Psychology

• Psychology education entails both content knowledge and skill development
• Skills acquired in psychology

  • Critical thinking
  • Effective communication
• The American Psychological Association's guidelines emphasize the importance of skill acquisition alongside content knowledge in psychology education
• Skills focused on in psychology education

  • Critical thinking
  • Cultural awareness
• Reflective learning


  A means to enhance both content understanding and skill acquisition in psychology education
• Commonsense beliefs


  Beliefs about human behavior that can be false due to uncritical acceptance, where claims are accepted without logical evaluation
• Factors contributing to the acceptance of false beliefs

  • Trust in respected individuals
  • Weak evidence
  • Repeated exposure to claims
  • Desire for them to be true
• Confirmation bias


  Leads individuals to notice information that confirms their existing expectations while ignoring contradictory evidence
• Superstition


  Unfounded beliefs without objective evidence
• Pseudoscience


  Presents itself as scientific but lacks empirical support
• Science


  Requires an objective approach to answering questions, avoiding confirmation bias and cherry-picking of results
• Psychologists engage in research to validate claims, discover new knowledge, and apply psychology to various fields
• Research areas covered by psychologists

  • Memory
  • Stress
  • Learning
  • Obesity
  • Aging
  • Sleep
• Animal studies are integral to psychological research, providing insights into universal principles applicable to humans
• Clinical psychologists


  Address severe psychological problems
• Counseling psychologists


  Deal with milder psychological issues
• Both clinical and counseling psychologists require a doctorate and licensure, with ethical codes emphasizing competence and client welfare
• Mental health professionals that psychologists collaborate with

  • Psychiatrists
  • Psychoanalysts
  • Counselors
• Psychiatrists


  Treat serious mental disorders with medication
• Psychoanalysts


  Follow a specific psychotherapeutic approach
• Counselors


  Address practical life problems and require a master's degree for licensure
• Wundt


  Often regarded as the "father of experimental psychology," founded the first psychological laboratory in Leipzig, Germany, in 1879
• Introspection


  A method wherein participants were trained to observe and report their own conscious experiences in a controlled laboratory setting
• Introspection aimed to dissect complex mental processes into their elemental components, providing insight into the fundamental building blocks of human cognition
• Titchener


  A student of Wundt's, expanded upon his mentor's ideas, giving rise to the school of thought known as structuralism
• Structuralism


  Sought to uncover the underlying structure of the mind by systematically analyzing the basic elements of consciousness
• Titchener believed that through rigorous introspective analysis, individuals could elucidate the fundamental sensations, feelings, and thoughts comprising their subjective experiences
• By discerning these elemental components, structuralists aimed to construct a comprehensive understanding of the architecture of the mind
• Gestalt psychology


  Emphasized holistic perception, contrasting with the reductionist approach of structuralism
• Functionalism


  Broadened the scope of psychology to include the study of adaptive behaviors and consciousness's functional role
• Key principles of Gestalt psychology

  • Figure-ground
  • Proximity
  • Similarity
  • Closure
• Key principles of Functionalism

  • Adaptation
  • Consciousness
  • Pragmatism
• Behaviorism shifted focus from the study of consciousness to observable behavior, advocating for an objective approach to psychology
• Law of Effect


  Explains how behavior is learned
• John B. Watson


  Rejected introspection and emphasized the study of behavior as influenced by environmental stimuli and responses
• B.F. Skinner


  Introduced operant conditioning, highlighting the role of reinforcement and punishment in behavior modification
• Behaviorism examples


  • Pavlov's Conditioning Experiment
  • Skinner's Skinner Box
  • Behavior Therapy
• Psychoanalytic psychology


  Focused on the unconscious mind and proposed that unconscious thoughts and conflicts influence behavior
• Sigmund Freud


  Developed psychoanalysis as a therapeutic approach to explore and resolve unconscious conflicts
• Neo-Freudians


  Modified Freud's ideas, leading to the development of psychodynamic theory, which continues to emphasize the role of unconscious forces