Introducing Psychology

1. Introducing Psychology

2. Definition of Psychology • The science of behavior (what we do) and mental processes (sensations, perceptions, dreams, thoughts, beliefs, and feelings)

3. Goals of Psychology • Describe • Gather information about the behavior being studied. • Explanation • Explain why you behave the way you do. • Hypothesis: an assumption or prediction about behavior that is tested. • Theory: set of assumptions used to explain phenomena or scientific study

4. Prediction • What will you think or feel in various situations. • Influence • Conduct long term studies to gain helpful information on human and animal behavior. • Basic science: pursuit of knowledge about natural phenomena for its own sake (most basic objects, forces, relations between them and scientific research). • Applied Science: discovering ways to use scientific findings to accomplish practical goals.

5. Scientific method general approach to gathering information and answering questions so that errors and biases are minimized.

6. Origins of Psychology • Ancient Egypt: description of brain • Ancient Greece: people controlled their own minds not the gods.

7. Modern Psychology • Wilhelm Wundt opened the first psychology laboratory at the University of Liepzig (c. 1879). The Structuralistperspective which he introduced used introspection (looking in) to explore the elemental structure of the human mind.

8. Functionalism focused on how behavioral processes function- how they enable organism to adapt, survive, and flourish. William James taught the first class in psychology at Harvard University (1875). James also wrote Principles of Psychology (1890). • Francis Galton studied how heredity influences a person’s abilities, character, and behavior (1870s).

9. Hermann Ebbinghaus experiments in memory (1885) • Alfred Binetand Intelligence testing (1905) • Russian physiologist Ivan Pavlov. Classical conditioning experiments (1906) • John B. Watson “Father of Behaviorism” (1913)

10. Austrian physician Sigmund Freud (1900) Personality, psychoanalysis and dream theory • Mary Whiton Calkins paired associates techniques, first female president of APA (1905). • Gestalt theorists emphasis on meaningful wholes and perception. Max Wertheimer, Koffka and Kohler

11. Contemporary Psychological Perspectives • Psychological Perspectives and Early Proponents • Behaviorism/Social Learning (Watson/Skinner/Bandura) • Investigating observable behavior • Psychodynamic (Freud/Jung/Adler) • Studies of how unconscious motives and conflicts determine human behavior. • Humanistic (Maslow/Rogers) • Believes that each person has freedom in directing his or her future and achieving personal growth.

13. Psych Perspectives Exercise • Briefly examine the following behaviors from the vantage of each of the major perspectives. What phenomena might each be interested in researching? • Aggression/Gender-stereotyped behavior • Altruism/Smoking cigarettes • Conformity/Thrill-seeking behavior • Social activism/Rebelliousness • Unethical behavior/Patriotism • Obedience to Authority/Religious faith

14. Contemporary Fields and Subfields • Basic/Pure Research vs. Applied Research (or Fields) • Basic research: a specific set of circumstances, and its ultimate goal is relating the results to a particular situation.  That is, applied research uses the data directly for real world application. • Applied Research: this research uses the data directly for real world application. The goal is to predict a specific behavior in a very specific setting.

15. Clinical/Counseling • Clinical: an integration of science, theory and clinical knowledge for the purpose of understanding, preventing, and relieving psychologically-based distress or dysfunction and to promote subjective well-being and personal development. • Counseling: study and use many of the same interventions and tools as clinical psychologists, including psychotherapy and assessment.

16. School and Educational Psychology • Community • Developmental • Personality • Social

17. Industrial/Organizational Psychology • Focuses on increasing workplace productivity and related issues such as the physical and mental well being of employees. • Industrial organizational psychologists perform a wide variety of tasks, including studying worker attitudes and behavior, evaluating companies, and conducting leadership training.

18. Is it possible to determine in advance who will be an effective salesperson or airline pilot, and who will not? • Do organizations tend to operate differently under female or male leadership?

19. Research shows that work groups with high morale usually are more productive than those with low morale; are there specific strategies that managers can use to improve group morale?

20. Consumer Psychology • Consumer Psychology – The use of psychology to influence consumer behavior. Specific techniques include aisle layout, product placement, market niche, brand loyalty, test marketing, sex sells, and various propaganda techniques, e.g. bandwagon, testimonial and plain folks. What are these? Can you think of examples?

22. Over the next 10 minutes, in groups of three, look in your textbook index or glossary for a name of a new car model. Think up an effective slogan that is relevant to the term and create a print ad for your car (at least one of you must be artistically inclined!) An example might be the "Dodge Placebo, Who cares what it is? It makes you feel better and it doesn't cost as much."

23. Environmental Psychology • Investigation of how natural, constructed, and social surroundings influence peoples thinking and behavior. • Long, hot summer effect • Place identity/place effects • Noise: Stress and neurological effects • Odors and behavior

24. Positive Psychology • Study of subjective feelings of happiness and well being; the development of such individual traits as intimacy, integrity, leadership, altruism, and wisdom; what kinds of families, work settings, and communities encourage individuals to flourish.

25. Other Subfields in Psychology • Forensic Psychology • Includes clinical in correctional facilities, working as a consultant to trial lawyers, serving as an expert witness in jury trials, and formulating public policy on psychology and law. • Sports/Performance Psychology • Study of psychological factors that improve athletic performance, as well as the effects of exercise of psychological adjustment and general well being. • Rehabilitation Psychology • Study and application of psychosocial principles on behalf of persons with disabilities.

26. Community Psychology • Studies the theory, research, and social action at the neighborhood level. • EcoPsychology/Conservation • Scientific study of the reciprocal relationships between humans and the rest of nature, with a particular focus on how to encourage conservation of the natural world.

27. Human factors • Gender • Stereotypes • Sexual orientation • Race/Ethnicity • Culture • Peace Psychology • Study of the causes and consequences of group conflicts, strategies, for anticipating and avoiding violent confrontations, and methods for helping victims rebuild their lives after conflicts occur.