGNITIVE
• Key ideas
• How we ….. Process, Store, Retrieve information
• Thought patterns
• Problem solving
• Behavior results from memories, expectations
• Modern approach is to join this with Behaviorism
BIOLOGICAL
• A.k.a. Behavioral neuroscience
• Key ideas
• How the brain, nervous system, hormones, genetics
influence behavior
SOCIOCULTURAL
 Key ideas
• Cultural influence on behavior
• Gender
• Socioeconomic status
• Traditions
Evolutionary Psychology
 Stemmed from Darwin
 Survival of the fittest
 How does our behavior adapt to our environment and
help ensure our survival?
Eclecticism
• By combining information from all of the
approaches, psychologists stand a better chance of
describing, explaining, predicting, and controlling
behavior.
Psychologist
• Observe, analyze, evaluate behavior
• Doctorate degree
Psychiatrist
• Medical degree + training in psychiatric medicine
Clinical Psychologist
• diagnoses and treats people with emotional disturbances
Counseling Psychologist
• help people deal with problems of everyday life
Developmental Psychologist
• Study changes that occur throughout life
Educational Psychologist
• helps students learn
Industrial/Organizational
Psychologist
• employed by businesses to boost production, improve working
conditions, make the workplace a more satisfying environment
Research v. Applied Psychology
 Research Psychologists – study origins, causes, results
of behavior
 Applied Psychologists – make direct use of the
findings of research psychologist; deal directly with
clients