1. What is Psychology?
Chapter 1

2. Why do we study psychology?
Insight into behavior – why are certain behaviors being exhibited in certain situations?
Practical Information – we can use psychology in every day activities (example: mnemonic devices)

3. What is psychology?
Psychology is defined as the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.
Psychology covers everything people think, feel, and do.
Many different approaches (example: observable vs. unobservable behaviors)
Psychology is systematic

4. Goals of Psychology
Description – gather information and present what is known.
Explanation – why are the behaviors being exhibited?
Prediction – look at data to predict future behaviors
Control – to control or influence behavior in helpful ways

5. History of Psychology
Began in the 5th and 6th centuries B.C. with the ancient Greeks.
Greek philosophers believed that people were not controlled by the gods but by their own minds – they were rational.
They weren’t systematic in their approach, as they relied more on observation.

6. History of Psychology
17th century philosophers came up with the idea of dualism – the idea that the mind and body are separate and distinct.
Rene Descartes said that the mind controlled the body and that the mind and body influence each other to create experiences.
With findings in biology and chemistry, we have certain truths that help us better define behavior.

7. History of Psychology
Thought to have begun as a discipline in 1879, in Germany when Wilhelm Wundt developed his Laboratory of Psychology.
Developed the idea of introspection – training subjects to record their thoughts when presented with various situations.

8. History of Psychology
1890 – William James wrote Principles of Psychology
Speculated that thinking, feeling, learning, remembering – all activities of the mind – served the function of helping humans survive as a species.
Focused on the functions of the mind and the functions of behavior.

9. Sigmund Freud
Believed that behavior was driven by our unconscious mind.
Developed psychoanalysis – interpreting someone’s thoughts to explain behaviors.

10. Sir Francis Galton
Examined how heredity influenced a person’s abilities, character, and behavior.
Developed the first personality tests.
1883, Inquiries into Human Faculty and Its Development.

11. Behaviorism Ivan Pavlov, John B. Watson, B.F. Skinner
Introduced the idea of conditioned responses – providing stimuli to create a certain behavior
Example – positive and negative reinforcement

12. Humanism
Humans don’t need to be conditioned through external stimuli – their mind is able to influence behavior
Reaction to Behaviorism

13. Cognition Looking at internal processes to explain behavior
Continually assess our knowledge of ourselves
Metacognition – thinking about thinking

14. Psychology as a Profession
Psychologists are people who have been trained to observe and analyze behavior patterns, to develop theories on behavior, and to apply what they know to influence behavior.
Psychiatry is a specialty of medicine.

15. Specialty Fields in Psychology
Clinical and Counseling Psychology
Social psychology
Community psychology
Industrial/Organizational psychology
Experimental Psychology
Personality Psychology