INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY - WordPress.com · The session notes titled “Introduction to...
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INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY
Lecturer: Dr. Paul Narh Doku
Contact: [email protected]
Department of Psychology, University of Ghana
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Session Overview
• This session will deal with the meaning and scope of psychology, misconceptions about psychology, pseudoscience (para- and pseudo – psychology), the goals of psychology and the relevance of psychology in our lives.
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This Session’s Goals and Objectives
At the end of this session, you will be able to:
– Explain what psychology is and differentiate it from the views of the layperson.
– Explain para and pseudo psychology.
– Mention some misconceptions about psychology.
– Mention and explain the 4 goals of psychology.
– Point out the relevance of psychology.
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Session Outline
The key topics to be covered in the session are as follows:
• Part I - meaning and scope of psychology
• Part II - misconceptions about psychology
• Part III - pseudoscience (para- and pseudo – psychology)
• Part IV - the goals of psychology
• Part V - the relevance of psychology in our lives.
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Reading List
Kalat, W. J. (2008). Introduction to psychology (8th ed). Thomson learning, inc. pages. 3 - 8
Nairne, S. J. (2014). Psychology (6th ed). Wadsworth, cengage learning. pages. 2 - 6
Coon, D. and Mitterer, O. J (2012). Psychology: modules for active learning (13th ed). Cengage learning. pages 12 -19
Bernstein, A. D. (2014). Essentials of psychology (6th ed). Wadsworth, cengage learning. pages 3 – 8
The session notes titled “Introduction to Psychology”
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Part I - Meaning and scope of psychology
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Meaning and scope of psychology
Exercise
• In your own words,
explain how you
understand the word
Psychology
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Root meaning of psychology
The term psychology is derived from two Greek words- “psyche” and
“logos”.
Psyche means mind/soul while logos refer to knowledge of or study
of.
Psychology has therefore in the past been referred to as:
• The study of the mind
• The study of the soul
• Knowledge of the mind
• Knowledge of the soul
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Contemporary view
The earlier definitions of psychology are restrictive in nature and scope
and do not reflect the actual terrain of the subject as it stands today.
Contemporary definitions have therefore broadened the scope to
incorporate the contemporary terrain covered by the subject such as:
the science of behaviour
the science of behaviour and mental processes (Myers, 1995)
the scientific study of behaviour and mental processes.(Coon, 2001;
Atkinson, et al, 2003)
the scientific field that attempts to understand the minds and behaviour
of humans and animals.
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Key words!
Science/Scientific – Psychology is a science because it uses the
scientific method to gain knowledge
Behaviour
a. whose behaviour do Psychologists study? – organisms (humans and
animals)
b. what is behaviour in the context of Psychology? – both overt and covert
behaviours
Mental Processes – synonymous to covert behaviours
Organisms – humans and animals
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Part II - Misconceptions about
psychology?
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Misconceptions about psychology?
People hold wrong
assumptions, views and
opinions about the
discipline.
The views are wrong
because they do not fit into
any of the definitions or
what psychology is actually
about.
Exercise
• Give examples of some of
the misconceptions
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Some misconceptions
Psychology is mind reading,
It is about magic, tricks and
mysticism.
Some also believe it is about
fortune telling
(soothsayers)
That is psychologists can predict
the future of others on the basis
of some lines in one’s palm etc.
• As you are aware now, psychology
is rather about the whats, hows
and whys of human behaviour
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Part III - PARA AND PSEUDO
PSYCHOLOGY
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PARA AND PSEUDO PSYCHOLOGY
Para and Pseudo psychology are two broad areas which fall
outside scope of psychology.
Para psychology literally means “beyond psychology.”
Pseudo Psychology is termed as 'false Psychology' because the
methods employed by practitioners are not scientific.
Scientific methods is currently the only method endorsed and used
by credible Psychologists.
Para and pseudo psychology deals with behaviours and phenomena
which cannot be observed and verified by others or through any
known scientific method.
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PARA-PSYCHOLOGY
Parapsychology goes beyond the five senses. We call such
processes Extrasensory Perception (ESP).
ESP is the unproven ability to communicate, gain knowledge
and information outside the use of the five senses, or cause
things to happen using only the power of the mind.
ESP processes do not lead themselves to rigorous scientific
test and verification
Reported ESP experiences involve telepathy, clairvoyance,
precognition, psychokinesis, etc.
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Telepathy
This is known as thought transfer
from one person to another
without the mediation of any
known channel of
communication.
One is said to experience
telepathy when a thought you
have or something you are
thinking of also occurs to another
person at the same period.
Example:
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Clairvoyance
This is the ability to see what is
happening at a particular place at a
certain time without having any
prior knowledge of the events.
It involves being able to see or give
an account of an ongoing events at
another place or what is happening
in another place irrespective of the
distance and physical barrier.
A key ingredient in clairvoyance is
absence of prior information of
the event.
• Example: while studying here in
this lecture room, one can
perceive and tell exactly what is
happening in the office of the
president of the Republic of
Ghana.
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Precognition
The ability to perceive and accurately
predict or foretell future events or the
acquisition of information about events
which will exist or occur in the future
without any prior knowledge.
In religion this may be called prophecy.
A prediction no matter how accurate it
is, is not considered as precognition if it
is based on the known.
For instance; Prediction of Ghana’s
population rate in 5 years using the
population and growth rate in 2013
cannot be precognition.
• Example of precognition:
Accurately foretelling the
scoreline of a football match
based on means which are not
scientific.
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Psychokinesis
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Psychokinesis
Simply means the power of the mind over matter.
The ability of an individual to exert influence over animate and
inanimate objects by will power.
Others call it mental influence over physical events without the
intervention of any known physical force.
The claim of having powers and ability to move objects without any
physical contact can not be verified by science
By its nature psychokinesis is not considered as part of ESP but is
usually studied under parapsychology
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PSEUDO-PSYCHOLOGY
Means false psychology hence it refers to unsubstantiated, false
or fake psychology.
It involves practices which are given semblance of psychology but
which in the real sense of the word are not.
They are given some manifestation of science but do not satisfy
scientific requirements
It has been referred to as dubious and unfounded system, which
relies on some physical features of a person to predict his/her
future. Examples include, Graphology, palmistry, phrenology etc
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Graphology
• The believe that one's
handwriting reveals one's
personality traits and could
also be used to predict job
performance
Note that this is different
from an aspect of forensic
psychology in which an
expert in handwriting can
determine one’s signature
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12/09/14
DIFFERENCE BETWEEN GRAPHOLOGY AND FORENSIC PSYCHOLOGY
Graphology is concerned about the using the size, the slant and other aspects of one’s handwriting to make predictions about the person.
Forensic psychologists ascertain the veracity and authenticity of signatures and/or handwritings.
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palmistry
• It is the claim and believe
that lines and the pattern of
the in individual's palm have
something to do with their
personalities and that the
nature of the lines and the
pattern could be used to
predict one’s future or
destiny – success or
otherwise.
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phrenology
It is the belief that the bumps
on one’s head and shape of
one's skull determine one's
personality, intelligence, and
other individual
characteristics.
Based on this we may often
hear people describe others as
stupid or intelligent because
of shape of the head.
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They lead to ready acceptance of chance events as evidence of
paranormal phenomena.
Paranormal activities cannot be replicated. Scientists discredit
events that cannot be replicated under similar conditions.
There seem to be no explanation for paranormal phenomena.
It has been found that such processes are used to perpetrate
fraud on others.
It reduces active conscious beings into passive unthinking
beings.
Problems with para and pseudo
psychology
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Part IV - Goals of Psychology
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Goals of Psychology
The Goals of Psychology are:
Description:
Explanation/Understanding:
Prediction:
Control:
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Goals of Psychology
DESCRIPTION (What is happening)
The first step in understanding anything
is naming.
Description involves observing a
behaviour and noting everything about
it: what is happening, where it happens,
to whom it happens, and under what
circumstances it seems to happen.
This requires one to portray the
phenomena accurately to identify the
variables that exist and then to
determine the degree to which they
exist.
EXPLANATION (Why of behaviour)
Requires knowledge of why the
phenomenon exists or what causes it.
Finding explanations is an important
step in the process of forming theories.
A theory is a general explanation of a
set of observations or facts.
The goal of description provides the
observations, and the goal of
explanation helps to build theory
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Goals of Psychology
PREDICTION (When will it
happen again?)
The ability to anticipate an event prior
to its actual performance based on
knowledge of underlying causes.
The knowledge of what causes
kleptomania or nocturnal enuresis
help to anticipate future occurrence
of behaviour or not.
This helps to control or modify the
behaviour to make it much more
adaptive
• CONTROL (How can it
be modified or changed)
• The focus of control, or
modification of behaviour, is
to change it from an
undesirable one to
desirable(such as failing in
school) to a desirable one
(such as academic success).
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Do psychologists meet all the 4
goals?
NO! not all investigations will try to meet all four of the goals,
In some cases, main focus would be on description and prediction.
(e.g. personality theorist).
In other cases focus would be on description and explanation (e.g.
experimental psychologists).They design research to find explanation
for observed (described)
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Part V - The relevance of Psychology
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Why do we study psychology
a. Knowledge in psychology will enable individuals to understand
themselves better
b. In addition to knowing oneself better, psychology also helps individuals
to understand others….. why they think, feel and act the way they do.
c. Furthermore, psychology provides insight into social issues and
behaviour – why do individual's private behaviour tends to be
significantly different from what they do in public and other social
situations?
d. Finally, the study of psychology put individuals in a better position to
evaluate conflicting claims on human behavior and make informed
judgment and draw valid conclusions.
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CONCLUSION
THE NEW COMMANDMENT
NOW GO YE INTO THE WORLD
AND MAKE DISCIPLES OF
PSYCHOLOGY
How?
1.Through education
2. Application in all aspects of life