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Intro

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Intro

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fabiha
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© © All Rights Reserved
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CHAPTER 01
INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Psychology:
The study of behavior (what we do) & mental processes
(sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, & feelings….)

examine how we process information—


~how we organize, interpret, store, & use it.
THE HISTORICAL ORIGIN OF
PSYCHOLOGY
• Socrates (469-399 BC)- Early Greek who believed Knowledge is born

• 
with a person and that the Mind is separate from the Brain.
Plato (428-348 BC)- Student to Socrates ;Early Greek who believed
Knowledge is born with a person and that the Mind is separate from
the Brain.
• Aristotle (384-322 BC)- Student to Plato ;The Mind and the Body are
together and knowledge is learned with experience.
• Rene Descartes (1595-1650)- Scientist and Philosopher ;Mind and
Body are separate but interact with one another. Believed knowledge
is born with a person.
• John Locke (1632-1704)- British Philosopher; The mind is born as a
blank slate (Tabula Rosa), science should rely on observation and
experimentation.
NATURE VS NURTURE DEBATE
Nature Nurture
In the "nature vs nurture"
debate, nature refers to an
In the "nature vs nurture" debate, nurture
refers to personal experiences (i.e. empiricism
What is it? individual's innate qualities or behaviorism).
(nativism).

Nature is your genes. The Nurture refers to your childhood, or how you
physical and personality were brought up. Someone could be born
traits determined by your with genes to give them a normal height, but
genes stay the same be malnourished in childhood, resulting in
irrespective of where you stunted growth and a failure to develop as
Example
were born and raised. expected.

Factors Biological and family factors Social and environmental factors


Birth of Psychology

◼ Wilhelm Wundt: 1879
◼ WHY?
How did Wundt view
psychology?

 He perceived the subject as the study of Human
consciousness and sought to apply experimental
methods to studying internal mental processes.
While his use of a process known as introspection.
Early schools of
thought…

E.B. Titchener William James

Structuralism: Functionalism:

The analysis of mental structures Enables how the mind work to


_____to describe this branch of enable an organism to adopt to
psychology. and function in its environment.
BEHAVIORISM: emphasizes observable behavior rather than
inner mental experiences……… emphasizes the role of
environment as the cause of behavior.
Also called learning theory: use of reinforcement & punishment.

PSYCHOANALYSIS: emphasizes unconscious motives &
conflicts & early childhood experiences.
Sigmund Freud: (1856-1939) developed from his work with mentally
disturbed patients; views a person as being pushed and pulled by unconscious
wants & desires (sexual & aggressive in nature.)
GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY:

"The fundamental "formula" of Gestalt theory might be expressed in this way,”


The whole is different from the sum of its parts ,because the whole depends on
the relationship among the parts.
Five law’s of gestalt
psychology:

 Gestalt psychologists posit five main “laws” of
perception that underlie the organization of visual
information:
Continuity
 Closure
 Proximity
 Similarity
 Figure and ground
5 Major Perspectives in
Psychology

Biological perspective
Behavior perspective
Cognitive perspective
Psychoanalytic perspective
Subjectivist perspectives
Biological perspective

The biological perspective is one of the major approaches to doing
psychological research, which is focused on the idea that
behaviors have biological causes.
Common types of biological studies on behavior include things
like the effects of physical child abuse on future adult actions, how
injuries such as head trauma affect behavior, or whether or not
criminal behavior can be explained by genetics.
Behavior perspective

This perspective views behavior as the result of environmental
experience
Environmental experience (also called learning) is the sum total of
all life experiences that the individual has been subjected to in the
past and to the new experiences that will impinge on his or her
behavior.
Cognitive perspective

Cognitive psychology is the study of mental processes
such as attention, language use, memory, perception,
problem solving, creativity and thinking

.
Psychoanalytic perspective

The central them behind the psychoanalytic
perspective is that our personality (likes, dislikes, good
and bad parts about us) comes from a deep hidden
place within us called the unconscious.
Subjectivist perspectives

The study of one's own mind and its various modes of
action as a basis for psychological deductions.
SUB-FIELDS OF
PSYCHOLOGY

 Biological psychology
studies relationship between biological process
and behavior.
 Experimental psychology
studies the processes of sensing, perceiving,
learning, and thinking around the world.
 Developmental psychology
examines how people grow and change from the
moment of conception through death.
 Industrial/ Organizational psychology
is concerned with psychology of the workplace.
 Social psychology
is the study of how people's thoughts, feelings,
and actions are effected by others.
 School psychology
is devoted to counseling children in elementary and
secondary schools who have academic or emotional
problems.
 Counseling psychology 
focuses primarily on educational, social, and career
adjustment problems.
 Clinical psychology
deals with the study, diagnosis, and treatment of
psychological disorders.
 Personality psychology
focuses on the consistency in people's behavior over
time and the traits that differentiate one person from
another.

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