pyschology 1st session

8/3/2019 Pyschology 1st Session

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Richard M. Galicia


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What is your impression on this?

Consult a psychologist.


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Definition of Psychology Psychologyis the systematic, scientific study of

behaviors and mental processes.

Behaviors refer to observable action or responses inboth humans and animals; e.g., eating, speaking,laughing, running, reading, and sleeping.

Mental processeswhich are not readily and directly

observable refer to a wide range of complex mentalprocesses such as thinking, imagining, studying, anddreaming.


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Goals of Psychology1. The first goal of psychology is to describe the

different ways in which organisms behave.

2. The second goal of psychology is to explain thecauses of behavior.

3. The third goal of psychology is to predict howorganisms will behave in certain situations.

4. For some psychologists, the fourth goal ofpsychology is to control an organisms behavior.


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Approaches to Understanding Behavior1. Biological Approach focuses on how our genes,

hormones, and nervous system interact with ourenvironments to influence learning, personality,memory, motivation, emotions, and copingtechniques.

2. Cognitive Approach examines how we process,

store, and use information and how it influenceswhat we attend to, perceive, learn, remember,believe, and feel.


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3. Behavioral Approach studies how organisms learnnew behaviors or modify existing ones, depending

on whether events in their environments reward orpunish these behaviors.

4. Psychoanalytic Approach stresses the influence ofunconscious fears, desires, and motivations, onthoughts, behaviors, and the development ofpersonality traits and psychological problems later inlife.

5. Humanistic Approach emphasizes that eachindividual has great freedom in directing his or her

future, a large capacity for personal growth, aconsiderable amount of intrinsic worth, andenormous potential for self-fulfillment.


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6. Cross-cultural Approach examines the influence ofcultural and ethnic similarities and differences on

the psychological and social functioning of acultures members.

7. Evolutionary Approach studies how evolutionaryideas, such as adaptation and natural selection,

explain human behaviors and mental processes. By using one or more of these seven approaches,

psychologists can look at behaviors from differentviewpoints and stand a better chance of reaching

psychologys four goals: describing, explaining,predicting, and controlling behaviors.


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The Eclectic Approach Rather than strictly focusing on one of the seven

approaches, most of todays psychologists use aneclectic approach, which means they use differentapproaches to study the same behavior. By combininginformation from the biological, cognitive, behavioral,psychoanalytic, humanistic, cross-cultural, andevolutionary approaches, psychologists stand a bettera chance of reaching the goals of psychology.


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Historical Approaches to PsychologyA. Structuralism: Elements of the Mind

Wilhelm Wundt established the first psychology

laboratory in 1879, in Leipzig, Germany. Wundt,now considered the Father of Psychology, wouldask subjects to drop balls from the platform orlisten to metronome and report their own

sensations. He and his followers were analyzingthe structure of the mind. For this reason theywere called structuralists and their approach wascalled structuralism.


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Structuralism is the study of the most basicelements, primarily sensations and perceptions, that

make up our conscious mental experiences.Structuralists then attempt to combine hundreds ofsensations into a complete conscious experience.

Introspection is a method of exploring conscious

mental processes by looking inwards and being awareof ones sensation and perception.

However the method of introspection was highlycriticized for high possibility of bias. This criticism

resulted in another new approach, calledFUNCTIONALISM.


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B. Functionalism: Functions of the Mind

-Unlike Wundt, who saw mental activities as

composed of basic elements, William Jamesviewed mental activities as having developedthrough ages of evolution because of theiradaptive functions, such as human beings survive.

James was interested in the goals, purposes, andfunctions of the mind, an approach called

functionalismwhich was the study of thefunction rather than the structure of

consciousness, focusing in how our mindsadapt to our changing world.


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About the same time that James was criticizingWundts structuralism, another group also found

reasons to disagree with Wundt, this group was calledthe Gestalt Psychologists.

C. Gestalt Approach: Sensation Vs. Perception

This approach was introduced in 1912 by threepsychologists: Max Wertheimer, Wolfgang Kohler,and Kurt Koffka. They reported that they hadcreated the perception of movement by brieflyflashing one light and then, a short time later, asecond light. Although the two bulbs were fixed,the light actually appeared to move from one tothe other. They called this thephi phenomenon;today it is known as apparent motion.


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Wertheimer and his colleagues believed that theperception of apparent motion could not be

explained by the structuralists, who said that themovement resulted from simply adding togetherthe sensations from two fixed lights. Instead,Wertheimer argued that perceptual experiences,

such as perceiving moving lights, resulted fromanalyzing a whole pattern or in German, aGESTALT.

Gestalt approach emphasized that perception is more

than the sum of its parts and the manner by whichsensations are assembled into meaningful perceptualexperiences.


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D. Behaviorism: Observable Behaviors

In 1913 John B. Watson published a landmark

paper entitled: Psychology as a Behaviorist Views It. Init, he rejected Wundts structuralism and its study ofmental elements and conscious processes. He alsorejected introspection as a psychological technique

because its results could not be scientifically verified byother psychologists.

Instead, John Watson boldly stated thatpsychology should be considered an objective,

experimental science, which goal should be the analysisof observable behaviors and the prediction and controlof those behaviors.


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From the 1920s to the 1960s behaviorism was thedominant force in American psychology. Part of thisdominance was due to the work of B.F. Skinner andother behaviorists, who expanded and developed

Watsons ideas into the modern-day behavioralapproach.

However beginning in the 1970s and continuing intothe present, behaviorisms dominance was challengedby the cognitive approach, which popularity nowsurpasses behaviorism.

pyschology 1st session

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