1. Chapter 1 What is Psychology Hint: It’s the study of behavior and mental processes!!!
Identify the goals of psychology, and explain how psychology is a science.
Describe the work done by psychologist according to their areas of specialization.
Explain the historical background of the study of psychology.
Describe the six main contemporary perspectives in psychology.

2. Why Study Psychology?
What do you hope to learn from the study of psychology? Perhaps you hope to gain a better understanding of why people act as they do, or more specifically, why you act as you do. Or perhaps you want to learn more about your thoughts and feelings; in doing so, you might discover more effective ways to handle, or help others handle, the stresses of daily life. Whether your reason is general or specific, the study of psychology will give you new ways to look at and interpret your world and the people who inhabit it.

3. Behavior and mental processes
Behavior is any observable and/or measurable activity
Cognitive activity is any private mental process
Cognitive Activity affect behavior and behavior can affect cognitive activity

4. The Goals of Psychology
Observe
Describe
Explain
Predict
Control

5. Psychology as a Science
Social science and a natural science
Psychological Theories
Statement that attempts to explain something
Research methods
Survey
Experiment

6. Quick Quiz 1 What is psychology? What are the 5 goals of psychology?
In what way is psychology a social science? How is it also related to the natural sciences?
CRITICAL THINKING: What do you think is the main value of psychology? Explain your answer.

7. Clinical Psychologist
Largest subgroup of psychologist
Help people overcome/control problems and continue living life
They work in a variety of settings
Not to be confused with Psychiatrist

8. Counseling Psychologists
Typically treat people with adjustment problems instead of serious psychological disorders

9. School Psychologist
Help students who have a problem that interferes with learning
Work with staff and parents to hop students reach their potential
Recommend students for class placement

10. Educational Psychologists
Focus on course planning and instructional methods for an entire school system instead of individual
They are concerned with how people learn and how learning is affected
Help prepare standardized tests

11. Developmental Psychologist
Study changes that occur throughout a persons lifespan
Nature v. Nurture debate

12. Personality and Social Psychologists
Identify characteristics or traits
Gender roles
Personality psychologists look within a person to explain behavior Social psychologists look at why people behave in a certain way in a particular setting

13. Experimental Psychologists
Conduct lab research
Mostly concerned with Basic Research, which adds to the broad field of psychology findings

14. Other Specialists Industrial and Organizational Psychology
Environmental Psychology
Consumer Psychology
Forensic Psychology
Health Psychology

15. Quick Quiz 2
Which subspecialty makes up the largest group of psychologist?
List 3 subspecialties of psychology and describe the works of each.
CRITICAL THINKING: If you decided to become a psychologist, what subspecialty of psychology would you prefer and why?

16. History of Psychology
People have always been interested in the behaviors of other people, and thus psychology is as old as human history. Interest in the actions, motives, and thoughts of human beings an be traced as far back as the philosopher and scientists of ancient times.

17. Roots from Ancient Greece
Plato
2000 years ago
“Know Thyself”
Socrates
Introspection
Aristotle
Peri Psyches
Hippocrates
Studied medicine and said abnormal behavior may be caused by medical problems

18. The Middle Ages Psychological problems were caused by the devil
“Tests” to determine if people were possessed.

19. Birth of Modern Science
society began to move away from beliefs of possession
Scientific movements lead to advances in psychology
1800s modern psychology is born

20. Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) Structuralism Objective sensations
Basic elements of conscious experience
Objective sensations
Reflect the outside world
Subjective feelings
Emotional response to mental images

21. William James (1842-1910) Funtionalism “Stream of Consciousness”
How mental processes help an organism adapt to its surroundings
Successful behavior leads to babits, unsuccessful behavior is dropped
“Stream of Consciousness”
First modern text book
The Principles of Psychology

22. John B. Watson (1878-1958) Behaviorism
The scientific study of observable behaviors

23. B.F. Skinner ( )
Behavior is learned through reinforcement

24. Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) Psychoanalysis Slip of the tongue
Unconscious impulses and urges determine human behavior
Slip of the tongue
Meaning of dreams

25. The Gestalt School Max Wertheimer, Kurt Kofka, and Wolfgang Kohler
Belief that the whole (Gestalt) is more than the sum of the parts, particularly in human behavior

26. Quick Quiz 3
Describe the main difference between structuralism and functionalism
Why do behaviorists object to schools of psychology that study consciousness?
CRITICAL THINKING: Identify one example of the influence of Sigmund Freud’s psychoanalytic theory on popular culture.

27. Contemporary Perspectives
Today we no longer find psychologist who describe themselves as structuralist or functionalists. And although the school of Gestalt Psychology inspired current research in perception and problem solving, few would consider themselves Gestalt psychologists. The number of traditional behaviorists and psycholoanalysts also have been declining. Many current psychologists in the behaviorist tradition have modified the theories of Watson and Skinner. Similarly, many contemporary psycholanalysts do not use the methods Feud did.
Nevertheless, the historical traditions of psychology find expression in contemporary perspectives on psychology. The most important of these are the biological, cognitive, humanistic, psychoanalytic, learning, and sociocultural perspectives. Each perspective emphasizes different topics of investigation and has different approaches.

28. The Biological Perspective
Biology influences our behavior
Brain
Nerves
Hormones
Genes

29. The Cognitive Perspective
Role of thoughts in determining our behavior
Mental thoughts
Perceived information
Why is it different for different people?

30. The Humanistic Perspective
Self-awareness, experience, and choice permit us to “invent ourselves”
Says people are naturally good and want to manage their negative impulses, and realize their potential

31. The Psychoanalytic Perspective
Unconscious forces determine human behavior
Childhood determines behavior
Venting

32. Learning Perspective Emphasizes the effects of experience on behavior
Social-learning theory
People can change or create their own environments

33. The Sociocultural Perspective
Ethnicity, gender, culture, and socioeconomic status impact human behavior and thoughts

34. Quick Quiz 4
How do cognitive psychologists compare people’s mental processes to the working of computers?
How would a psychoanalyst explain aggression?
Explain how the humanist and social learning perspectives support the view that people are free to make choices.
CRITICAL THINKING: How does knowledge of cultural differences enrich the study of psychology?