INTRODUCING
PSYCHOLOGY
PREPARED AND PRESENTED BY:
Ms. Cindy Rhose Tingal, RPm, CHRA
Psychology is the scientific study of mind
(mental processes) and behavior.
The word “psychology” comes from the
Greek words “psyche,” meaning life, and
“logos,” meaning explanation.
Many psychologists work in research laboratories,
hospitals, and other field settings where they study the
behavior of humans and animals.
Psychologists also work in schools and businesses,
and they use a variety of methods, including
observation, questionnaires, interviews, and
laboratory studies, to help them understand behavior.
Despite the differences in their interests, areas of
study, and approaches, all psychologists have one
thing in common: They rely on the scientific method.
In a sense all humans are scientists. We all have an
interest in asking and answering questions about our
world.
We may even collect data, or any information
collected through formal observation or measurement,
to aid us in this undertaking.
Unfortunately, the way people collect and interpret
data in their everyday lives is not always scientific.
Often, when one explanation for an event seems
“right,” we adopt that explanation as the truth.
However, this reasoning is more intuitive than
scientific
Intuition is thinking that is more experiential,
emotional, automatic, and unconscious, and does
not lead to careful analysis of all the variables in
a situation (Kahneman, 2011).
The tendency to think that we could have
predicted something that has already occurred
that we probably would not have been able to
predict is called the hindsight bias.
WHY
PSYCHOLOGISTS
RELY ON
EMPIRICAL
METHODS
All scientists, whether they are physicists,
chemists, biologists, or psychologists, use
empirical research to study the topics that
interest them. We can label the scientific
method as the set of assumptions, rules, and
procedures that scientists use to conduct
empirical research.
Empirical research methods include
collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data,
reaching conclusions, and sharing
information.
Although scientific research is an important method of
studying human behavior, not all questions can be
answered using scientific approaches. Scientists
generally do not attempt to prove values, beliefs, or
opinions to be true or false.
Values - are personal statements
Facts - are objective statements determined to be
accurate through empirical study
THE CHALLENGES OF
STUDYING PSYCHOLOGY
Individual differences are the variations among people on physical or
psychological dimensions.
For example, most people experience negative events at some time in their
lives. Some individuals handle the challenges, while other people develop
symptoms of a major depression. Other important individual differences,
that we will discuss in the chapters to come, include differences in
intelligence, self-esteem, anxiety, and aggression.
N ATU RE VS . N URTU RE
• Nature versus nurture. Most scientists now agree that both
genes and environment play crucial roles in most human
behaviors. Yet we still have much to learn about how
nature, our biological makeup, and nurture, the
environment and experiences that we have during our lives,
work together. The proportion of differences that is due to
genetics is known as the heritability of the characteristic.
F REE WI LL V S. DET ERMIN IS M
• This question concerns the extent to which
people have control over their own actions. Are
we the products of our environment, guided by
forces out of our control, or are we able to
choose the behaviors we engage in?
CO NS CIO US VS . UN CO N SCIO US
• To what extent are we conscious of our own
actions and the causes of them?
DIF F ERE N CE S VS. SIMIL A RITIE S
• To what extent are we all similar, and to what
extent are we different? For instance, are there
basic psychological and personality differences
between men and women, or are men and
women by-and-large similar?
A CCU RACY V S . IN ACCU RACY
• To what extent are humans good information
processors?
• Plato believed that much knowledge was innate, whereas
Aristotle thought that each child was born as an “empty
slate” and that knowledge was primarily acquired through
learning and experience.
EARLY
PSYCHOLOGY:
STRUCTURALISM
AND
FUNCTIONALISM
S t r u c t u r a l i s m.
• Wilhelm Wundt is considered to have created the first
psychology lab in Leipzig, Germany in 1879.
• Wundt began the field known as structuralism, a school
of psychology whose goal was to identify the basic
elements or “structures” of psychological experience.
S t r u c t u r a l i s m.
• Wilhelm Wundt (seated at left) and Edward Titchener (right) helped
create the structuralist school of psychology. Their goal was to
classify the elements of sensation through introspection.
S t r u c t u r a l i s m.
• Structuralists used the method of introspection to
attempt to create a map of the elements of
consciousness.
Introspection involves asking research participants to
describe exactly what they experience as they work on
mental tasks, such as viewing colors, reading a page in a
book, or performing a math problem
F u n c t i o n a l i s m.
• William James was a member of the school of
functionalism. The goal of functionalism was to
understand why animals and humans have
developed the mental processes that they
currently possess (Hunt, 1993).
F u n c t i o n a l i s m.
• The functionalist school of psychology,
founded by the American psychologist William
James (left), was influenced by the work of
Charles Darwin (right).
The Psychodynamic Perspective is an approach to
understanding human behavior that focuses on early
childhood experiences and the role of unconscious
thoughts, feelings, and memories.
Sigmund Freud believed that many of the problems
that his patients experienced, including anxiety,
depression, and sexual dysfunction, were the result
of the effects of painful childhood experiences that
the person could no longer remember
Behaviorism is based on the premise that it is not
possible to objectively study the mind, and therefore
psychologists should limit their attention to the study
of behavior itself.
The first behaviorist was the American psychologist
John B. Watson (1878–1958).
Watson and the other behaviorists began to use
these ideas to explain how events that people and
other organisms experienced in their environment,
called stimuli, could produce specific behaviors
called responses.
Another perspective which focuses on thinking and
emotions is humanism. Humanism embraces the concepts
of self, self-esteem, self-actualization, and free will. The
humanistic perspective, popularized in the 1950s, was
referred to as the “Third Force” in psychology.
Unlike the psychoanalytic and behavioral perspectives,
humanistic psychologists are more likely to talk about the
self-concept.
Humanists, such as Carl Rogers (1902-1987) and
Abraham Maslow (1908-1970), believed that each
individual strives to reach their full potential. Rogers and
Maslow stressed self-actualization, which is “the inherent
tendency of an organism to develop all of its capacities in
ways which serve to maintain or enhance the organism,”
Biological Perspective. The biological perspective focuses
on the interaction between biology and emotions, thoughts,
and behaviors.
Cognitive Perspective and Cognitive Neuroscience. The
Cognitive perspective studies mental processes, including
perception, thinking, memory, and judgment
Evolutionary Perspective. The work of the early
functionalists developed into the field of evolutionary
psychology, a branch of psychology that applies the
Darwinian theory of natural selection to human and animal
behavior
Social-Cultural Perspective: A final perspective, which
has had substantial impact on psychology, can be
broadly referred to as the social-cultural or sociocultural
perspective, which is the study of how the social
situations and the cultures in which people find
themselves influence thinking and behavior.
THE MANY
DISCIPLINES
OF
PSYCHOLOGY
A psychologist has generally been trained to understand
research and earned a doctoral degree in psychology
(Ph.D. or Psy.D)
Psychiatrists go to medical school to earn an MD and
then receive special training in how to treat mental illness.
Service Providers to Individuals.
It is important to distinguish among several types of
mental health professionals. Some of the main kinds of
service providers for people with psychological troubles
are clinical psychologists, psychiatrists, social workers,
and counseling psychologists.
