Psychology
The discipline concerned with behaviour and mental processes and how they are affected by an organism’s physical state, mental state, and external environment **not a pseudoscience
Empirical Evidence
Evidence gathered by careful observation, experimentation, or measurement
Psychobabble
confirms unsupported popular opinion
Critical Thinking
The ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgements on the basis of well-supported reasons and evidence, rather than emotion or anecdote
8 Critical Thinking Guidelines
- Ask Questions: Be Willing to Wonder
- Define your terms
- Examine the evidence
- Analyze assumptions and biases
- Avoid emotional reasoning (often overrides common sense)
- Dont oversimplify (look at all angles)
- Consider other interpretations
- Tolerate uncertainty (its okay not to know how you feel about an answer)
Psychology’s Past
Did not rely on empirical methods and evidence
Phrenology
Discredited theory that different brain areas account for specific personality traits. Can be ‘read’ from bumps on the skull.
Wilhelm Wundt
Established first psychological laboratory, 1879 at the University of Leipzig. His goal was too make psychology a science.
Early Psychologies (3)
- Stucturalism
- Functionalism
- Psychoanalysis
Structuralism
Early approach that emphasized the analysis of immediate experience into basic elements (Wundt & Titchener)
Interested in what happens
Introspection
Observe, analyze and describe your own sensation, mental images, and emotional reactions
Functionalism
Early approach that emphasized the function or purpose of behaviour of consciousness (James & Darwin)
Interested in how and why something happens
Functionalists broadened field of psychology to include the study of children, animals, religious experiences and stream of consciousness
Psychoanalysis
A theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy (freud)
Physical symptoms due to trauma or conflicts from early childhood
Emphasized unconscious motives and desires (i.e., sexual & aggressive)
Major Psychological Perspectives (5)
- Biological perspective
- Learning perspective
- Cognitive perspective
- Socio-cultural perspective
- Psychodynamic perspective
Biological Perspective and What it Involves
Approach that emphasizes how bodily events affect behaviour, feelings, and thoughts.
The Biological Perspective includes:
1. hormones
2. brain chemistry
3. heredity
4. evolutionary psychology : how past adaptive behaviours are reflected in present behaviour
Learning Perspective and What it Involves
Approach concerned with how the environment and experience affect a person’s (or animal’s) actions.
This perspective involves:
1. Behaviourism (how environmental rewards and punishments influence behaviour
2. Social-Cognitive Learning Theories (combine elements of behaviourism with thoughts, values, expectations, and intentions. everything is learned)
Cognitive Perspective and What it Involves
Approach that emphasizes mental processes in perception, memory, language, problem solving, and reasoning.
This perspective involves:
1. Computer models of cognition
2. Infant thinking
3. Intelligence testing
cognition: data goes in, is processed, and comes out ***
Socio-cultural Perspective and What it Involves
Approach that emphasizes social and cultural influences on behaviour.
This perspective involves:
1. Social psychology (study of rules, roles, groups, and relationships)
2. Cultural psychology (study of cultural norms, values, and expectations)
Psychodynamic Perspective and What it Involves
Approach that emphasizes unconscious dynamic within the individual, such as inner forces, conflicts, or instinctual energy.
This perspective involves unconscious thoughts, desires, and conflicts.
Suppressing thoughts can be dangerous when brought to the surface.
Connected to all other areas of psychology, but distinct in its language, methods, and standards or evidence.
Other Influential Movements (2)
- Humanist Perspective: positive
2. Feminist Perspective: equality for oppressed females
Humanist Psychology
Approach emphasizes personal growth and the achievement of human potential.
This approach:
- Rejected psychoanalysis and behaviourism
- Emphasized creativity, free will, resilience
- Linked to the development of positive psychology, focuses on happiness, optimism, and resilience in humans.
**Not born bas, genes do not make things inevitable, instead you have vulnerability
Feminist Psychology
Approach that analyzes social inequalities on gender relations and on the behaviour of the two sexes.
This approach:
- Recognized male bias in research methods
- Broadened research focus (gender roles)
- Questioned research used to justify lower status of disadvantaged groups
What Psychologists Do (3)
- Teaching and doing research in colleges and universities
- Providing health or mental-health services (psychological practice)
- Conducting applied research for non-academic settings (business, sports, law, and military)
Psychological Research Areas (2)
- Basic Psychology: “pure” research conducted to seek knowledge for its own sake
- Applied Psychology: finds practical uses for the knowledge gained from research
2 Major Nonclinical Specialities in Psychology
- Experimental Psychologists: research learning, motivation, emotion, sensation and perception, physiology, and cognition
- Educational Psychologists: search fro ways to improve the educational system (employed by school divisions, do psychological assessments)
