1. What is Psychology?
Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes
Scientific?
Not just common sense or guesses
Psychology uses the scientific method
Scientific Method is careful observations and the experimental testing of hypothesis
Behavior – what people do on the outside
Mental Processes – What is going on inside someone's head. We call this cognition.
Psychology includes the study of both humans and animals

2. Approaches to the field of Psychology
Biological
Evolutionary
Behavioral
Cognitive
Psychodynamic
Humanistic
Social

3. Humanistic Approach

4. 1. Biological Psychology
Investigates the biological basis of human behavior, thoughts and emotions. Looks at how the following biological mechanisms effect your behavior and mental processes.
Brain
Neurotransmitters
Hormones
Drugs (both legal and illegal)
Gender differences in brain structure

5. Example
Let us imagine for a second that your dog died. You become depressed. You stop eating and sleeping. What would a psychologist from this school say is going on and how might they help you?

6. 2. Evolutionary Psychology
Asks the question: How did our species get to be the way we are?
Language – Why do we talk?
Altruism – Why are we nice to each other?
Mate selection – Why are some people considered beautiful?
Answers these questions by looking at what would most help us pass on our genetic code.
Very concerned with reproduction!

7. 3. Behavioral
This approach only studies observable human behavior focusing on how we learn, react and manipulate our environment. 
We learn observable responses through conditioning or by trying to get rewards/avoid punishments.
Mind is a BLACK BOX. Can’t see it? Don’t study it.
Big names
Pavlov – Dogs
Watson – Little Albert
Skinner – Operant Conditioning

8. Example
Pretend that you fail psychology class. You become depressed. In turn, you begin to binge and gain weight.
What do you think a behaviorist may do?
They would probably ignore the fact that you are depressed and just focus on your overeating.
Maybe make you run a mile every time you eat over 2000 calories.

9. 4. Cognitive Psychology
School of psychology that studies mental processes
Thinking, feeling, remembering, making decisions and judgments
Studies how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information.
Thanks to new technologies like CAT scans, MRIs and fMRIs, we can open the black box.

10. Example Some learned get back on the horse And try again.
She rejects you…don’t even get a phone number.
You meet a girl…
Hopes are high!!!
Some learned to give up and live a lonely life of solitude.

11. 5. Psychodynamic (Psychoanalytic) Psychology
Personality theory that says behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts
Unconscious is forbidden desires and nameless fears
Psychoanalysis
Sigmund Freud

12. Example
Perhaps they may delve into the man’s unconscious and discover that he was bullied when he were younger. The bullying may have caused fear in getting close to others.
If a man has intimacy issues and cannot form relationships with others. What do you think someone from this school may think?

13. 6. Humanistic Psychology
School of psychology that emphasizes nonverbal experiences and altered states of consciousness as a means of realizing one’s full human potential
Importance of love, belonging, human potential, and self-esteem.
Abraham Maslow
Not mainstream, more a cultural and spiritual movement.

14. 7. Sociocultural Psychology
Study of how people influence one another
Topics include:
First impressions
Interpersonal attraction
Attitude formation
Prejudice
Behavior in a group
Obedience to Authority
Some Applications include:
Support groups
Family Therapy
Sensitivity Training

15. Careers in Psychology Clinical and counseling developmental
educational
experimental
human factors
industrial–organizational
personality
psychometric

16. 1. Clinical and Counseling Psychology
About 50% of all Psychologists
Counseling psychologists deal with “normal” problems, such as stress caused by career change or marital problems
Counseling psychologist’s focus more on the psychologically healthy individual where clinical focuses on individuals with serious mental illness (e.g. schizophrenia).
Clinical psychologists are concerned with diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders
Split time between treatment and researching the cause of psychological disorders and the effectiveness of different types of psychotherapy and counseling.

17. 2. Developmental Psychology
Study of physical and mental growth from birth to old age
study of changing abilities from womb to tomb
Subfields
Child psychology
Adolescent psychology
Life-span psychology

18. 3. Educational Psychology
School Psychologist
psychological evaluations
consult with school personnel in relation to students’ learning, behavior, and environments
they are trained to look at the effectiveness of academic programs, classroom agendas, and treatment interventions, which assists in the development of specific interventions.

19. 4. Experimental Psychology
Design research experiments
May or may not have a direct impact on the treatment of patients
Animal subjects
Drug trials

20. 5. Human Factors
The science of understanding the properties of human capability (Human Factors Science).
The application of this understanding to the design, development and deployment of systems and services (Human Factors Engineering).
The art of ensuring successful application of Human Factors Engineering to a programme (sometimes referred to as Human Factors Integration).It can also be called ergonomics.

21. 6. Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Study of psychological principles in industry and business
Examples
Selecting and training personnel
Productivity improvement
Optimizing working conditions
Managing the impact of automation on workers

22. 7. Personality Psychology
Study of how people differ from one another on traits such as
Conscientiousness
Agreeableness
Neuroticism
Openness
Extraversion

23. 7. Psychometics Test creation Validity Reliablity Culture fair
Statistics

24. Psychiatry A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders
Practiced by physicians who sometimes use medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as psychotherapy

25. Licenses in Psychology
Psychologists - Ph.D., Psy.D.
Psychiatrists - M.D.
Psychoanalysts - M.D. or Ph.D.
Social Workers (M.S.W.) - LSW
Marriage Family Therapists - M.A.