INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

Spring 2014
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PSYCHOLOGY IN THE WORLD
AROUND US
EYEWITNESS TESTIMONY:
HOW ACCURATE IS IT?
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1
ST
, 2
ND
, 3
RD

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WHATS JETERS IQ?

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CAN A NICOTINE PATCH HELP COGNITIVE
FUNCTIONING?
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WHAT MAKES THESE ADS
SO PERSUASIVE?
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WHY WAS THE TIGER WOODS SCANDAL SO
SHOCKING?
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Can anyone think of any topic that has nothing at all
to do with psychology?
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WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?

PSYCHOLOGY:
The science of mental processes and behavior.
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MENTAL PROCESSES:
What the brain does when a person stores, recalls,
or uses information or has specific feelings.
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BEHAVIOR:
The observable acts of a person or animal.
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SOME QUESTIONS:
Is your behavior predictable?

Why do students come into a classroom, sit down,
and face the front of the room?

What is it that causes behavior?
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GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY
Describe

Explain

Predict

Control



Behavior
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WHAT DO PSYCHOLOGISTS DO?
THREE MAJOR CATEGORIES:
Helpers

Academics

Problem-Solvers
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THE HELPERS
Clinical Psychologists

Counseling Psychologists

Clinical Neuropsychologists

Others: Psychiatrists, Social Workers, Psychiatric
Nurses
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THE ACADEMICS
Developmental Psychologists

Cognitive Psychologists

Social Psychologists

Personality Psychologists
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PROBLEM-SOLVERS
Industrial/Organizational Psychologists

Sports Psychologists

Educational or School Psychologists

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THE HISTORY OF PSYCHOLOGY
Why did it take until recently for psychology to
become a science?

Until recently people did not believe the mind could be
studied objectively.

The technology was not there. We had no way to take
the next step from speculation to science.
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PSYCHOLOGY GREW FROM TWO OTHER
SCIENCES:
1. Philosophy
Rationalism: true knowledge
comes from reasoning and
logic to find truth.
2. Physiology
Empiricism: scientific method
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STRUCTURALISM
Wilhelm Wundt: set up the first psychology lab in
Leipzig, Germany 1879.

Edward Titchener: integral to the establishment of
structuralism

Goals? Anyone know?
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GOALS
The structuralists aimed to find the structure of
thought.

In other words, they were interested in find the
building blocks of thought.
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WILHELM WUNDT
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EDWARD TITCHENER


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TWO ELEMENTS OF CONSCIOUSNESS
1. Sensations: Arise from the
eyes, ears, and other sense
organs.

2. Feelings: e.g., fear, anger,
love
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INTROSPECTION

The technique of noticing your mental processes
as, or immediately after, they occur.

Lets try it
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Can anyone think of the problems associated with
this kind of technique to studying psychology?
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FUNCTIONALISM

Sought to understand the ways that the mind helps
individuals to function or adapt to the world.

Strongly influenced by Charles Darwin, they looked
at the ways in which consciousness helps an
individual survive and adapt to an environment.
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FUNCTIONALISM CONTINUED
William James: set up the first psychology lab in
the United States at Harvard University.

Functionalists were the first to relate human
psychology to animal psychology.

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WILLIAM JAMES
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GESTALT PSYCHOLOGY
whole is more than the sum of the parts.

Max Wertheimer

The content of our thoughts comes from what we
perceive and from inborn tendencies to perceive
things in certain ways.
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FIGURE/GROUND
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PROXIMITY
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PROXIMITY CONTINUED
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CLOSURE
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CLOSURE CONTINUED
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CONTINUITY CONTINUED(HA HA)
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SIMILARITY
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PSYCHODYNAMIC THEORY
Who developed this theory?

How thoughts and feelings affect our actions.

Many (if not most) mental processes are
unconscious.
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SIGMUND FREUD
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BEHAVIORISM
Psychology should focus on directly observable
behavior.

BF Skinner, Thorndike, Watson

They argue: There is no such thing as mental
processes.
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BF SKINNER
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BEHAVIORISM CONTINUED
Behaviorism focuses on how a specific stimulus
evokes a specific response

Reinforcement: a key idea

What are the problems with behaviorism?
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HUMANISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
People have positive values, free will, and deep
inner creativity, the combination of which leads
them to choose life fulfilling paths to personal
growth.

Carl Rogers (Rogerian) and Abraham Maslow
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CARL ROGERS AND ABRAHAM MASLOW
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COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY
Uses an information processing model to
understand how humans store and internally
operate on information.

Focus on mental processes.
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