Chapter 1

What is Psychology?

1.1 Why Study Psychology?

• What do you hope to learn from the study of psychology? – Others? – Self? – Specific Topics?

• Psychology provides a different way to view and interpret the world and the people who inhabit it.

What is psychology?

• Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

What is psychology?

• Behavior is any action that people can observe or measure. – Walking– Talking– Sleeping– Eating– Blood Pressure– Brain Activity

What is psychology?

• Mental processes are cognitive activities.– Dreams – Perceptions– Thoughts– Memories

What is psychology?

• Psychologists also study people’s emotions as they can affect both behavior and cognition.

What are the goals of psychology?

• Psychologists observe and describe behavior and mental processes.

• A better understanding of behavior/mental processes enables psychologists to explain, predict, and control behavior.

Psychology as a Science

• Psychology is a social science. (The social sciences include history, sociology, and political science.)

• Some areas of psychology include elements of the natural sciences. (The natural sciences include biology and chemistry.)

Psychology as a Science

• Psychologists, like scientists, conduct research.

• Psychologists conduct research by using surveys, case studies, observation methods, and experimentation.

Psychology as a Science

• Psychologists, like scientists, organize their ideas into theories.– A theory is a statement

that attempts to explain why things are the way they are and happen the way they do.

– Theories help psychologists predict behavior and mental processes.

– Theories may be revised or discarded.

1.2 What Psychologists Do

• Psychologists work in many different fields, but they all focus on studying and explaining behavior and mental processes.

Major Fields in Psychology

• Clinical Psychology– Make up the largest group

of psychologists– Treat people with all types

of psychology problems – Work in hospitals, prisons,

colleges, and/or private practice

• Psychiatrists– Are medical doctors and

can prescribe medication

Major Fields in Psychology

• Counseling Psychology– Typically treat people with adjustment problems – Often work in businesses or higher education

Major Fields in Psychology

• School Psychology– Identify and help students

who have problems that interfere with learning

– Use interviews, tests, and observation to help students

• Educational Psychology– Focus on course planning

& instructional methods for entire school systems rather then individuals

– Often work with testing

Major Fields in Psychology

• Developmental Psychology – Study changes that occur

during the life span– Includes physical,

emotional, cognitive, or social changes

Major Fields in Psychology

• Personality Psychology– Identify and study human

characteristics or traits– Concerned with issues

such as anxiety, aggression, and gender roles

• Social Psychology– Concerned with people’s

social behavior– Focus on external

influences

Major Fields in Psychology

• Experimental Psychology– Research basic processes

such as functions of the nervous system, sensation and perception, learning, memory, thinking, and emotions

– Basic research – has no immediate application and is done for its own sake

Other Specialists

• Industrial and Organizational Psychology– Industrial – study of people

and work– Organizational – study of

how people behave in organizations such as business

– Usually trained in both areas

– Employed by business to improve working conditions and worker output

Other Specialists

• Environmental Psychology - Study how people influence and are influenced by their environment

• Consumer Psychology – Study behavior of shoppers

• Health Psychology – Study how behavior and

mental processes relate to physical health

– Study how stress affects health

– Focus on disease prevention

Other Specialists

• Forensic Psychology– Work in the criminal justice

system– Determine the psychological

competence of defendants– Explain how psychological

problems lead to criminal behavior

– Work with police departments to select police officers, help officers cope with job stress, and train officers in the handling of dangerous situations

1.3 A History of Psychology

• Interest in psychology goes back to ancient Greece

• Scientific approach, which began in the 1500s, led to birth of modern psychology in the late 1800s

Hippocrates

1.3 A History of Psychology

• Wilhelm Wundt and Structuralism– Established laboratory in

1879 in Leipzig, Germany– Structuralism focused on

the basic elements of consciousness

• Broke down consciousness into objective sensations and subjective feelings

• Believed human mind functions by combining objective sensations and subjective feelings

1.3 A History of Psychology

• William James and Functionalism– Experience is a continuous

“stream of consciousness”– Study how mental

processes help organisms adapt to their environment

William James

1.3 A History of Psychology

• John B. Watson and Behaviorism– Defined psychology as the

scientific study of observable behavior

– Believed people can be conditioned by external events and free choice is an illusion

• B.F. Skinner– Contributed idea of

reinforcement – Behaviors reinforced will

be repeated

Watson

Skinner

1.3 A History of Psychology

• The Gestalt School– Developed by German

psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, and Wolfgang Kohler

– Perceptions of objects are more then the sum of their parts - the wholes give meaning to the parts

1.3 A History of Psychology

• Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis– Emphasizes unconscious

motives and internal conflicts and importance of childhood experiences

– Very influential and very controversial

Sigmund Freud

The End