WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY ? Pertemuan 1 s.d 2

1. WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY ?Pertemuan 1 s.d 2 Matakuliah : O0072 /Pengantar Psikologi Tahun : 2007

2. DEFINITION & GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY BINA NUSANTARA

3. ARISTOTLE Psyche + Science = Psychology • Psyche = essence of life  translate from Greek = mind  breath • He believed that the psyche escape in the last dying breath that was exhaled • He believed that one must observe the thing being studied – look at it, listen to it, touch it  Aristotle vs Plato (understand = only Thinking about it) • Logos (Greek) = the study of BINA NUSANTARA

4. DEFINITION • Psychology is the “study of life” • Psychology is the science of behavior and mental processes • Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and the mind • The behavior = actions and responses that we can directly observe • Mind = Internal states and processes – thoughts and feelings – can not be seen directly and must be inferred from observable, measurable responses BINA NUSANTARA

5. GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY • TO DESCRIBE how people and other species behave • TO PREDICT how people and other species will behave under certain conditions • TO UNDERSTAND the causes of these behaviors • TO INFLUENCE behavior through the control of its causes • TO APPLY psychological knowledge in ways that enhance human welfare BINA NUSANTARA

6. Psychology & other science Biology Scientific study of life processes and biological structures Psychology Scientific study of behavior and mental processes Medicine Scientific study of health and the causes and treatment of diseases Anthropology Scientific study of cultural origins, evolution and variations Sociology Scientific study of human social relations and systems Computer Science Scientific study of information processing and manipulations of data BINA NUSANTARA

7. VIEWPOINTS IN PSYCHOLOGYAND THEIR ORIGINS Nature of Conscious Experience Functions of the Conscious Mind Psychometrics Behaviorism and Social Learning Theory Neuroscience Perspective Nature of the “Unconscious Mind” BINA NUSANTARA

8. Aristotle – 2.200 years after he lived : Psychology as part of Philosophy • 17th – 18th : all the sciences start to distinct the subject matter and scientific methods • 1875, William James : Laboratory at Harvard University, thought the 1st psychology course and in 1890 published an influential early textbook of psychology • 1879, Wilhelm Wundt : 1st Psychology Laboratory in Leipzig, Germany BINA NUSANTARA

9. Nature of Conscious ExperienceWhat are you thinking and feeling right now ?To understand the basic elements of consciousness and how they worked together to create the experience of being alive • Wunt, Titchener and Structuralism • Wanted to identify the basic elements of conscious experience and how those elements are organized • Methods : Introspection  a method of looking inward at one’s own conscious experience • Structuralism = the structure of mind through controlled introspection • J. Henry Alston • The studies of the sensations of heat and cold - nerve stimulation • Wrote 1st research article published by an African American Psychologist in a journal of the APA • Max Wertheimer and Gestalt psychology • Gestalt = whole • Human consciousness could not be meaningfully broken down into raw elements • Phi Phenomenon = The whole is different from the sum of its parts BINA NUSANTARA

10. Functions of the Conscious MindsTo understand the value of consciousness to us as species • William James and Functionalism • Based on Charles Darwin Theory • Thinking, feeling, learning, remembering and other processes of human consciousness existed only because they helped us survive as a species and adapt to the demands of life • Learn about conscious awareness, voluntary action (free will), habits and emotions • Hemann Ebbinghaus & Mary Whiton Calkins and Studies of Memory • Ebbinghaus : Invented a new set of meaningless items “Nonsense Syllables” • Mary : “paired associates” method • Cognitive Psychology • All intellectual processes - perceiving, believing, thinking, remembering, knowing, deciding, etc. • Influenced by Gestalt psychology and Structuralism BINA NUSANTARA

11. Psychometricsthe measurement (metrics) of mental functions (psycho) • Albert Binet • Help the Paris Ministry of Education (1890) to choosing the children to be given advanced academic training and make the decision when the children were still young • Develop a way to measure Intelligence • Find a set of questions (e.g. arithmetic problems, word definitions, memory tasks) based on age norm • Stanford - Binet Intelligence scale BINA NUSANTARA

12. Behaviorism and Social Learning TheoryTo study psychological processes that useful in the struggle to survive, emphasis in the importance of learning from experience • 1890, Ivan Pavlov • Identified a simple form of learning – conditioning (inherited reflex) comes to be triggered by a stimulus that has nothing to do with the reflex • 1910 - 1920, John B. Watson & Margaret Floy Washburn • Behaviorism • It was impossible to study private mental processes because only outward behavior could be measured and scientifically understood • Albert Bandura & Social Learning Theory • Our behavior are learned from other persons in society BINA NUSANTARA

13. Neuroscience Perspective • 1852, Santiago Ramon Y Cajal • Description of Neurons - the cells that make up brain and nervous system • Interested in the structures of the brain that play roles in emotion, reasoning, speaking and other psychological processes • Determine the extent to which our psychological characteristic (e.g. intelligence & emotional stability), are influenced by heredity BINA NUSANTARA

14. Nature of the “Unconscious Mind”The most important aspect of human psychology is the mental processes that we are unaware • Sigmund Freud and Psychoanalysis • The roots of the psychological problems were innate motives, particularly sexual and aggressive that reside in unconscious part of the mind • Humanistic Psychology and Unconscious Mind • Abraham Maslow, Carl Rogers, Victor Frankl • Human beings determine their own fates through conscious decision they make • The most important aspect of people is our view of what we are like - our SELF CONCEPT • Because of the society, sometimes we push upsetting information about ourselves into the unconscious, cause 2 problems • Most of us have an inaccurate self concept, because we push out of consciousness information about ourselves that doesn’t match what society values • The negative unconscious information sometimes threatens our self concepts and make us anxious BINA NUSANTARA

15. CONTEMPORARY PERSPECTIVES IN PSYCHOLOGY The Sociocultural Perspectives Evolutionary Psychology The Positive Psychology Movements BINA NUSANTARA

16. Human Diversity : The Sociocultural Perspective • The principles of perception, motivation, learning and personality apply for all human beings • What makes psychologically different ? • Ethnic Group vs Ethnic Identity • Gender Identity Social anthropology, Social Learning Theories BINA NUSANTARA

17. Evolutionary Psychology • The basic idea : the behavior of animals – including human animals – can be understood in term of Charles Darwin’s theory of evolution • Darwin hypothesized that the variations occur occasionally in the process of reproduction, known to be based on spontaneous change in a gene, known as mutations BINA NUSANTARA

18. Positive Psychology Movement • Stop focusing only in human problems • What is best about human lives Martin Seligman, 1990, one of APA presidents BINA NUSANTARA

19. SPECIALITY AREAS OF MODERN PSYCHOLOGY • Applied psychologists used knowledge acquired by psychologist in the basic areas and by their own research studies, to solve and prevent significant human problems • Areas : Clinical psychology, Counseling psychology, Educational and School Psychology, Industrial and Organizational Psychology, Health Psychology • Psychology vs Psychiatry BINA NUSANTARA

20. What we know about human behavior ? • Human beings are biological creature • Every person is different, yet much the same • People can understood fully only in the context of their culture, ethnic identity and gender identity • Human lives are continuous process of change • Behavior is motivated • Humans are social animals • People play an active part in creating their experiences • Behavior can be adaptive or maladaptive BINA NUSANTARA

21. TUGAS • Mahasiswa memilih salah satu tokoh dalam Historical Time Line (yang sudah dijelaskan sebelumnya) dan membuat suatu tulisan yang mencakup • Profile tokoh tersebut • Teori • Penelitian yang pernah dilakukan • Contoh pengaplikasian teori • Kontribusi yang signifikan dari tokoh tersebut dalam ilmu psikologi • Tugas dibuat secara berkelompok • Dikumpulkan 10.09.07, 7.20 am BINA NUSANTARA