CARVER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

Mabel McCombs College of Health Science

Carver Mission, Paynesville City, Liberia

College: Mabel McCombs College of Health Science

Course Code: PSYCHOLOGY 101
Course Title: Introduction to Psychology
Number of Credits: 2 Credits
Duration of Course: 2 hour per week
Course Lecturer: Mr. F. Steven Miller, Jr.
Contact #s: 0777512628/0888713332/0886512628
Email: [email protected]/[email protected]

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND OBJECTIVE FOR INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY (PSYCHO 101)

This general survey of psychology typically explores research methodology, bio-psychology,
human development, memory, consciousness, motivation, emotions, personality, mental
disorders, therapy, health psychology, social psychology, etc.

Required Texts:

Atkinson & Hilgard's Introduction to Psychology, 15th Edition- May 2009

Exploring Psychology in Modules, 12th ed., by Myers & De-Wall.Publisher website to
purchase:https://www.macmillanlearning.com/college/us/product/Exploring-Psychology-in-
Modules/p/131913212X

General Statement of Goals and Objectives

Introduction to General Psychology is designed to introduce students to the science of
psychology. Psychology is a broad and varied field, and this course will move quickly through
many of the main areas of study. Contemporary research techniques and findings will be
emphasized in each subsection, and students will be expected to understand and explain the
empirical nature of psychology.
To that end, you can anticipate the following as a result of taking this course:

General Education Learning Outcomes

Upon successful completion of this course, you should be able to demonstrate the following
competencies:

1) Knowledge of the theoretical and conceptual frameworks of psychology.

2) Understanding the self and world by examining the dynamic interaction of individuals,
groups, and societies as they shape and are shaped by history, culture, institutions, and ideas.
3) Utilization of social science approaches, such as research methods, inquiry, or problem-
solving to examine a variety of perspectives about the human experience.

4) Understanding of how reasoning, history, or culture informs and guides individual, civic, or
global decisions.

5) Understanding and appreciation of similarities and differences among and between

individuals, cultures, or societies across space and time.

Key Competencies
To analyze the relationship between the two courses as a related Discipline
To apply social research during the acquiring of data in the field of study (Health Survey)
To identify the roles of the contributors to Psychology
To analyze Societal and Cultural norms when it comes to human social behavior
To understand the steps in gathering social research

Course Requirement
In order to have a successful pass in this course, students must pay proper attention and dedicate
themselves to the time allotted for the course. It is incumbent upon every student to be attentive
during lectures and ask as many questions as possible. Students are required to attend classes at
all times and in case of emergency do a prior notice to be accepted by the course facilitator.
Student who miss two classes in a semester without a genuine excuse granted by the facilitator
will be rewarded I or DR and calls for repeat of the course. Every student will be required to
participate in class presentations both group and individually. Student’s participation shall be
assessed by: 1. Active participation in class, group assignments neat work, field trips and final
assessment 2. Personal efforts by the student will be highly appreciated which would enhance
students grades/marks (ie neat work, cooperation in class and other good behaviors that will
enhance the learning process.

Course Structure
Psychology 101 will be facilitated by multiple forms of learning to meet its competencies. This
will include cooperative learning which allows students to work in small groups to fulfill the
structured learning tasks. Notes will be turn over to the class representative who will make sure
that it is available to all students. This class will be an interactive, participatory, discussion forum
if possible teaching aid as hypermedia and overhead projector shall be used.

Course Assessment/Evaluation
The Course shall assessed and evaluated using the under listed grading system

Grading Procedures:
Grading will be based on the following assignments:

Assignment Points Possible

Class Presentation 15%
Mid Term 25%
Assignment/Participation 15%
Field Trip 20%
Attendance 5%
Final Exam 20%

Lateness Penalty

Any student submitting assignment later than due date will be penalized and exceptions to said lateness
penalty will be valid reasons such as illness, compassionate grounds, etc. may be entertained by the
course instructor but require supporting documents.

Class Behavior
Students must be punctual in class as attendance is compulsory and if for any reason this cannot be
observed by the student, the lecturer must be communicated. The dress code for the University must be
respected by students without which they will not be allowed into the lecture room. Students must
participate in all class activities as lectures will be interactive and participatory while a pragmatic
approach will be used. Students will be made to learn by doing.

Class Policies and Expectations:

Responsibility:

Students are expected to attend class regularly and complete all of the assignments. You are expected to
know all materials presented during class sessions, whether you attended the class or not, if you miss a
class session, you should check with another students to see what you missed. “I didn’t know” is NEVER
a valid excuse. If you don’t know something, it is your job to find out.

Absences:
You are expected to attend all class sessions and activities. Please make sure that you sign the roll sheet at
each class meeting, as this will serve as official documentation of your attendance. If you miss class, you
must document your absence, or points will be deducted from your grade (See the information on grading
attendance). Please notify the instructor IN ADVANCE if you must miss class. It is in your interest to
provide the instructor with written notification (e.g. a note or email) to document any missed classes. It is
risky simply to tell the instructor and expect him to remember.

Illnesses and Emergencies:

Illnesses and emergencies MUST be documented with a note from a doctor or other professional. You
should bring the note to the next class meeting and submit it to the instructor.

Making up missed work:

If you miss an exam or other assignment due to a document illness, emergency or official university
activity, a make-up will be given.

Late Assignment Policy:

I will collect assignments at the beginning of the scheduled class sessions. Any assignment not submitted
at such time will no longer be accepted.

Cell Phone Use

You are not allowed to make/answer phone calls or send/received text messages during class sessions. All
phones must remain silent during class time.
 COURSE OUTLINE/COURSE CONTENT
WEEK 1&2: Introduction to Psychology and definition of Psychology
*Introduction to the course
*Definition of Psychology
* Brief Historical Overview
*The Founders or the Pioneering Psychologists
* The Scope and Concerns of Psychology

WEEK 3 & 4: Goals of psychology

* Understanding the merits of an education in psychology
* Understanding the importance of Wundt and James in the development of psychology
* Appreciate Freud’s influence on psychology
* Understanding the basic views of Gestalt psychology
WEEK 5: Behaviorism
* Appreciate the important role that behaviorism played in psychology’s history
* Understand basic beliefs of humanism
* Appreciate the diversity of interests within psychology
WEEK 6: Interests and Application of Psychology
* Understand basic interests and applications in each of the described areas of psychology
* Demonstrate familiarity with some of the major concepts or important figures in each of the
described areas of psychology
* Inductive methods and deductive method
* Hypothesis and theories
WEEK 7 & 8 MID TERM
WEEK 9 & 10: Field Visit/Practical

WEEK 11&12: Steps in Psychological Research

* Define research
* Explain different methods of data collection
* Identification of Research Problems
* Understand the ethics of research

* Selections and Designing of Methods of Data Collection

* Conducting Data Gathering Activity
* Data Organization, Analysis, and Interpretation
WEEK 13 & 14: Field Visit/ Practical Community Project/ Final

Our Social Contract

In order for this course to function optimally, both have parts to play, and
when we each do our part, everyone benefits.
As lecturer, I promise to always do my very best to select interesting and
thought-provoking course material. I will prepare course materials to the best
of my abilities, and I will make decisions about the course according to the
above learning goals I have outlined here. I will act fairly-holding even
student to the same high standard and providing equal opportunities for
success of this course.

As student, you promise to prepare diligently for class, to always contribute

to the best of your abilities, to never cheat or act dishonestly, and to treat your
classmates and me with the highest respect. You will do your best to attend
class and be on time. You will not ask me to grant you special privileges that
aren’t available to the rest of your classmates, in order that I may adhere to
my promise to be fair and just to all of you.

Motto: “LEAVE IT BETTER THAN YOU MET IT”

Courtesy: Rev. Dr. P. Jerry Kulah, I. A Mentor

Atkinson & Hilgard's Introduction to Psychology, 15th Edition- May

2009

CARVER CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY

 Mabel McCombs College of Health Science
Carver Mission, Paynesville City, Liberia

PSYCHOLOGY 101-1 LECTURE NOTES

INTRODUCTION TO PSYCHOLOGY

WHAT IS PSYCHOLOGY?

Psychology is the scientific study of mind and behavior. Most psychologists work in research
laboratories, hospitals, and other field settings where they study the behavior of humans and
animals. Some psychologists are researchers and others are practitioners, but all psychologists
use scientific methods to inform their work.

Although it is easy to think that everyday situations have commonsense answers, scientific
studies have found that people are not always as good at predicting outcomes as they often
think they are. The hindsight bias leads us to think that we could have predicted events that we
could not actually have predicted. Employing the scientific method allows psychologists to
objectively and systematically understand human behavior.

Psychologists study behavior at different levels of explanation, ranging from lower biological
levels to higher social and cultural levels. The same behaviors can be studied and explained
within psychology at different levels of explanation. The first psychologists were philosophers,
but the field became more objective as more sophisticated scientific approaches were
developed and employed. Some of the most important historical schools
of psychology include structuralism, functionalism, behaviorism and psychodynamic
psychology. Cognitive psychology, evolutionary psychology, and social-cultural psychology are
some important contemporary approaches.

Some of the basic questions asked by psychologists, both historically and currently include
those about the relative roles of nature versus nurture in behavior, free will versus
determinism, accuracy versus inaccuracy, and conscious versus unconscious processing.
Psychological phenomena are complex, and making predictions about them is difficult because
they are multiply determined at different levels of explanation. Research has found that people
are frequently unaware of the causes of their own behaviors.

Another definition of Psychology could the scientific study of the behavior of individuals and
their mental processes. Let’s explore the critical parts of this definition: scientific, behavior,
individual, and mental.
The scientific method consists of a set of orderly steps used to analyze and solve problems. This
method uses objectively collected information as the factual basis for drawing conclusions.
Behavior is the means by which organisms adjust to their environment. Behavior is action. The
subject matter of psychology largely consists of the observable behavior of humans and other
species of animals. Smiling, crying, running, hitting, talking, and touching are some obvious
examples of behavior you can observe.

The subject of psychological analysis is most often an individual. Many researchers in

psychology also recognize that they cannot understand human actions without also
understanding mental processes, the workings of the human mind. Much human activity takes
place as private or internal events. That is thinking, planning, reasoning, creating, and
dreaming.

THE GOALS OF PSYCHOLOGY

The Goals of Psychology The goals of the psychologist conducting basic research are to
describe, explain, predict, and control behavior. Describing What Happens. The first task in
psychology is to make accurate observations about behavior. Behavioral data are reports of
observations about the behavior of organisms and the conditions under which the behavior
occurs.

Explaining What Happens. Explanations in psychology usually recognize that most behavior is
influenced by a combination of factors. Often a psychologist’s goal is to explain a wide variety of
behavior in terms of one underlying cause. Predicting What Will Happen.

Predictions in psychology are statements about the likelihood that a certain behavior will occur
or that a given relationship will be found. Thus, if we believe your roommate to be shy, we
could confidently predict that he would be uncomfortable when asked to give a speech in front
of a large class. Controlling What Happens. Control means making behavior happen or not
happen. The ability to control behavior is important because it gives psychologists ways of
helping people improve the quality of their lives.

Merits of an Education in Psychology

An education in psychology is valuable for a number of reasons. Psychology students improve

critical thinking skills and are trained in the use of the scientific method. Critical thinking is the
active application of a set of skills to information for the understanding and evaluation of that
information. For example, critical thinking involves maintaining an attitude of skepticism,
recognizing internal biases, making use of logical thinking, asking appropriate questions, and
making observations. Psychology students also can develop better communication skills.
Psychology students come to understand the complex factors that shape one’s behavior. They
appreciate the interaction of our biology, our environment, and our experiences in determining
who we are and how we will behave. They learn about basic principles that guide how we think
and behave, and they come to recognize the tremendous diversity that exists across individuals
and across cultural boundaries.

PERSPECTIVES IN PSYCHOLOGY

Structuralism Wilhelm Wundt (1832–1920) was a German scientist who was the first person to
be referred to as a psychologist. Wundt viewed psychology as a scientific study of conscious
experience, and he believed that the goal of psychology was to identify components of
consciousness and how those components combined to result in our conscious experience.
Wundt used introspection (he called it “internal perception”), a process by which someone
examines their own conscious experience as objectively as possible, making the human mind
like any other aspect of nature that a scientist observed. Wundt established his psychology
laboratory at the University at Leipzig in 1879. However, despite his efforts to train individuals
in the process of introspection, this process remained highly subjective, and there was very
little agreement between individuals.

FUNCTIONALISM

William James (1842–1910) was the first American psychologist who advocated a different
perspective on how psychology should operate. James was introduced to Darwin’s theory of
evolution by natural selection and accepted it as an explanation of an organism’s
characteristics. Key to that theory is the idea that natural selection leads to organisms that are
adapted to their environment, including their behavior. Adaptation means that a trait of an
organism has a function for the survival and reproduction of the individual, because it has been
naturally selected. As James saw it, psychology’s purpose was to study the function of behavior
in the world, and as such, his perspective was known as functionalism. Functionalism focused
on how mental activities helped an organism fit into its environment.

Psychoanalytic Theory

Perhaps one of the most influential and well-known figures in psychology’s history was Sigmund
Freud. Freud (1856–1939) was an Austrian neurologist who was fascinated by patients suffering
from “hysteria” and neurosis. Hysteria was a diagnosis for disorders, primarily of women with a
wide variety of symptoms, including physical symptoms and emotional disturbances, none of
which had an apparent physical cause. Freud theorized that many of his patients’ problems
arose from the unconscious mind. In Freud’s view, the unconscious mind was a storehouse of
feelings and urges of which we have no awareness. Gaining access to the unconscious, then,
was crucial to the successful resolution of the patient’s problems. According to Freud, the
unconscious mind could be accessed through dream analysis and examinations of the first
words that came to people’s minds, and through seemingly innocent slips of the tongue.
Psychoanalytic theory focuses on the role of a person’s unconscious, as well as early childhood
experiences, and this particular perspective dominated clinical psychology for several decades.
For instance, many therapists believe strongly in the unconscious and the impact of early
childhood experiences on the rest of a person’s life. V. Gestalt Psychology Max Wertheimer
(1880–1943), Kurt Koffka (1886–1941), and Wolfgang Kohler (1887– 1967) were advocated
Gestalt psychology. Instead of considering separate parts that make up thinking, Gestalt
psychologists concentrated on the ‘whole’. Their slogan is ‘the whole is greater than the sum of
its parts’. Gestalt means shape, form or configuration. A major emphasis of Gestalt psychology
deals with the fact that although a sensory experience can be broken down into individual
parts, how those parts relate to each other as a whole is often what the individual responds to
in perception. VI. Behaviorism John B. Watson (1878–1958) was an influential American
psychologist whose most famous work occurred during the early 20th century at Johns Hopkins
University. Watson preferred to focus directly on observable behavior and try to bring that
behavior under control. Watson was a major proponent of shifting the focus of psychology from
the mind to behavior, and this approach of observing and controlling behavior came to be
known as behaviorism.  Behaviorism commonly used animals in experiments under the
assumption that what was learned using animal models could, to some degree, be applied to
human behavior.

BEHAVIORISM

Behaviorism dominated experimental psychology for several decades, and its influence can still
be felt today. Behaviorism is largely responsible for establishing psychology as a scientific
discipline through its objective methods and especially experimentation. Behavior modification
is commonly used in classroom settings. Behaviorism has also led to research on environmental
influences on human behavior. B. F. Skinner (1904–1990) was an American psychologist. Like
Watson, Skinner was a behaviorist, and he concentrated on how behavior was affected by its
consequences. Therefore, Skinner spoke of reinforcement and punishment as major factors in
driving behavior.

HUMANISM

Humanism is a perspective within psychology that emphasizes the potential for good that is
innate to all humans. Two of the most well-known proponents of humanistic psychology are
Abraham Maslow and Carl Rogers. Abraham Maslow (1908–1970) was an American
psychologist who is best known for proposing a hierarchy of human needs in motivating
behavior. Maslow asserted that so long as basic needs necessary for survival were met (e.g.,
food, water, shelter), higher-level needs (e.g., social needs) would begin to motivate behavior.
According to Maslow, the highest-level needs relate to self-actualization, a process by which we
achieve our full potential. The focus on the positive aspects of human nature that are
characteristic of the humanistic perspective is evident. Carl Rogers (1902–1987) was also an
American psychologist who, like Maslow, emphasized the potential for good that exists within
all people. Rogers used a therapeutic technique known as client centered therapy in helping his
clients deal with problematic issues that resulted in their seeking psychotherapy.

SOME BRANCHES OF PSYCHOLOGY (FIELDS OF SPECIALIZATION)

1. Biopsychology

As the name suggests, biopsychology explores how our biology influences our behavior. Many
biological psychologists want to understand how the structure and function of the nervous
system is related to behavior. Biopsychology typically focuses on the immediate causes of
behavior based in the physiology of a human or other animal.

2. Cognitive Psychology

The cognitive revolution created drive for psychologists to focus their attention on better
understanding the mind and mental processes that underlie behavior. Thus, cognitive
psychology is the area of psychology that focuses on studying cognitions, or thoughts, and their
relationship to our experiences and our actions.

3. Developmental Psychology

Developmental psychology is the scientific study of development across a lifespan.

Developmental psychologists are interested in processes related to the physical changes
associated with aging, as they also focus on changes in cognitive skills, moral reasoning, social
behavior, and other psychological attributes.

4. Personality Psychology

Personality psychology focuses on patterns of thoughts and behaviors that make each
individual unique. Rather than explaining how personality arises, research is focused on
identifying personality traits, measuring these traits, and determining how these traits interact
in a particular context to determine how a person will behave in any given situation.

5. Social Psychology

Social psychology focuses on how we interact with and relate to others. Social psychologists
conduct research on a wide variety of topics that include differences in how we explain our own
behavior versus how we explain the behaviors of others, prejudice, and attraction, and how we
resolve interpersonal conflicts.

6. Industrial-Organizational

Psychology Industrial-Organizational psychology (I-O psychology) is a subfield of psychology

that applies psychological theories, principles, and research findings in industrial and
organizational settings. I-O psychologists are often involved in issues related to personnel
management, organizational structure, and workplace environment. Businesses often seek the
aid of I-O psychologists to make the best hiring decisions as well as to create an environment
that results in high levels of employee productivity and efficiency.

7. Health Psychology

Health psychology focuses on how health is affected by the interaction of biological,

psychological, and sociocultural factors. This particular approach is known as the bio-
psychosocial model. Health psychologists are interested in helping individuals achieve better
health through public policy, education, intervention, and research. They may research
effective ways to motivate people to address patterns of behavior that contribute to poorer
health.

8. Clinical Psychology

Clinical psychology is the area of psychology that focuses on the diagnosis and treatment of
psychological disorders and other problematic patterns of behavior. As such, it is generally
considered to be a more applied area within psychology; however, some clinicians are also
actively engaged in scientific research.

9. Counseling Psychology

Counseling psychology is a similar discipline to clinical psychology that focuses on emotional,

social, vocational, and health related outcomes in individuals who are considered
psychologically healthy.

10. Forensic Psychology

Forensic psychology is a branch of psychology that deals questions of psychology as they arise
in the context of the justice system. For example, forensic psychologists will assess a person’s
competency to stand trial, assess the state of mind of a defendant, act as consultants on child
custody cases, consult on sentencing and treatment recommendations, and advise on issues
such as eyewitness testimony and children’s testimony.