Psychology(ch-1)

• Psychology is defined as a scientific discipline which deals with processes underlying human experience and behaviour.
• Psychology is formally defined as a science which studies mental processes, experiences, and behaviour in different contexts.
• Mental processes are states of consciousness or awareness or mental processes, which we use when we think or try to solve a problem, to know or remember something.
• Experiences are things and feelings people experience through their lifetime, which can change their mental processes and the way they take on life and others around them.
• The playlist link for Class 11 Psychology, Chapter 1 is https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL6-r-i_e9Bafix_UBOk7VV8cMxhvkA3_a.
• Behaviours are responses or reactions we make or activities we engage in, which are influenced by our mental processes and experiences.
• Behaviours can be of two types: overt behaviour, which is visible, and covert behaviour, which is not visible.
• Some Psychologists study behaviour as an association between stimulus (S) or response (R), both of which can be internal or external.
• A stimulus is what makes you react to a certain situation, while a response is how you reacted to a certain situation.
• John Watson rejected the ideas of mind and consciousness as subject matters of psychology, defining psychology as a study of behaviour or responses (to stimuli) which can be measured and studied objectively.
• Gestalt psychologists argued that when we look at the world our perceptual experience is more than the sum of the components of the perception.
• Using the hypothetico-deductive model, psychologists have developed theories of learning, memory, attention, perception, motivation and emotion.
• Functionalists focused on how behaviour enabled people to satisfy their needs.
• William James believed that instead of focusing on the structure of the mind, psychology should instead study what the mind does and how behaviour functions in making people deal with their environment.
• Constructivism is a view in modern cognitive psychology that suggests human beings actively construct their minds through their exploration into the physical and the social world.
• Mind and brain are separate entities, but mind cannot exist without brain.
• Sigmund Freud suggested human behaviour as a dynamic manifestation of unconscious desires & conflicts, founding psychoanalysis as a system to understand and cure psychological disorders.
• Cognitive perspective combines aspects of Gestalt approach & structuralism, focusing on how we know about the world.
• Psychology was influenced by Descartes and later on by the developments in physics, following a hypothetico-deductive model.
• Psychology is recognised more as a social science because it studies the behaviour of human beings in their socio-cultural contexts.
• Vygotsky suggested that mind is a joint cultural construction and emerges as a result of interaction between children and adults.
• Psychology is a discipline that studies behaviour, experience and mental processes, seeking to understand and explain how the mind works and how different mental processes result in different behaviours.
• Introspection was a procedure in which individuals or subjects in psychological experiments were asked to describe in detail, their own mental processes or experiences.
• Psychology assumes that all behavioural phenomena have causes which can be discovered if data can be collected systematically under controlled conditions.
• Psychology is a social science with focus on the individuals and communities in relation to their sociocultural and physical environment.
• Until 19th century, the concern of philosophers was what is the nature of the mind or how do humans come to know their motivations and emotions.
• Counselling psychologists work with persons who suffer from motivational and emotional problems.
• Music and psychology have converged in many areas and scientists have made use of music in raising work performance.
• The print and the electronic media have entered in our lives in a very big way and they have a major influence on our thinking, attitudes and our emotions.
• Community psychologists generally focus on problems related to community mental health and work for mental health agencies, private organisations and state governments.
• Spacious & Comfortable rooms or architecture gives peace to human brain & behaviour.
• Interventions in the life of needy people have made the subject of psychology popular.
• Psychology shares its knowledge with neurology, physiology, biology, medicine and computer science in studying brain and behaviour.
• Any discipline, which deals with people, would definitely recognise the relevance of the knowledge of psychology.
• School psychologists work in educational systems, and their roles vary according to the levels of their training.
• A skilled lawyer and a criminologist requires knowledge of psychology to understand the nature of crime & asks right questions or presents right facts before court.
• American economists have used data on consumer sentiments to predict economic growth.
• Psychology shares its knowledge with literature, art and music in studying mental activities involved in creation of literary texts, music and drama.
• Doctors have realised that the maxim, healthy body requires a healthy mind, is actually true and a large number of hospitals now employ psychologists.
• In the later part of the 19th century, Wundt and other psychologists adopted an experimental approach to these questions and contemporary psychology emerged.