What is Psychology?

• The scientific study of human and animal behavior

What is Behavior?

• Pretty much ANYTHING that you do, think or feel.

Types of Psychology

• Research: – Studies why things happen.– Deals with theories and lab experiments

• “Lab tests show people’s anxiety level increases when surrounded by the color red.”

• Applied: – Figures out how to USE information found

by researchers– “NASA scientists study which colors to paint

the inside of the International Space Station”

Fields of PsychologyWhere Psychologists work

Uiversities Colleges and

research settings48%

Hospitals clinics and human

services24%

Independent practice

15%

Business and government

13%

Example fields (p21-22)• Clinical Psychology – therapists etc

• Educational Psychology – therapists for kids, help ID and aid learning styles and issues

• Child Psych – how the brain grows and learns to learn. Also – how to parent

• Environmental Psych – coping with disasters, crowding, workplace environment

Example Fields continued

• Industrial Psych – marketing, public relations, efficiency

• Engineering Psych – human / machine interaction, design casinos

• Experimental Psych – usually research people. Lab experiments. Colleges

• Teaching – this class for instance

History of Psychology

The founders

Charles Darwin

• Not a psychologist

• Developed theory of evolution

• Believed we can study animals to understand ourselves

William Wundt (“Vundt”)

• Germany 1880s• Laboratory of Psychology• “Father of Psychology”• First to try to scientifically study

the workings of the mind• Introspection

– Record your thought– Map out the thought process– Did not work out well – but

inspired others

William James

• First American Psychologist

• 1880s – 1900s• All activities of the

mind (thinking, feeling learning, remembering) serve to help us survive

Sigmund Freud

• Austrian late 1800s – 1930s

• Psychoanalysis

•Conscious mind is only the tip of the iceberg

–Concentration on the unconscious mind

–“learn through dream analysis”

Francis Galton (1880s, England)

• Is Behavior / Intelligence hereditary or learned?– “nature vs nurture idea– Based his ideas on biographies of

“intellectual” families• Has some serious flaws

• Developed the first “personality tests” and “intelligence tests”

Ivan Pavlov• Russia early 1900s

• Experiments with his dog

• Conditioned response– Behavior is result of past

experience                       

John Watson (early 1900s)

• ALL behavior is the result of learning (or conditioning) – even what we think is instinct

• Similar experiments as Pavlov – but Watson used children

• Has some serious

impact on the kids

Albert and the rat

B.F. Skinner

• Mid – late 1900s. American• Conditioning can be applied to

entire societies– Reward for behavior results in that

behavior being done again in the future• Though he did not feel the opposite worked

(punishment does not change behavior – just covers it up)

– Entire basis for “Walden II” – a utopian society based on rewarding good behavior

(Class participation points work the same way

Approaches to Psychology

• Neurobiological

• Behavioral

• Psychoanalytic

• Cognitive

• Sociocultural

Neurobiological

• Concentrates on the Chemical / Physical reasons for behavior– What chemical reactions occur in our brains

and bodies as a result of stimulations and what reactions do they cause?

• In some ways, our behavior is hard wired into us

Just for laughs

Outdoor Grilling Area

Behavioral

• We adapt our behavior based on rewards

• We learn through experience

• Behavior can be changed– B.F. Skinner was a behavioralist

Humanistic

• Interested in what it means to be human

• Everyone has the chance to grow to greatness. The only thing holding us back is ourselves.

We continually strive to achieve greatness

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

Psychoanalytical Approach

• We all have suppressed desires

• We unconsciously do things to alleviate these desires

• Analyze what we do subconsciously in order to understand our REAL selves.– Freud: father of psychoanalysis

Cognitive Approach• Studies how we process information through

– perception, attention, language, memory, and thinking

• How they influence our thoughts, feelings, behaviors and ability to operate in our world.

• Past experiences make the difference between one person's perception and another's

– Can you give an example to illustrate this?

Sociocultural Approach

• Impact society has on behavior

– economics, race, ethnic group, climate, religion, language, traditions, cultures, gender, location, politics, etc