Course title

Introduction to psychology

First class

Understanding Psychology

Psychology:1 scientific perspective

2 History of psychology

3 Schools of psychology

4 perspectives of psychology

5 Methods of psychology

6 Ethical issues

7 Fields of psychology and their application

General overview

First of all we define psychology as scientific study of mental processes and behaviour.
The word psychology was coined in the sixteenth century from Greek terms meaning

“the study of the soul”, reflecting the religious basis of early interest in psychology.

Psychology has continued to be defining by its subject matter, which has changed over

time. This definition lasted until the 1960s, and led to current broader definition of

psychology as “the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

1: Scientific Perspective

Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes. Many

people believe that a field is a science because of the nature of its body of knowledge.

Few people question whether psychology, for example, is a true science. But a science

isn’t a science because of its subject matter. A field of study qualifies as a science if it

uses the scientific method to acquire knowledge. The scientific method consists of the

orderly, systematic procedures that researchers follow as they identify a research

problem, design a study to investigate the problem, collect and analyze data, draw

conclusions, and communicate their findings. The knowledge gained is dependable

because of the method used to obtain it.

The scientific method includes the following steps:

Step 1: Observe a phenomenon

Step 2: Formulate a hypothesis

Step 3: Design a study

Step 5: Apply results to the hypothesis

2: History of Psychology

The main historical roots of psychology are in philosophy and science, particularly

physiology. When physiologist of the late nineteenth century began to use, the scientific

method to study the mind, psychology became an independent scientific discipline.

The philosophical roots of psychology reach back to the philosophers of

nineteenth Greece, most notably Plato (427-347) and Aristotle (384-322).

1 Plato

Rationalism: the philosophical position that true knowledge comes through correct

reasoning

2 Aristotle

Empiricism: the philosophical position that true knowledge comes through the senses. .

Psychology Emerges as a Separate Discipline

During the mid-1800s, a German physiologist named Wilhelm Wundt was using

scientific research methods to investigate reaction times. His book published in 1874,

Principles of Physiological Psychology, outlined many of the major connections between

opened the world’s first psychology lab in 1879 at the University of Leipzig.

Schools of psychology

1 Structuralism Becomes Psychology’s First School of Thought

Edward B. Titchener, one of Wilhelm Wundt’s most famous students, would go on to

found psychology’s first major school of thought.

Structuralism sought to identify the components of the conscious mind

While structuralism is notable for its emphasis on scientific research, its methods were

unreliable, limiting, and subjective.

When Titchener died in 1927, structuralism essentially died with him.

2 The Functionalism

Functionalism formed as a reaction to the theories of the Structuralism school of thought

and was heavily influenced by the work of William James. Instead of focusing on the

mental processes themselves, functionalist thinkers were instead interested in the role

that these processes play. Functionalism focus on how the mind works so that in

organism can adapt to and function in its environment.

Example
While structuralists would study the components of tastes, functionalist would study how

the sense of taste affects behavior.

3 Psychoanalysis

Psychoanalysis is a school of psychology founded by Sigmund Freud that emphasized

the importance of unconscious cause of behavior. Freud believed that all behavior-

whether normal or abnormal—was influenced by unconscious motives and also explain

that early childhood experiences are the most important factors in the development of

the personality.

4 Behaviorism

Behaviorism became a dominant school of thought during the 1950s. behaviorism

founded by Jhon.B.Watson. A statement appeared in an article entitled “psychology as

the behavior views it” which rejected the position shared by structuralists, functionalists,

and psychoanalysis that the mind is the proper object of study for psychology. To

behaviorists the proper subject matter for psychological research is the observable

behavior and also suggests that all behavior can be explained by environmental causes

rather than by internal forces.

5 Humanistic Psychology

 Humanistic psychology developed as a response to psychoanalysis and behaviorism.

concept of self-actualization.

 While early schools of thoughts were largely centered on abnormal human

behavior, humanistic psychology differed considerably in its emphasis on helping

people achieve and fulfill their potential.

 Major humanist thinkers include:

1 Abraham Maslow, who works on hierarchy of needs

2 Carl Rogers.

Both assumed that the subject matter of psychology should be the individual’s unique

subjective experiences of the world. And also emphasizing the natural motivation of

each person to reach his or her potentials

Perspectives of Psychology

1 Psychodynamic perspective

It emphasis on the unconscious, that unconscious activity is the key determinate of how

we behave.

Childhood experiences have significant importance in determining our personality when

we reach adulthood.
2 Behavioral Perspectives

Behavioral perspective is the theoretical perspective in which learning and behavior are

described and explained in terms of stimulus-response relationships. The main concern

of behaviorism is that people’s behaviors are a result of their interaction with the

environment.

3 Humanistic perspective

The psychological view point that holds that proper subject matter of psychology should

be the individual’s subjective experiences of the world

4 Cognitive Perspectives

The cognitive perspective is concerned with understanding mental processes such as

memory, perception, thinking and problem solving and how they may be related to

behaviour.

5 Psychobiological perspective

It study the biological basis of psychological processes, behaviour, learning etc for

example the hormonal system and the effect of heredity.

Psychologist use research methods enabling them to describe, predict, explain or

control relationships among overt behaviors, mental experiences, physiological

processes, and environmental events. Some basic methods are the following.

1 Descriptive research

a) Case study

b) Survey

c) Natural observation

2 Correlational research

a) Negative correlation

b) Positive correlation
 3 Experimental research

1 descriptive research

It is descriptive because the researcher simply records what he or she has

systematically observed. In using descriptive research psychologist employ case study,

naturalistic observation and surveys.

A) Case study

A case study is indepth study of a person in which the researcher obtain as much

information as possible about the person thoughts, feelings, social relationships and life

experiences.

B) Naturalistic observation

The recording of the behavior of subjects in their natural environment, with little or no

intervention by the researcher

C) Survey

A set of questions related to a particular topic of interest administration through an

interview or questionnaire.
Correlational Research

It is a type of research that studies the degree of relationship among events, behaviors,

or characteristics.

a) Negative correlation

A relationship in which scores on one variable increase as scores on another decrease

b) Positive correlation

A relationship in which scores on two variables increase and decrease together

3) Experimental Research

Research that manipulate one or more variables, while controlling others, to determine

the effects on behaviour, mental processes or physiological activity

Variable

An event, behavior, conditions, or characteristics that has two or more values

Ethical issues

First of all what are ethics?? It all starts with morals, which are rules to guide our

behavior. They are based on a number of socially agreed principles that are used to

develop clear and logical guidelines to direct behavior. They also contains ideas about
what is good and what is desirable in human behavior. Some of the main ethical issues

are the following.

1 Informed consent

First of all is the issue of informed consent, which refers to the idea that any participants

in an experiment should be informed about what the researcher entails and asked

formally to consent to take part.

2 costs versus benefits

The second issue is the one of costs versus benefits. All researchers believe that their

research offers potential benefits and they recognize that there are certain costs. The

difficulty is in assessing the benefits and costs, and then deciding whether the research

is justified. In the case of medical research it is easier to assess benefits but this is

much harder in the behavioral sciences because the potential benefits to others are less

easy to define.

3 Deception

Some researcher argue that it is never justifiable to use deception in psychological

research as it can cause distress and make people distrustful about the profession and

its methods.

There are, however some types of research that require deception in order make that

research valid. It is possible for participants of a project to form interpretations of that

This phenomenon is known as demand characteristics and although it cannot be

eliminated it can be minimized. If, as Milgram argued, deception can be used, there are

conditions; the deception must be as minor as possible, it must not cause distress and

the true nature of the project must be revealed as early as possible.

4 Confidentiality

In modern research, social inquiry (personal information becoming public) is carefully

considered. The risk of psychological harm is real; participants could be embarrassed or

face consequences upon the revelation of information about their intelligence or political

affiliation to an employer.

In most circumstances, information obtained from participants must be kept anonymous

and names must not be used in stored information. No one should be able to identify

participants from results.