Intro to Psychology – Midterm

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY? 3. Predict – how organisms will behave in

certain situations
Psychology
4. Control – an organism’s behavior,
• It is the study of mind and behavior influence the organism on how they can
and mental processes. help treat the behavior.
• Mind = behavior; health mind + healthy
body = happy life.
• Hypothalamus is the one who HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
releases the hormones to make us
Trephining Healing by chipping a
feel our emotions. hole in the patient’s
What is Behavior? skull to let evil spirits
out
• It is any response or reaction to a Phrenology Analysis of basic
stimulus; stimulus can be an object or characteristics based
a person. on the shaped and
number of bumps on
Is psychology: the skull
Structuralism Wundt’s approach,
Normal or Abnormal?
which focuses on
• Is it acceptable to society? According uncovering the
to standards? fundamental mental
• Is it something expected in culture? components of
consciousness,
Learned or Unlearned? thinking, and other
kinds of mental states
• Is it acquired or innate such as and activities.
instincts? Introspection A procedure used to
study the structure of
Voluntary or Involuntary?
the mind in which
• Can you control it? Do have the will subjects are asked to
over it? describe in detail what
they are experiencing
Conscious or Unconscious? when they are exposed
to a stimulus.
• Do you have full awareness of your
actions?
EARLY PIONEERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
Covert or Overt?
1) Wilhem Wundt
• Observable? Happening already? • Father of psychology
Goals in Psychology • Attempted to bring objectivity and
measurement to the concept of
1. Describe – the different ways that psychology – objective introspection.
organisms behave. 2) Edward Titchener
2. Explain – the cause of behavior, • Student of Wilhem Wundt
understand the behavior. • Introduced structuralism
Intro to Psychology – Midterm

• Expanded Wundt’s ideas and created • Focuses on the organization of

his own viewpoint perception and thinking in a “whole”
3) William James sense rather than on the individual
• Founder of functionalism elements of perception.
• Founder of American psychology 4. Psychoanalysis
• Focuses on the unconscious mind
• Behavior is motivated by inner forces
Schools of Psychology (life and death instincts, libido, and
aggression drives) and conflicts (id,
Psychologist had different views, theories, ego, superego) about which we have
techniques, and purposes about psychology. As a little awareness or control.
result, they are divided based on their • Founded by Sigmund Freud
perspective.
• Foundation for the psychodynamic
5 SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT – Neuroscience, perspective
Psychodynamic, Behavioral, Cognitive, and • More on history of the past.
Humanistic are those schools of psychology that 5. Behaviorism
are active up to the present date. • Founded by John B. Watson
• Focuses on observable behavior
1. Structuralism
• Highlights the role of the environment
• First school of thought in psychology
in the guiding behavior.
• Founded by Wilhem Wundt and further
• Conditioning – technique used to show
developed by Edward Titchener
that all behaviors are learned through
• Emphasized the basic units of
interaction with the environment.
experiences and these are the physical
• Behaviorist Manifesto – daily
sensation, affection, images.
observation of several hundred infants
• Major tool: introspection
from birth through the 30 days on
“observing/interviewing”
infancy.
2. Functionalism
• Founded by William James Additional Information:
• An early approach to psychology that
1. Cognitive
concentrated on what the mind does –
• Examines how people understand and
the functions of mental activity and the
think about the world.
role of behavior in allowing people to
• We are able to identify processes like
adapt to their environments.
intelligence, decision making, etc.
• It emphasized function rather than the
2. Humanistic
structure of human consciousness.
• Contends that people can control their
James proposed that consciousness is
behavior and that they naturally try to
ongoing and continuous; it cannot be
reach their full potential.
isolated and reduced to elements.
• Individuals are inherently good in a
• Emphasized individual
sense that they move towards self-
experiences/differences.
actualization.
3. Gestalt Psychology
• Founded by Max Werthelmer, Kurt
Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler.
Intro to Psychology – Midterm

Note: Youngest Only Child

- Most pampered; - Competition with
Psychoanalysis – founded by Freud problem child parents
Psychodynamic – those who is interested in - Inferiority - Egotistical
learning psychoanalysis. feelings and tendencies
dependency - May have
- Most motivated exaggerated
to exceed other sense of self-
BIOLOGICAL PERSPECTIVE siblings. concept.
• Brain and nervous system: cognitive
and biological psychology (memory, Defense Mechanism
learning, senses)
• All psychological events can be related 1. Fixation
to the activity of the brain and the • Permanent; remaining at the present
nervous system. more comfortable stage of development
• Neurotransmitters (dopamine,
serotonin, oxytocin) 2. Regression
• Temporary; reverting back to an earlier
stage of development which has lesser
PSYCHODYNAMIC PERSPECTIVE stress.
3. Projection
• Foundation: psychoanalysis
• See in others unacceptable feelings or
• More focused on the development of a
tendencies that reside in ourselves
sense of self and the discovery of other
(paranoia)
motivations behind a person’s behavior
4. Acting out
than sexual motivations.
• Performing an extreme behavior in order
• Events in childhood have a great
to express thoughts or feelings the person
influence on our adult lives, shaping
is incapable of expressing (self-harm)
our personality.
5. Reaction Formation
• Carl Jung, Alfred Adler, Melanie Klein,
• Doing the opposite in an exaggeration;
Erik Erikson
form a reaction that is acceptable to
Psychodynamic Perspective society/others.
• Forming a reaction that is acceptable or
First Born Second Born
doing things the other way.
- Power - Moderately 6. Undoing
- Superiority competitive • Look away or do away with unpleasant
- High anxiety - Revolutionary experiences by making it disappear
- Overprotective attitude through repetitive and ceremonial acts
tendencies - Shaped by (compulsion)
- Treatment of second their
7. Displacement
child depending on perception of
• Redirect unacceptable urges onto
age and prior style of the older
life child’s different people or objects so that original
(hostile/cooperating) attitude. impulse is concealed, no exaggeration.
Intro to Psychology – Midterm

8. Sublimation
• Beneficial to self and society (humor –
channeling of unacceptable impulses or
thoughts into a light-hearted story or joke)

COGNITIVE PERSPECTIVE

• Founded by Aaron Beck and Albert Ellis

• Examines how we understand and think
about the world.
• Cognition – process of thinking
• Focus: memory, attention, thoughts,
ideas, and beliefs.
• Uses of technology to test your brain
functioning (interviews, MRI, CT-Scan)

Phenomenological Perspective

Looks at man as:

• A rational being endowed with intellect

and will
• An individual with different needs and
motives
• A being with past experiences influencing
his view of self and actions.
• Abraham Maslow and Carl Roger

• Subjective perspective
• Different individuals view the world
differently.