The World of Psychology An Overview What is

The World of Psychology: An Overview What is psychology, and how did it grow?

What Is Psychology? • The science that seeks to understand behavior and mental processes, and to apply that understanding in the service of human welfare.

Academic Psychology • • • Biological Perception Consciousness Learning Memory Cognition • • • Motivation/Emotion Developmental Personality Social Disorders Next

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Figure 1. 1: What Do You See? • An elderly father-inlaw or a husband? • Perception involves more than just passively receiving information. Return

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Two Examples • Spotlight Effect • Illusion of Transparency Return

Typical Work Settings • • • Mental Health Facilities Universities and Colleges Business Schools Other (Miltary, Prisons, Public Policy)

Historical Roots of Psychology • Used laboratory science methods to study consciousness. • Changed psychology from a philosophy to a science of mental processes. Wilhelm Wundt (18321920)

Structuralism • Founder: Edward Titchener, trained by Wundt • Goals: To study conscious experience and how elements of consciousness are structure in humans. • Methods: Experiments; introspection. • Application: “Pure scientific research” – Spurred development of psychological laboratories.

Introspection • Describe the intensity and clarity of the sensations and images that make up your experience of this object.

Gestalt Psychology • Founder: Max Wertheimer • Goals: To describe organization of mental processes. – “The whole is greater than the sum of its parts. ” • Methods: Observation of sensory/perceptual phenomena. • Applications: Understanding visual illusions; laid groundwork for humanistic and cognitive psychology.

Psychoanalysis • Founder: Sigmund Freud • Goals: To explain personality and behavior and develop techniques for treating mental illness. • Methods: Study of individual cases. • Applications: Development of psychotherapy; emphasis on childhood, role of unconscious processes.

Functionalism • Founder: William James • Goals: To study how the mind works in allowing an organism to adapt to the environment. • Methods: Naturalistic observations of animal and human behavior. • Applications: Child psychology; educational and industrial psychology; study of individual differences.

Behaviorism • Founders: John B. Watson; B. F. Skinner • Goals: To study observable behavior and explain behavior via learning principles. • Methods: Observation of the relationship between environmental stimuli and behavioral responses. • Application: Behavior modification; improved teaching methods.

Watson’s Famous Quote “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, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, abilities, vocation, and race of his ancestors”.

Current Approaches • Biological Approach: Emphasizes activity of the nervous system, especially the brain; the action of hormones and other chemicals; and genetics. • Evolutionary Approach: In what ways do behavior and mental processes aid reproduction and survival. • Behavioral Approach: Emphasizes learning and how environmental circumstances dictate behavior.

Approaches (cont’d) • Cognitive Approach: Emphasizes how people receive, store, retrieve, and otherwise process information • Humanistic: Focuses on the attributions and choices made by the individual • Psychodynamic: Conflicts between underlying biology and societal goals. • Cultural/Personality: Effects of individual traits and cultural upbringing on behavior.

Impact of Sociocultural Diversity on Psychology • Are all people essentially the same? • Sometimes “Yes”: Most basic processes of perception and learning are shared • Sometimes “No”: Sociocultural variables shape what people make of those experiences and what they learn from them. • Culture is an organizing and stabilizing influence.

Individualist • Separate identity • Meeting personal goals; being unique • Self-assurance, express individuality • Personal credit for success; Blame external factors for failure • Self frame of reference Collectivist • Connectedness • Belonging, Meet obligations • Self-restrain, selfeffacing, • Social unit credit for success; Blame internal factors for failure • Group frame of reference

Cultural Values in Advertising-Korean or U. S. Advertisements? • “She’s got a style all her own” – ANSWER: ? • “You, only better” – ANSWER: ? • “A more exhilarating way to provide for your family” – ANSWER: ? • “We have a way of bringing people closer together” – ANSWER: ? • “Celebrating a halfcentury of partnership” – ANSWER: ? • “How to protect the most personal part of the environment: Your skin” – ANSWER: ? • “Our family agrees with this selection of home furnishings” – ANSWER: ? • “A leader among leaders” – ANSWER: ? Source: Brehm, Kassin, Fein, Social Psychology, 4/e (1999)