PSY 101: Introduction to Psychology

Lecture:1
Chapter1:Introduction to psychology

Ms. Ashma Rahman

Lecturer
Department of History and Philosophy
 Definition of Psychology
Psychology

PSYCHE LOGOS
Soul Knowledge

• The literal meaning of psychology was

“knowledge about souls.”
• defined by the ancient Greek philosophers.
The evolution of definition of psychology:
A study of :
Soul During 10th century

Mind Till the end of 1870s century, a part

of philosophy

Was defined by Wundt

Consciousness during the later part of 19th
century Through
experimental process

By William James
Mental Process through experimental
process

Behavior In 1913, Watson described

7 thousands years ago, psychological problems were assumed
to be caused by evil spirits.
• During the ancient Greek period the core concept of
psychology was soul. Back then it was not any separate
branch of study.
• The concept of soul changed during the middle aged period,
since the soul as a concept was intangible. the definition
kept evolving and reached at point where it was considered
as the study of Mind. It happened due to the heavy influence
of religious foremen.
• The late 19th century marked the start of psychology as a
scientific enterprise. Psychology as a field of experimental
study began in 1879, when German scientist Wilhelm Wundt
founded the first laboratory dedicated exclusively
to psychological research in Leipzig University. He then
pointed out the consciousness as the core of psychological
study.
• Contemporary psychologists william james in U.S.
introduced the concept of mental process to the
existing practice of psychology in the early part of 20th
century . In 1913 J.B. Watson gave the ground baking
definition which stated psychology as the science of
behavior.
“ psychology is the scientific study of behavior and
mental process” --- Feldman 2008
Key points:
• Behavior
• Mental Process
• Scientific study
Behavior is any kind of activity by a living being or an organism
that can be observed, recorded and measured. It includes
what the organisms do in their space. It even includes the
physiological or the bodily changes. E.g. changes in the blood
pressure or brain waves.
• Types of Behavior
A) Molar & molecular behavior
B) Voluntary & involuntary behavior
C) Overt & covert behavior
For any behavior to be under the domain of psychology, it must
have a well-defined cause behind it. The behaviors belong to
these categories which are triggered by any random, non-
psychological cause will not be the subject matter of
psychology .
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QSXzzszM93Q
• Mental processes are all the things that
individuals can do with their brain. It includes
thoughts, memories, emotions, motivations,
dreams, perception, feelings.
• The behavior and mental process are inter-
relater. One causes the other. Psychologists
believe that mental process can be studied by
observing changes in behavior. e.g. individual’s
level of alertness can be studied by measuring
the changes in the electrical signals generated
by brain. Or stress can be inferred by measuring
changes in the blood pressure and perspiration.
Overt Behavior Mental Processes Body Functions ( covert)

• How we communicate • Thinking • Nervous system (Brain

• How we eat • Perceiving and Body)
• How we look • Memory • Internal functions of the
• Verbal and non-verbal • Learning body organs e.g. heart,
behavior • Problem solving liver, kidneys
• Expressions, Gestures- • Reasoning • Voluntary, involuntary
postures e.t.c. muscle activities
HIGHER MENTAL PROCESS- • Genetics
COGNITION
 Psychology as a Science
• Systematic: Psychology implies the proper systematic format of science to study
its core concepts.
• Objective: The scientific psychology takes every possible measures to ensure
objectivity in its study. It uses the methods of science to eliminate all sources of
biases in any investigation of it. E.g. in psychological research the sample is
collected by following randomization so that the expectancy of the researcher
can’t influence the outcome of the research.
• Empirical: The laws and theories of psychology are testable and provable within
the available resources. Psychology deals with those aspects of behavior and
mental process that are observable and measurable.
• Deterministic: Psychology directs its investigation to search for the causal-effect
relation. It believes that every behavior and mental process that are the subject
matter of psychology must have a reason behind it.
• Predictable: The findings of a particular scientific psychological research can be
generalized for the similar situations.
• Replicable: The findings of any scientific study of psychology can be replicated in
later occasions if it is done under the same condition.
Goal of Psychology
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzCrc6eRRI
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Nature of Psychology as a science:
As a field of science, psychology functions both
as a pure and an applied area of science.
Pure Science: It deals with the theory and the
prediction. It does not have any direct concern
for the application in the real field.
Applied science: it applies the principles,
discoveries and the theories in the practical
ways.
 Pure psychology : General psychology, Experimental
psychology, cognitive psychology, social psychology,
Cross-cultural psychology

Applied Psychology : Clinical Psychology, counseling

psychology, school psychology, developmental
psychology, industrial and organizational psychology.
• These sub-fields of psychology from both applied
and pure scientific area share the common goal
which is “understanding the behavior”. But their
views to understand the behavior is what that
makes them different.
Subfields Description

1. Behavioral genetics 1. Inheritance of traits related to behavior

2. Behavioral neuroscience 2. Biological basis of behavior
3. Clinical psychology 3. Study, diagnosis and treatment of psy. disorders
4. Counseling psychology 4. Educational, social, and career adjustment issues
5. Cognitive psychology 5. Study of higher mental process
6. Cross-cultural psychology 6. Similarities & differences in psy. Functioning in and
7. Developmental psychology across cultures
8. Educational psychology 7. How people grow and change from conception to death
9. Environmental psychology 8. Teaching and learning processes, school performance
10. Evolutionary psychology 9. Relationship between people and their physical
11. Experimental psychology environment
10. How behavior is influenced by our genetic inheritance
from our ancestors
11. The processes of sensing, perceiving, learning and
thinking about the world
Roots of Psychology
Psychology’s roots traced back to the ancient Greeks.
Today, psychologists are dealing with some core
questions which were emerged from later
Philosophers (in the 17th- century).
Remarks of formal Beginning of psychology as a
scientific discipline
 In the late 19th century, in Leipzig, Germany,
Wilhelm Wundt established the first experimental
laboratory devoted to psychological phenomena

At about the same time, William James was setting

up his laboratory in Cambridge, Massachusetts
Structuralism
The name of Wilhelm Wundt’s perspective
He viewed Psychology as the study of
conscious experience
 He focused on uncovering the fundamental
mental components of perception,
consciousness, thinking, emotions, and
other kinds of mental states and experiences
Introspection- a procedure where the
individuals were asked to report in detail about
their experience. This process strove to reveal
how basic thoughts shape our understanding
of the world.
Purpose of the experiment
Was coming to a better understanding of the structure of the
mind, because the mind was thought to be the store house of
all kinds of experiences. Example of structuralism describing
an apple as a red, round shaped, hard, juicy and sweet thing.
Challenges to Wundt’s approach
dissatisfaction with the assumption that introspection
could reveal the structure of the mind
introspection not a truly scientific technique as
 Few ways for an outside observer to confirm the
accuracy of others’ introspected information of
experiences.
• people had difficulty describing some kinds of
inner experiences, such as emotional
responses.
• Drawbacks of structuralism-led to establish
new approach known as functionalism and the
focus of functionalism:
Functionalism
William James founder of this perspective
concentrated on what the mind does and how behavior
functions.
 the functionalists examined how behavior allows
people to satisfy their needs and how our
“consciousness of the surroundings” permits us to
adapt to our environment
 It describes every stimulus/event/condition/behavior
from its functioning value.
The example of functionalist describing an apple
would be a fruit that has health benefit for those
who have potassium deficiency.
The prominent sub-fields of psychology emerges
from the functionalism.
 E.g. school psychology: proposing ways to best
meet students’ educational needs.
Drawbacks of structuralism led to establish
another new approach known as gestalt
psychology.
Gestalt psychology (established in the early
1900s)
Led by German scientists Hermann
Ebbinghaus and Max Wertheimer
 emphasizes how perception is organized
 “The whole is different from the sum of its
parts” meaning that our perception, or
understanding of objects is greater and more
meaningful than the individual elements that
make up our perceptions/experience.
We get a better understanding out of all the
given pictures when we perceive them as a
whole unit rather then focusing on their
elements. E.g. in the first picture we can
perceive many triangles but in real that
picture doesn’t have any triangle.
 Approaches in psychology
The Neuroscience Perspective
is the approach that views the behavior from the perspective of
brain, nervous system and other biological functions.
It considers
• How nerve cells are joined together
• How inheritance of characteristics influence our behavior
• How bodily functioning affect behavior
The different types of neurotransmitters are responsible for
different types of behavior
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mr70WhRS4fE
Psychodynamic perspective:
Belief that behavior is motivated by unconscious inner
forces over which we have very little control.
• Three parts of mind. Conscious, sub-conscious and
unconscious.
• Sigmund Freud believed that, the unconscious
determinants of behavior resides in the ID
• Believed that, the slips of tongue and dream are the
indication of what a person is truly feeling
• Unconscious mind is filled with repressed memories,
childhood memories, unfulfilled wishes and needs.
The Behavioral Perspective:
J.B. Watson initiated the approach, which suggests that, only
observable behavior and their context should be the focus of
the study.
• Believed that complete understanding of behavior can be
obtained by studying and modifying the environment in
which it operates.
• He believed that, it is possible to make an individual behave in
any desired way by controlling the environment. No other
factor such as heredity has any influence over it.
• He describe how do we learn new behavior
• Through association, rewards and punishments and
observation.
Cognitive Perspective:
Focuses on how people think, understand and know
about the world.
• It emphasis on learning of how people comprehend
and represent the outside world within themselves
and how our ways of thinking about the world
influence our behavior.
• Experts compares it with computer's data processing
system.
• Thinking
Determines
• Feelings behavior
• Memory ( knowledge)
Humanistic perspective:
Suggests that all human naturally strives to grow,
develop and be in control of their lives and behavior.
It views the human as inherently good.
• Maintains that each individual has capacity to seek
and reach full potential.
• It focuses on the human capacity of free will ( the
ability to make decisions about one’s behavior and
life)
• More than any other approaches it stresses on the
uniqueness of individual and enrichment of
individual’s life by helping them achieve self-
fulfillment.
Neuroscience Cognitive Behavioral Psychodynamic Humanistic

• Heredity and • Identifying the • Observing the • Understandin • The unique

evolution, roots of outer person g the inner qualities of
brain and understanding person the human
nervous • Focuses on species
system • Examines how observable • Believes
people think behavior behavior is • Contends that
• Views and motivated by people can
behavior from understand inner, control their
the about the unconscious behavior and
perspective of world forces over that they
biological which a naturally try
functioning person has to reach their
little control full potential
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oz4uN-6M
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 Reference
• Feldman R.S. Understanding Psychology (latest
edition)
 Test your learning
1)Wundt called psychology as the study of consciousness, a
perspective ____
2)Name the procedure where individual has to report on
their experiences after being exposed to a stimulus/event.
3)It is the behavior that can be observed should only be
the concept of studying which perspective holds this idea?
4) “ my therapist is wonderful, she always points out the
positive aspect of mine”
The therapist here is most likely using_____ approach