PART 1 THE SCIENCE OF PSYCHOLOGY

DEFINITION AND SIGNIFICANCE OF THE STUDY PSYCHOLOGY

PSYCHOLOGY derived from the Greek words pysche and logos.

psyche- soul logos- study To the Greek, psychology is simply a study of the soul.

 Psychology

- is defined as the scientific study of the behavior of living organisms, with special attention to human behavior. - is a science because it is systematic and empirical , and it is dependent upon measurement. Behavior- means activities that can observe objectively, such as the reactions of the muscles and glands, as well as the organized pattern of responses as a whole. - It also includes internal processes such as thinking, feeling and other reactions which cannot be directly observed but can be inferred from external behavior. - It may classified as overt or covert and intrinsic or extrinsic behavior.

- Psychology is one of the

behavioral sciences together with: Anthropology Sociology Economics Political science History

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY IS
Is chiefly concerned with human behavior, what

makes people behave as they do. Are interested in topics such as: Learning Emotion Intelligence Heredity and environment Differences between individuals The nature and development of personality Group behavior, etc.

Psychology is a science,

therefore, a psychologist is a ______________ and NOT a pseudo scientist.

 If a psychologist is a scientist , then he or

she must necessarily be objective. Scientific study is a systematic process. It is well organized , step-by- step approach to the study of human behavior. The word SCIENCE comes from the Latin word scientia. It is a derivative of the Latin word sciens , whose present participle is scire to know.

SIX FUNDAMENTAL CHARACTERISTICS GROUNDED AS A PSYCHOLOGIST.

1. Human behavior follows an orderly pattern.
2. Human behavior can be known. 3. Knowledge of human behavior is tentative but

superior to ignorance. 4. Natural phenomena have natural causes 5. Nothing is self-evident. 6. Knowledge is derived from the acquisition of experiences

 Psychology is considered as science because:

a. it strives to be objective in the sense that it decides questions on the basis of fact and

not on the basis of wishes or desires and b. psychology gets its facts through observations rather than by simply theorizing. Psychology is an art . -because it does not only try to advance knowledge , but also includes a systematic applications of behavior pattern.

WHAT PSYCHOLOGY IS NOT 1. Psychology and the mysterious. 2. Psychology and common sense. 3. Psychology and the parasciences.

BEGINNING OF EXPERIMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY

Aristotle
Who lived in 4th century B.C. was the earliest

writers to devote attention to psychology. He believed that at birth, the mind is a tabula rasa, a blank sheet , and that experiences one encounter during ones lifetime are impressed on the mind. He suggested the three principles of memory: 1. Similarity 2. Contrast 3. Contiguity

Aristotle and other early

writers were not scientific in their investigations and depended more on common sense, speculation and insight.

After the Greeks, St. Augustine

Considered the next great precursor

of the modern psychologist because of his skill in introspection and his

great curiosity about psychological phenomena , which included observations on young infants and on crowds at chariot races.

Rene Descartes (1596-1650)

Left his mark on the

history of psychology through his concept of reflex action, which has had a significant place in both physiology and psychology.

BY

TH 19

CENTURY

Began to achieve the status of an

independent science when group of German philosophers started to use scientific methodology in their psychological studies. Leading this group was Wilhelm Wundt, who established the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig in 1879 and was called the founder of modern experimental psychology.

 Two theories of mind which competed

for psychologists support. 1. FACULTY PSYCHOLOGY- was the doctrine of mental powers. - Franz Gall encouraged the faculty psychology early 19th century and localize special faculties in the parts of the brain. 2. ASSOCIATION PSYCHOLOGISTS- held an opposing theory.

Herman von Helmholtz

Who contributed a lot to the

development of psychology. He measured the speed of nerve, set forth a theory of color vision and offered an explanation for our perception of musical tones.

Ernst B. Weber (1795-1878) A psychologist.

He contributed the

what we called

Weber Law

Gustav T. Fechner (1801-1887)

He extended and gave publicity to

Webers findings in his famous book PSYCHOPHYSICS, published in 1860. He discovered that by changing a physical stimulus slowly and nothing the steps of judgment expressed, a relationship can be established between physical series and psychological series.

Maskeylne (1796)
A Royal Astronomer of the

Greenwich Astronomical Observatory, dismissed Kinnerbrook , his assistant because he erred by nearly 1 second in recording the time that certain bodies passed an observation point.

Bessel
The astronomer at the Konigsberg Observatory,

became interested in the report and began to study what we called the personal equation. of different astronomers.

Sir Francis Galton (1884)

Established his anthropometric

laboratory in London where he gave tests to people who came to his laboratory. He confirmed and extended the findings of Bessel. It was also Galton who invented the statistical technique of correlation and developed the index , to be named the coefficient of correlation.

Charles Darwin( 1809-1882)

From England came the influence of the

theory of evolution. He established the continuity between animal and human. He believed that consciousness , emotions and other psychological processes will be understood if we know how they serve the adjustment of people to their environment.

Frenchman Anton Mesmer (1734-1815)

Another body of influence on

psychology came from medicine and psychiatry , especially from the treatment of the mentally ill. He started with the work on hypnotism, and later with the work of the Viennese physician Sigmund Freud.

Sigmund Freud (1856-1939) The founder of that branch of medical psychology known as PSYCHOANALYSIS.

Beginning of

th 20

century

A number of American psychologists became

interested in the developments in Germany and went there to get training. They helped establish the science of psychology in the United States. Four better known psychologists among this batch 1. William James (1842-1910)- Considered as the Dean of American Psychologists. 2. G. Stanley Hall 3. James Catell 4. Edward Titchener

 The first formal laboratory was set up at John Hopkins

Universities in 1883. In 1885, Hermann Ebbinghaus reported his studies in learning and memory which were directly inspired by Fechners measurement of sensation. Between 1910-1950, A number of psychological schools or systems of theories were developed, and opposing view points on the nature and functions of psychology continued among psychologists. After 1950, however , there was a trend towards a merging of the different viewpoints with a tendency towards eclecticism among the psychologists.

THEORETICAL PARADIGM

SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT OF PSYCHOLOGY

STRUCTURALISM ( 1875-1930)
It was developed in Germany in the 19th

century. Main Leaders 1. Wilhelm Wundt 2. Edward Bradford Titchener It concerned with discovering the structure of the mind.

FUNCTIONALISM (1890-1930)
As the center of psychological study shifted to the United

States, a new school, known as functionalism, arose. Its main leaders were: 1. William James 2. Stanley Hall 3. James McKeen Catell 4. James R. Angell 5. John Dewey 6. Harvey Carr The last three psychologists taught at the University of Chicago in the 20th century.

 The most important contribution of functionalism was

changing the focus of psychology to learning, motivation and thinking and veered away from the structuralisms' emphasis on individual perception and sensations.

PSYCHOANALYSIS ( 1900-PRESENT)
Sigmund Freud, a famous physician and psychiatrist,

attempted to find the cause and cure of personality disorders. He postulated on the existence of unconscious mental processes which influenced an individuals behavior in various indirect ways. It stressed the role of motives and craving, often hidden and repressed in the subconscious constitute the main human drive. This is known as the libido theory.

 His method of treatment, called psychoanalysis,

emphasizes free association. This is letting the patient freely associate on his thoughts and experiences, and with the help of the psychiatrist, analyze the causes of his difficulty.
Between 1911-1912, Freud and his adherents, Carl Jung

and Alfred Adler, had a split in their ideas and theories. Carl Jung- regarded personality as the strongest force in determining human behavior, denying Freuds libido theory. For him, men and women are either extroverts or introverts, and his school is sometimes called the analytical school.

Alfred Adler- believed that the strongest human urge

is not sex emotion, but the unconscious attempts of the individual to overcome the feeling of inferiority. The theory is known as individualism.

BEHAVIORISM ( 1913-PRESENT)
The school of behaviorism was founded by John B.

Watson who finished hid Ph.D. form the University of Chicago. He criticized both the structuralists and the functionalists for their use of introspection as a technique. He argued that the psychologist should use only objective methods and that their observations and measurements should be in a form which could be checked and verified by other psychologists.

 Watson studied what people did and what they said,

hoping to be able to predict and control their actions and words. He was not concerned with studying human consciousness. For him, thinking could be studied by observing a persons sub vocal speech through the movement of certain muscles in the throat.

GESTALT ( PATTERN OR CONFIGURATION) (1912-1940)

In 1912, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kokler and Max

Wertheimer founded the Gestalt school which maintained that psychology should study the whole pattern of behavior or experience or the perception of organized configuration. It is emphasized on the study of human behavior and perception and with the use of both introspection and observation , the Gestalt psychologists contributed much to the understanding of learning, memory and problem-solving.

HUMANISTIC (1950s-PRESENT)

Carl Rogers and Abraham

Maslow emphasized the unique qualities of humans, especially their freedom of choice and decision making, as well as their potential for personal growth.

COGNITIVE ( 1950s-Present)
Jean Piaget Noam Chomsky Herbert Simon

focused on thought and mental processes.

Human behavior cannot be fully understood without

analyzing how people acquire, store and process information. Herbert Simon won the Nobel prize in economics for his research on cognition.

BIOLOGICAL (1950s Present)

James Old and Roger Sperry

theorized that much of human and animal behavior can be explained in terms of bodily structures and biochemical processes. Roger Sperry won the Nobel prize in Psychology and Medicine for his Split Brain Studies.

PURPOSIVISM
William McDougall conducted his

researches at the Duke University of Durham, North Carolina. He believed that objects, movements and behavior have a definite purpose, and that the ductless glands in people produce hormones which give them purpose. Because purposivism placed an important on hormones in life, it was called hormic psychology.

BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY

1. General Psychology
2. Comparative Psychology

3. Development or Genetic

Psychology 4. Child Psychology 5. Adolescence Psychology 6. Senescence Psychology 7. Abnormal Psychology

8. Experimental Psychology 9. Differential Psychology 10. Dynamic Psychology 11. Physiological Psychology 12. Educational Psychology 13. Applied Psychology 14. Legal Psychology

15. Clinical Psychology 16. Business Psychology 17. Industrial and engineering Psychology 18. Social Psychology

NEW FIELDS FOR THE PSYCHOLOGY

1. Health Psychologist
2. Sport Psychologist

3. Community Psychologist
4. Consumer Psychologist

5. Behavior Analyst
6. Legal Psychologist or

Forensic Psychologist 7. Ergonomist

1.
2.

3.
4. 5. 6.

6 WELL KNOWN METHODS USED IN PSYCHOLOGICAL RESEARCH Introspection Observation Life-History Method Survey Methods or Group Method Experimental Method Statistical Method

OBJECTIVES OF PSYCHOLOGY AS A SCIENCE

1.to understand 2.to predict 3.to control

FIVE BASIC PERSPECTIVES OF HUMAN BEHAVIOR

1. Psychoanalytic 2. Behavioristic 3. Humanistic Psychology

4. Cognitive Psychology
5. Biological