Chapter 1

Psychology!

Dr. Kina Montenegro

 1. What is Psychology?
• Psychology: the scientific study of behaviour
and the mind

• Behaviour: actions and responses

• Directly observable

• Mind: internal states and processes

• e.g. thoughts and feelings
• Cannot be directly observed
 Types of Research
• Divided broadly into basic & applied research

• Basic: Research seeking knowledge for the sake

of knowledge

-The Queensland Brain Institute

 Types of Research
• Divided broadly into basic & applied research

• Applied: Research trying to answer a specific

question

-The Octopus Project

 2. The Field of Psychology
Numerous sub-fields within Psychology
• Clinical psychology
• Cognitive psychology
• Biopsychology/neuroscience
• Developmental psychology
• Industrial-organizational psychology
• Personality psychology
• Social psychology
• Comparative psychology
 Clinical Psychology

• Study and treatment of psych

disorders

• Clinic, hospital, private practice

• Practicing and research

Cognitive Psychology
Study of mental processes
• Consciousness
• Attention
• Memory
• Decision-making
• Problem solving
• Language (Psycholinguistics)
Biopsychology/neuroscience
Developmental Psychology
• Examines physical, psychological, and social development
across the lifespan

• For example:
• Emotions and infants
• Parenting styles
• Mental abilities
Experimental Psychology

Focuses on basic processes

like:
• Learning
• Sensory systems
• Perception
• Motivational states
• Many, many, subfields
 Industrial-organizational (I/O) Psychology

People’s behavior in the workplace

• Leadership
• Teamwork
• Job satisfaction
• Work motivation
• Performance
 Personality Psychology
• Focuses on the study of
personality, yup
• Study core personality
traits
• Traits & behavior = ?
• Personality tests
 Social Psychology
• Examines thoughts, feelings and
behavior in the social world

• How people influence one another

or in groups?

• How people form impressions and

attitudes?
 Comparative Psychology
• Scientific study of the behavior
and mental processes of non-
human animals

• Many names
• Comparative psych
• Ethology
• Animal behavior + cognition
• Animal psychology
 3. Major Themes in Psychology
1. Psychology is empirical
2. Psychology is theoretically diverse
3. Psychology evolves in a sociohistorical
context
4. Behavior is shaped by cultural heritage
5. Behaviour is influenced by both heredity
and environment
6. People’s experience of the world is highly
subjective
 4. The Scientific Approach
• Science
• Systemic gathering and evaluation of empirical
evidence
• Systemic:
• Performed according to a set of rules or conditions
• Empirical:
• Evidence gained through experience and observation
Everyday Pitfalls
• Science is not the only way we
learn about human behaviour
• Other people
• Personal experiences
• Media sources

• Information may not be accurate,

may not be systemically obtained,
may not be representative
 Jumbled word challenge
• Aoccdrnig to a rscheearch at Cmabrigde Uinervtisy, it deosn't mttaer
in waht oredr the ltteers in a wrod are, the olny iprmoatnt tihng is
taht the frist and lsat ltteers be at the rghit pclae. The rset can be a
toatl mses and you can sitll raed it wouthit porbelm. Tihs is bcuseae
the huamn mnid deos not raed ervey lteter by istlef, but the wrod as
a wlohe.

• A plciaiiotn dieend the mtnaalueghsr of a clgaloeue, but was coincetvd

and dlepoeelvd sreeve macedil cdointonis in posirn, wrhee he deid.
Arnodiistitman of agctannloauit dgurs ptttnaioeed the eefcts of
atehonr durg, and rprsoiearty frliaue rleeutsd.
 Levels of Analysis

Biological Environmental Psychological

Level Level Level
 5. Perspectives on Behaviour (Part 1)

• Psychology is a broad field –

roots in various and varied
fields

• Numerous perspectives
Mind-Body
Dualism
• Belief that the mind is a spiritual
entity that is not governed by the
same rules as the physical body

• René Descartes (1596 - 1650)

• The mind and body interact via
the pineal gland
 Mind-Body Dualism
• Dualism
• Belief that no amount of studying the physical
body can provide information about the non-
physical mind

?
 Monism
• Belief that the mind and body are one

• Thomas Hobbes (1588 - 1679)

• Mental events are a product of
physical events
 Empiricism

• All ideas and knowledge are gained

empirically - through the senses
• Observation is more valid than is pure
reason, because reason is fraught with
the potential for error

• John Locke (1632 - 1704)

• Philosophy should focus on the
capabilities and extent of the human mind
 Evolution
• Physiology: an area of biology that
examines bodily functioning

• Charles Darwin (1809 - 1882)

• Humans are not “special”
• Religious orgs were not happy
Early Schools: Structuralism
• Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920)
• Established the first experimental
psychology laboratory at the University
of Leipzig in Germany

• Study the mind in terms of its basic

elements

• Use introspection
 Early Schools: Functionalism
• Study the function of consciousness, not
structure

• Influenced by Darwin’s evolutionary theory

• William James (1842 - 1910)

• Helped widen the scope of psychology to
biological and mental processes, and overt
behaviour
 5. Modern Perspectives (part 2)
• Psychodynamic perspective
• Behavioural perspective
• Humanistic perspective
• Cognitive perspective
• Sociocultural perspective
• Biological perspective
The Psychodynamic
Perspective
• Searches for causes of behaviour
within our personality
• Emphasizes the role of unconscious
processes

• Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

• Psychoanalysis:
• Investigation of internal and mostly
unconscious psychological forces
 The Behavioural Perspective
• Focuses on role of external environmental factors
in determining behaviour

• John Locke (1632 - 1704)

• Tabula rasa
 The Behavioural Perspective

• Ivan Pavlov (1849 - 1936)

• Learning can occur when events are
associated with each other

• Edward Thorndike (1874 - 1949)

• Law of Effect
Pavlov’s dogs
The Behavioural Perspective
• Behaviourism:
• Emphasizes environmental control of behaviour
through learning

• John B. Watson (1878 - 1958)

• Opposed “mentalism” from earlier schools

• B.F. Skinner (1904 - 1990)

• “No account of what is happening inside the human
body, no matter how complete, will explain the
origins of human behaviour”
 The Humanistic Perspective
• Emphasizes free will, personal growth, and
attempting to find meaning in one’s
existence

• Abraham Maslow (1908 - 1970)

• Self-actualization as a driving force

• Positive psychology movement

• Emphasizes the study of human strengths,
fulfillment, and optimal living
 The Cognitive Perspective
• Looks at nature of the mind and how mental
processes influence behaviour

• Gestalt psychology:
• “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
 The Cognitive Perspective
• Gestalt psychology:
• Look at how the mind organizes elements of
experience into a unified or “whole” perception
• “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
 The Cognitive Perspective
• Cognitive Revolution (1960s-1970s)
COGNITIVE
• Period of growing interest in mental processes
• Language learning:
BEHAVIORISTS LINGUISTS
• Behaviourists - language is acquired through
PERSPECTIVE
basic principles of learning
• Linguists - humans are biologically
“preprogrammed” to acquire language and that
children come to understand language as a set
of “mental rules”
 Modern Cognitive Perspective
• Cognitive psychology:
• Focuses on the study of mental processes
• Study reasoning, decision making, problem solving, formation of
perceptions, and production and understanding of language
 The Sociocultural Perspective
• Looks at how the social environment and
cultural learning influence our behaviour,
thoughts, and feelings

• Much overlap
• Behavior
• Cognition
• Biology
 The Sociocultural Perspective
• Social:
• How the presence of other people influences your
behavior, thoughts, feelings

• Culture:
• Values, beliefs, behaviours, traditions passed on

• Cultural Psychology looks at transmission of

culture, psychological similarities and
differences among people from diverse
cultures
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=P00i7_C8tl8&ab_channel=GavinBellamy
 The Biological Perspective
• Looks at how brain and other bodily functions
regulate behaviour
The Biological
Perspective
• Behaviour Genetics:
• The study of how behavioural
tendencies are influenced by genetic
factors
• Evolutionary Psychology:
• Try to explain how evolution shaped
modern human behaviour
• Natural selection is based on the idea of
certain inherited traits providing a
selective advantage
 Which Perspective?

• How can so many perspectives be in one

field?
• Which is “right”?

Remember that each perspective is not mutually

exclusive
Perspectives interact and combine to make up the
complex field we call “psychology”
Practice
• Dr. Wilson is a behaviour analyst who conducts research in an animal
learning laboratory. He shapes both rats and pigeons to learn specific
responses. For example, in one study, a pigeon learns to peck a key
when a blue light appears, but not to peck the key when a red light
appears. Which perspective do you think Dr. Wilson shares?

• Behavioral
• Dr. Benvoglio is a psychologist who conducts research in behavioural
genetics. In one recent research project, she measured shyness in
school-aged children. By comparing pairs of children who were either
twin or non-twin siblings, Dr. Benvoglio was able to determine that
shyness has a significant genetic component. Which perspective do
you think Dr. Benvoglio shares?
• Dr. Hawkins is a neuropsychologist who conducts research on patients
who have brain injuries due to chemical exposure. He uses several
mental tasks that measure a person’s memory and attention span
while he or she is undergoing a brain scan. Through this research,
Dr. Hawkins is able to determine that exposure to certain chemicals
destroys certain brain regions responsible for memory and attention.
Which perspective do you think Dr. Hawkins shares?
• Dr. Santiago is a research psychologist who studies hidden motives for
aggressive personality traits. She administers tests, like the Rorschach
Inkblot Test, to adolescents in an effort to predict who will act out in
aggressive ways. She finds that most aggressive adolescents have
hidden rage. Which perspective do you think Dr. Santiago has?
• Dr. Harris is a clinical psychologist who works with anxious children.
She has found anxious children tend to have more catastrophic
thoughts when touching a feared object than non-anxious children. If
the anxious children participate in a treatment aimed at challenging
their anxious thoughts, however, they can learn to touch feared
objects with fewer catastrophic thoughts and less anxiety. Which
perspective do you think Dr. Harris has?
• Dr. Samir is a school psychologist who works with disadvantaged
children. She has noticed that many of the children at her school have
very low self-esteem. Based upon this observation, she works with all
the teachers and staff to listen carefully to what children say and
provide only positive feedback to help the children grow into fully
functioning individuals. Which perspective do you think Dr. Samir
has?
• Dr. Liu is a social psychologist who explores how boys and girls who
grow up in different countries behave in social situations. Her
research has shown that gender differences exist in aggressive social
behaviours among children raised in the United States, but that
gender differences were not observed among children raised in other
countries. Which perspective do you think Dr. Liu shares?
• Dr. Klein is an industrial-organizational psychologist who studies ways
to enhance worker productivity. He observes that if supervisors
provide workers with frequent feedback and praise, productivity
increases, and workers earn higher wages. Which perspective do you
think Dr. Klein has?