1. The World of Psychology: An Overview
What is psychology, and how did it grow?

2. What Is Psychology?
The science that seeks to understand behavior and mental processes, and to apply that understanding in the service of human welfare.

3. Academic Psychology Biological Perception Consciousness Learning
Memory
Cognition
Motivation/Emotion
Developmental
Personality
Social
Disorders
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4. Testosterone and Aggression
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no T
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No T
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no T
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Group Both T
High
Early
Late
Result
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5. Figure 1.1: What Do You See? An elderly father-in-law or a husband?
Perception involves more than just passively receiving information.
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6. In-class only
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7. Two Examples
Spotlight Effect
Illusion of Transparency
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8. Typical Work Settings Mental Health Facilities
Universities and Colleges
Business
Schools
Other (Miltary, Prisons, Public Policy)

9. Historical Roots of Psychology
Used laboratory science methods to study consciousness.
Changed psychology from a philosophy to a science of mental processes.
Wilhelm Wundt ( )

10. Structuralism Founder: Edward Titchener, trained by Wundt
Goals: To study conscious experience and how elements of consciousness are structure in humans.
Methods: Experiments; introspection.
Application: “Pure scientific research”
Spurred development of psychological laboratories.

11. Introspection
Describe the intensity and clarity of the sensations and images that make up your experience of this object.

12. Gestalt Psychology Founder: Max Wertheimer
Goals: To describe organization of mental processes.
“The whole is greater than the sum of its parts.”
Methods: Observation of sensory/perceptual phenomena.
Applications: Understanding visual illusions; laid groundwork for humanistic and cognitive psychology.

13. Psychoanalysis Founder: Sigmund Freud
Goals: To explain personality and behavior and develop techniques for treating mental illness.
Methods: Study of individual cases.
Applications: Development of psychotherapy; emphasis on childhood, role of unconscious processes.

14. Functionalism Founder: William James
Goals: To study how the mind works in allowing an organism to adapt to the environment.
Methods: Naturalistic observations of animal and human behavior.
Applications: Child psychology; educational and industrial psychology; study of individual differences.

15. Behaviorism Founders: John B. Watson; B. F. Skinner
Goals: To study observable behavior and explain behavior via learning principles.
Methods: Observation of the relationship between environmental stimuli and behavioral responses.
Application: Behavior modification; improved teaching methods.

16. Watson’s Famous Quote
“Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might select—doctor, lawyer, artist, merchant-chief, and, yes, even beggarman and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, abilities, vocation, and race of his ancestors”.

17. Current Approaches
Biological Approach: Emphasizes activity of the nervous system, especially the brain; the action of hormones and other chemicals; and genetics.
Evolutionary Approach: In what ways do behavior and mental processes aid reproduction and survival.
Behavioral Approach: Emphasizes learning and how environmental circumstances dictate behavior.

18. Approaches (cont’d)
Cognitive Approach: Emphasizes how people receive, store, retrieve, and otherwise process information
Humanistic: Focuses on the attributions and choices made by the individual
Psychodynamic: Conflicts between underlying biology and societal goals.
Cultural/Personality: Effects of individual traits and cultural upbringing on behavior.

19. Impact of Sociocultural Diversity on Psychology
Are all people essentially the same?
Sometimes “Yes”: Most basic processes of perception and learning are shared
Sometimes “No”: Sociocultural variables shape what people make of those experiences and what they learn from them.
Culture is an organizing and stabilizing influence.

20. Individualist Collectivist
Separate identity
Meeting personal goals; being unique
Self-assurance, express individuality
Personal credit for success; Blame external factors for failure
Self frame of reference
Connectedness
Belonging, Meet obligations
Self-restrain, self-effacing,
Social unit credit for success; Blame internal factors for failure
Group frame of reference

21. Cultural Values in Advertising-- Korean or U.S. Advertisements?
“She’s got a style all her own”
ANSWER: ?
“You, only better”
“A more exhilarating way to provide for your family”
“We have a way of bringing people closer together”
“Celebrating a half-century of partnership”
ANSWER: ?
“How to protect the most personal part of the environment: Your skin”
“Our family agrees with this selection of home furnishings”
“A leader among leaders”
Source: Brehm, Kassin, Fein, Social Psychology, 4/e (1999)