Chapter 1

• Psychology


  The scientific study of behavior and mental processes
• Behavior


  • Overt (i.e., can be directly observed, as with crying)
  • Mental Processes: Covert (i.e., cannot be directly observed, as with remembering)
• Goals of Psychology


  • Description of Behaviors
  • Understanding
  • Prediction
  • Control
• Positive use of control


  To control unwanted behaviors (e.g., smoking, tantrums, etc.)
• Negative use of control


  To control people's behaviors without their knowledge
• Psychology is not common sense
• Psychology is not the mysterious
• Psychology is not the parasciences
• Pseudopsychologies


  Any unfounded "system" that resembles psychology and is NOT based on scientific testing
• Pseudopsychologies


  • Palmistry
  • Phrenology
  • Graphology
  • Astrology
  • Feng Sui
• Phrenology was an attempt to assess personality characteristics by examining various areas of the skull. Phrenologists used charts such as the one shown here as guides. Like other pseudopsychologists, phrenologists made no attempt to empirically verify their concepts.
• Wilhelm Wundt


  "Father" of psychology
• Introspection


  Looking inward (i.e., examining and reporting your thoughts, feelings, etc.)
• Traditional Era of Psychology

  • Animism – Belief in gods and spirits determine life occurences
• Greek Influences on Psychology

  • Plato and Aristotle – postulated that the "Soul" is the source of life
  • Every human person is made up of a core, which is the soul
• Galen's four humours


  Blood, phlegm, black bile, and yellow bile that controlled the human condition
• Galen's four temperaments


  • Sanguine - cheerful
  • Melancholic - sad
  • Choleric –strict, irascible
  • Phlegmatic – slow and sluggish
• René Descartes


  Argued that the mind gives people the capacities for thought and consciousness: the mind "decides" and the body carries out the decision—a dualistic mind-body split that modern psychological science is still working to overcome
• John Locke


  "Tabula Rasa", latin for "blank sheet or blank tablet"
• Structuralism


  Dealt with structure of mental life
• Functionalism


  How the mind functions to help us adapt and survive
• Behaviorism


  Psychology must study observable behavior objectively
• Cognitive Behavioral Therapy (CBT)


  Our thoughts influence our behaviors; used often in treatment of depression
• Albert Ellis


  Founder of Rational Emotive Behavior Therapy (REBT)
• Albert Bandura


  Posits that people learn from one another, via observation, imitation, and modeling
• Gestalt psychology


  "The whole is greater than the sum of its parts"
• Jean Piaget


  Piaget's theory of cognitive development is a comprehensive theory about the nature and development of human intelligence
• Psychoanalytic Perspective


  Our behavior is largely influenced by our unconscious wishes, thoughts, and desires, especially sex and aggression
• Repression


  When threatening thoughts are unconsciously held out of awareness
• Reservoir


  Storage for repressed items
• Recent research has hypothesized that our unconscious mind is partially responsible for our behaviors
• Free Association


  Saying whatever comes to mind, regardless of how embarrassing or unimportant it may seem
• Humanism


  Goal of psychology is to study unique aspects of the person
• Humanism


  • Focuses on human experience, problems, potentials, and ideals
  • Each person has innate goodness and is able to make free choices (contrast with Skinner and Freud)
• Self-image


  Your perception of your own body, personality, and capabilities
• Self-evaluation


  Positive and negative feelings you have about yourself
• Frame of reference


  Mental perspective used for interpreting events
• Self-actualization (Maslow)


  Fully developing one's potential and becoming the best person possible
• Branches of Psychology


  • Clinical Psychology
  • Counseling Psychology
  • Developmental Psychology
  • Educational Psychology
  • Forensic Psychology
  • Industrial-Organizational Psychology
  • Sports Psychology
  • Biological Psychology/ Neuro Psychology
• Biopsychology


  All of our behavior can be explained through physiological processes