Introduction to Psychology What is Psychology Psychology is

Introduction to Psychology

What is Psychology? • Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes – Mental processes: Internal, subjective experiences we infer from behavior • Examples: thoughts, dreams, perceptions, sensations, beliefs or feelings – Behavior: Anything an organism does. Behavior is observable • Examples: smiling, yelling blinking, sweating talking

How does Psychology relate to Science? • Psychology is a social science, but still a SCIENCE – Psychologists use the scientific method – Scientific Method: Process of gaining knowledge by identifying problems, forming hypothesis, and then testing hypothesis with observation, experimentation and analysis

What do Psychologists Do? • Careers in Psychology – Clinical Psychologists make up the largest % of psychologists (48%) – Many Psychologists become counselors (11%) – Most who earn doctoral degrees become researchers (5%) – Other Fields: school, industrial, organizational, social and personality, developmental, health, etc… – Two major Psychology organizations are: • American Psychological Association • Association for Psychological Science

What are the Origins of Psychology? • Greek Philosophers – Socrates and Plato first conceive the mind as separate and distinct from the body • Enlightenment Philosophers – Rene Descartes: early ideas of the nervous system – John Locke develops Blank Slate Theory: men are shaped by experience, not predisposition – Locke and Francis Bacon come up with empiricism • Empiricism: idea that knowledge and science should rely on observation and experimentation

How was Psychology Born? • William Wundt, a German professor, created an experiment to measure difference between people hearing a ball drop and pressing a lever (1879) – Experiment designed to measure lag in the nervous system – Wundt is considered the father of psychology

How was Psychology Born • Edward Bradford Titchener, Wundt’s student, develops idea of Structuralism (1892) – Structuralism: Theorized an elemental structure of human mind exists; “building blocks” of human thoughts • Used introspection (looking within)… subjects report elements of conscious experience as they perceive them • Influenced by scientific ideas on atoms and molecules

How Was Psychology Born? • Gestalt psychology: idea that the whole (sum of all the parts) is more important than the individual parts – Basically a rejection of structuralism – Mostly German Why do you perceive a white triangle and not 3 black pac-man circles?

How Was Psychology Born • William James, Harvard professor, develops Functionalism – Functionalism: school of psychology focused on how mental and behavioral processes function, and how they are adaptive • James theorized that behaviors and thoughts must be useful and contribute to survival • Influenced by Charles Darwin and Herbert Spencer’s idea on natural selection and evolution – Considered father of American Psychology – Published the first Psychology Textbook

Psychodynamic

Psychodynamic • Focuses on? – Personality development • What is behavior determined by? – Tensions generated by unconscious motives, current conflicts and unresolved childhood conflict (many sexual). Most thought processes occur unconsciously • Key Terms: – Conscious: thoughts and feelings we’re aware of – Preconscious: Area of mind holding information that is not conscious, but is retrievable – Unconscious: Region of mind that is reservoir of mostly unacceptable thoughts, wishes, feelings, memories

• Sigmund Freud: father of psychodynamic perspective. 3 levels of consciousness. Many thought processes occur unconsciously – Ego: largely conscious “executive” part of personality. Mediates between demands of ID, and standards of Superego – Superego: Internalized ideals, standards for judgments – ID: unconscious, aggressive, sexual energy, located in subconscious

Freudian Defense Mechanisms • Sigmund Freud: Defense Mechanisms 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. Repression: forgetting anxiety producing feelings Regression: Anxious person retreats to more comfortable stage of life Denial: anxious person refuses to admit something is happening Reaction formation: reverses an unacceptable impulse Projection: Attributing anxiety causing feelings to something else Rationalization: Gives comfortable explanations to anxiety causing actions 7. Displacement: Redirects an impulse onto a substitute target 8. Sublimation: Transforms an unacceptable impulse into a socially acceptable form

• "Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I'll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select–doctor, lawyer, artist– regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations and race of his ancestors” –John B. Watson

Behavioral • What is the focus? – Behavior! Everything should be observable, testable. Our behavior is shaped by learning from past experience • What is behavior determined by? – Experience • Rewards • Consequences • Verbal cues • We are products of all past events and experiences: Behavior + Reactions of people around us + consequences = future behavior

Behavioral (Important People) • Ivan Pavlov (1849 -1936) – Pavlov’s Dog: taught a dog to salivate in response to bell – Classical Conditioning: learning by association – Office Example Ivan Pavlov

Behavioral (Important People) • Edward Thorndike (1874 -1949) – Puzzle Box: Animals learn how to get out based on past experiences, increasingly fast – Conclusion: All animals learn the same way • John Watson (1878 -1958) – Little Albert Experiment: conditioned child to be afraid of white rat by using loud noise – Little Albert video – Father of Behaviorism • Authored Psychology as the Behaviorist Views it John B. Watson

Behavioral (Important People) • B. F. Skinner (1904): Behavior changes according to reward or punishment – Negative and Positive Reinforcement (behavior rewarded with candy = more likely to behave in same way) – Skinner Video • Albert Bandura (1925 - ) Social Learning Theory – People learn by seeing what goes right and wrong for others • Bobo Doll Experiment: children learn violent behavior by observation

Humanistic • What is the focus? – Individuals’ freedom to choose and capacity for personal growth – Humans are inherently good • What is behavior determined by? – Free will / self-actualization – Self Concept (image of oneself) • • Ideal self: what we want to be Actual self: what we are The more ideal = actual, the more we exercise free will Individuals have ultimate free will to decide own behavior

Humanistic (Important People and Beliefs) • Carl Rogers – Conscious experience is proper focus of psychology – Humans growth and free will is achieved by being: • Accepting (unconditional positive regard) • Genuine (freely express feelings, open about selves) • Empathetic (sharing thoughts and feelings with others) Carl Rogers

Humanistic (Important People and Beliefs) • Abraham Maslow: self-actualization is ultimate psychological need – Self-Actualization: All basic physical and psychological needs are met and self-esteem is achieved; motivated to achieve potential – Developed Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs (lower on pyramid you are, the less free will you can exercise) Abraham Maslow

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Cognitive • What is the Focus? – How mental processes affect decision making and thus behavior • What is behavior determine by? – Ability to make rational decisions through thought processes • Conversation with self • The way that brain makes decisions (memory, thinking, learning) • “Information Processing”: brain like a computer – Strongly tied to neuroscience

Cognitive (Important People) • Jean Piaget – Studied children and how thinking develops – Children think differently, not just less powerfully – Development occurs in stages Jean Piaget

Biological • What is the Focus? – The brain, nervous & endocrine systems, and how they impact behavior • What is behavior determined by? – The brain and other physiological systems – Highly influenced by heredity / birth – Chemical imbalances (ADHD) • Any more? – Science, brain scanners used to study physical systems of brain and nervous system

Socio-Cultural • What is the Focus? – Everything about your identity • Ethnicity, race, culture, gender, socioeconomic status, societal expectations, family values, morals, friends • What is Behavior Determined by? – Your upbringing – The Situation: people you are surrounded by and setting

Socio-Cultural • Massillon Tigers Example

Socio-Cultural (Important People) • Philip Zimbardo (1933): Situations can cause people to do things they otherwise wouldn’t – Stanford Prison Experiment: College students who played guards were very cruel in a simulated prison

Socio-Cultural (Important People) • Stanley Milgram (1933 -1984): Influence of authority is important in determining behavior – Ran shock experiments where participants were asked to deliver shocks to others • 65% of participants were willing to deliver lethal shocks to strangers when asked by the white-coated “researcher” • People will do what authority asks, even when they know it’s wrong • Shock Experiment (3: 35)

Socio-Cultural (Important People) • Solomon Asch (1907 -1996): Influence of conformity and group influence – People will go along with the group, even when they know it’s wrong Which line is closest in length to the line at the left? Experiment Candid cam A B C