1. Module 1: Discovering Psychology

2. What is Psychology?
Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes.
1.Observable actions (Behavior)
2.Unobservable actions (Mental Processes)

3. What are the goals of Psychology?
The 1st goal of Psych. Is to Describe.
What
When
Where

4. What are the goals of Psychology?
2nd step looks to Explain
WHY?
Why do people think differently?
Why are workers less productive after 3p.m.?
Why do people comprehend what they read differently?

5. What are the goals of Psychology?
3rd Step leads to a researcher making a prediction….Will?
Will a child learn a second language better if they begin in kindergarten?
Will a returning soldier from Afghanistan develop Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)?

6. What are the goals of Psychology?
4th Step: If events ( behavior, mental processes) can be predicted, then they may also be controlled.
How can schools teach math more effectively?
How can juvenile depression be contained?

7. What is Psychology based on?
Is the science of psychology based solely on common sense?
Is the study of cognition and mental processes similar to what is seen in the movies?

8. The Scientific Process
1. Empirical Research:
Research that is based on observation and experience and can be verified or disproved.
Ex: Cigarette smoking is proven to cause cancer.

9. The Scientific Process
Analytical: It is a science that separates everything into components and analyzes cause and effect.

10. Believe It Or Not?
Q: If a woman is born with no arms is she able to feel serious pain in her HANDS?
A:?
Q: A man is brought to a psychologist with a “disorder” that causes him to think his parents are really alien imposters. Is he crazy?

11. Believe It Or Not?
Do you think it is possible for a person to count to the 10,000th place of pi in his head?

12. Believe It Or Not?
What is one method used by police, which allows a person to remember things they previously could not during questioning?

13. …And this.
According to education psychologists; What is the most effective way a student can learn and retain information?

14. …And this.
How about the least effective?

15. … in the end.
“ The purpose of psychology is to give us a completely different idea of the things we know best.” Paul Valery (French poet, Essayist and Critic )

16. Modern Approaches of Psychology
Psychology is a very broad field.
Within this discipline are a number of specific approaches all using different ideas, theories, and research methods

17. Approaches of Psychology
Psychology tries to answer questions sometimes using different approaches.
Similar too
Trying to solve a problem like: I need a job, but I want good money, a fun job, and friendly co-workers?

18. Approaches of Psychology
Another example:
You have a headache:
You ask yourself:
Am I sick?
Am I feeling down?
Do I need to eat?
Did I sleep enough?
Have I watched to much TV?

19. Biological Approach
We are who we are biologically therefore our problems all have biological origins.

20. Biological Approach Genetic makeup Heredity Biological approach
focuses on how our genes, hormones, and nervous system interact with our environments to influence learning, personality, memory, motivation, emotions, and coping techniques

21. Cognitive Approach
Memory: Are we simply a collection of past experiences?
Do our problems originate in our perceptions of the world around us?
Cognitive approach
examines how we process, store, and use information and how this information influences, what we attend to, perceive, learn, remember, believe, and feel

22. Cognitive Approach
Right now, do you think you are interpreting this material different from the person next to you?
Do you think you have different beliefs, attitudes, values than the person behind you?

23. What is the purpose of punishment?
Behavioral Approach
What is the purpose of punishment?
Could you own a dog with no training?
Can a human being exist in our society with no concept of right and wrong?

24. Behavioral Approach What is the purpose of being rewarded?
studies how organisms learn new behaviors or modify existing ones, depending on whether events in their environments reward or punish these behaviors

25. Behavioral Approach Why do people go to Atlantic City?
Would a person cease going if they never won?

26. Psychoanalytic Approach
Sigmund Freud
Psychoanalytic approach
stresses the influence of unconscious fears, desires, and motivations on thoughts, behaviors, and the development of personality traits and psychological problems later in life

27. Psychoanalytic Approach
Show of hands,
How many of you dream every night? and How many of you have not remembered a dream in weeks?
Dali: Persistence of Memory

28. Psychoanalytic Approach
Do you think it is possible for an individual to have more than (1) distinct personalities? Without ever knowing?

29. Humanistic Approach
Each individual is unique and to be understand and evaluated must not be compared with another
Humanistic approach
emphasizes that each individual has great freedom in directing his or her future, a large capacity for personal growth, a considerable amount of intrinsic worth, and enormous potential for self-fulfillment

30. Cross-Cultural Approach
Southwest native Americans consumed peyote in order to contact the spirit word. Today we know it as an hallucinogen which alters brain chemistry therefore altering our sense.

31. Cross-Cultural Approach
To this day the Roman Catholic church still advocates exorcisms for people who have been diagnosed with specific psychiatric diseases.

32. Psychological Approaches
Purpose?
Apply these numerous approaches to the endless differences in human beings and you will begin to see what the focus of psychology is about.

33. Historical Approaches of Psychology
Confer to memory that the Scientific study of Psychology is only 125 years old.
By Scientific it means as a Specific Field.
Prior to the late 19th century psychology was a term used by physiologists and philosophers.
Ancient Greece and its renowned philosophers were the first to document happenings of the mind

34. Deep Historical Roots
From Ancient Greece to Descartes of 17th century France ( a renowned philosopher) , people have been always fascinated with the mind especially the abnormal.
Consider that little over (300) years ago the mentally ill were sometimes accused of witch hood and burned alive.

35. From Philosophy to Psychology
In this last 100+ years, psychology and psychologists have become seen as researchers focusing solely on the mind.

36. The power of a metronome?
Structuralism
The power of a metronome?
Fact or Fiction?

37. Structuralism
Structuralism focused on emotions, sensations, and perceptions.
Wilhelm Wundt used the method of introspection to study these primary focuses.

38. Structuralism The concept could be likened to:
Me playing a song for you
then…
You relaying to me the thoughts and emotions emotions you absorbed from it
Why is it no longer accepted?

39. Structuralism To recap, Structuralism
was the study of the most basic elements, primarily sensations and perceptions, that make up our conscious mental experiences
Wilhelm Wundt

40. Functionalism
Your walking on a sidewalk when suddenly a car comes hurtling towards you out of control Are you afraid?
Why?
Do you see the car and mentally become afraid leading to your heart racing, hands sweating and an impulse to run?
Or…

41. Functionalism …continued
Do you first become physically afraid with heart racing, hands sweating which leads into you becoming mentally afraid?
This concept of environment versus cognition is the cornerstone of the Functionalist Approach.

42. Functionalism Functionalism
William James focused on the functions of mind and behavior.
Functionalism
which was the study of the function rather than the structure of consciousness, was interested in how our minds adapt to our changing environment

43. Gestalt
What do you see here?

44. Gestalt
The Gestalt Approach began in Germany and focused on the phenomenon of why we see things as wholes not parts?
emphasized how sensations are assembled into meaningful perceptual experiences

45. Gestalt
Is a beautiful beach made more beautiful by the sea, clouds, and mountains that surround it?

46. Behaviorism Behaviorism
Do not focus on subjective mental thoughts but rather focus on observable behaviors which can be studied. John B. Watson
Behaviorism
emphasized the objective, scientific analysis of observable behaviors
Outlines the premise of almost all tests you will ever take; HSPA, SAT, GRE, ASVAB etc.

47. Behaviorism This school would state:
In theory, that any child could have their behavior controlled and raised to be a anything ex: doctor, gardener, writer etc.
A persons behaviors can be controlled, studied and changed.

48. Psychoanalytic School
Your DREAMS, UNCONSCIOUS DESIRES, REPRESSED SEXUAL FEELINGS are what drive your conscious thoughts and behaviors!

49. Psychoanalytic School
This school created by Freud utilized a clinical method called psychoanalysis to interpret one’s hidden wishes to solve their abnormal behaviors.

50. The “Old Schools” v. “New Schools”
How many modern approaches were there?
How many historical approaches are there?
How many overlap?
How are they all different?

51. CAREERS IN PSYCHOLOGY Psychologist versus Psychiatrist
psychologists have completed four to five years of postgraduate education and have obtained a Ph.D., PsyD., or Ed.D in psychology
clinical psychologists have a Ph.D., PsyD., or Ed.D., have specialized in a clinical sub area, and have spent an additional year in a supervised therapy setting to gain experience in diagnosing and treating a wide range of abnormal behaviors

52. CAREERS IN PSYCHOLOGY PSYCHOLOGY LINKS
Society for the Psychology of Women
Women in Psychology
Divisions of the American Psychological Association

53. Careers and College Information
CAREERS IN PSYCHOLOGY
Careers and College Information
American Psychological Association Education Directorate  
Psychology Careers resources
Health Psychology
in Psychology Profiles

54. CAREERS IN PSYCHOLOGY Psychologist versus Psychiatrist
counseling psychologists provide many of the same services as Clinical Psychologists, but usually work with different problems such as those involving marriage, family, or career counseling
psychiatrists are medical doctors (M.D.s) who have spent several years in clinical training, which includes diagnosing possible physical and neurological causes of abnormal behaviors and treating these behaviors, often with prescription drugs

55. CAREERS IN PSYCHOLOGY Many Career Settings
49% of psychologists work as clinical or counseling psychologists in either private practice or therapy settings
28% of psychologists work in academic settings of universities and colleges
13% of psychologists work in a variety of other kinds of jobs and career settings
6% of psychologists work in industrial settings
4% of psychologists work in secondary schools and other settings

57. RESEARCH AREAS Areas of Specialization Social and Personality
Developmental
Experimental
Biological
Cognitive
Psychometrics

58. RESEARCH AREAS Areas of Specialization Personality psychology
Social psychology
involves the study of social interactions, stereotypes, prejudices, attitudes,conformity, group behaviors, and aggression
Personality psychology
involves the study of personality development, personality change, assessment, and abnormal behaviors

59. RESEARCH AREAS Areas of Specialization Developmental psychology
examines moral, social, emotional, and cognitive development throughout a person’s entire life
Experimental psychology
includes areas of sensation, perception, learning, human performance, motivation, and emotion

60. RESEARCH AREAS Areas of Specialization Biological psychology
or psychobiology involves research on the physical and chemical changes that occur during stress, learning, and emotions, as well as how our genetic makeup, brain, and nervous system interact with our environments and influence our behaviors

61. RESEARCH AREAS (CONT.) Cognitive psychology Psychometrics
Areas of Specialization
Cognitive psychology
involves how we process, store, and retrieve information and how cognitive processes influence our behaviors
Psychometrics
focuses on the measurement of people’s abilities, skills, intelligence, personality, and abnormal behaviors

62. Yale University Lectures
Dr. Paul Bloom - lectures in Introductory Psychology on topics that we study. View his lectures at this link: