Introduction to Psychology Overview. What is Psychology? Psyche/logos: study of the mind Scientific...
Transcript of Introduction to Psychology Overview. What is Psychology? Psyche/logos: study of the mind Scientific...
Introduction to Psychology
Overview
What is Psychology?
Psyche/logos: study of the mind
Scientific study of mental and behavioral processes
Scientific observation; data collection; drawing conclusions
More than intuition....
Need for empirical testing
Evaluating the quality of evidence
“Expertise” should not be blindly accepted
Role of critical thinking
Goals of Psychology
To understand, describe, explore, predict, and control behavior
Basic and applied research
Social policy implications
Central Questions/Issues
Nature vs. Nurture Free will vs. determinism The role of culture The role of context The effectiveness of intervention
Subfields in Psychology
Developmental Educational Personality Social Comparative Biopsychology Cognitive Cultural
Evolutionary Gender Sports Environmental Forensic Industrial organizational Positive/peace
Psychoanalytic Perspective
Sigmund Freud: (1856-1939) “Father of Psychology”
Role of the unconscious Repressed conflicts
Id/ego/superego psychoanalysis
Behaviorism (1913)
John Watson & B.F. Skinner Study of observable behavior only
Thought/cognition not studied- “unscientific”
Associations between stimuli Reinforcements and punishments
Behaviorism
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well formed, and my own special 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, and yes- beggar man and thief” --John Watson
Gestalt (early 1900s)
Gestalt: German for whole; pattern; form Max Wertheimer
Study of thinking, learning, and perception in whole units, not individual parts or pieces
Example: holistic view of personality
“the whole is greater than the sum of its parts”
Humanistic
Abraham Maslow; Carl Rogers Subjective experience
Human potential
Innate goodness
Self-actualization
Existential
Rollo-May; Frankl Search for meaning Questions of existence; what it means to be
human Free will Universal human themes- death, isolation, love,
etc. Humans nature: neutral
Eclectic
Merging ideas from several approaches