Introduction to Psychology

INTRODUCTION TO
PSYCHOLOGY- 2
Dr. D Raj Kiran
Senior Resident
Dept. of Psychiatry, KIMSRF
Amalapuram

Definitions
 Psychology- Scientific study of behaviour and
mental process.
 Psychiatry- A branch of medicine which deals
with mental, emotional and behavioural
disorders.

Nature- Nurture debate
 Centres around- whether human capabilities are
inborn or acquired through experience.
 Nature view- human beings enter the world with an
inborn store of knowledge and understanding of
reality.
 Nurture view- knowledge is acquired through
experiences & interactions with the world.
 Most agree- biological processes affect thoughts,
feelings & behaviour, but say that experience leaves a
mark, too.

Scientific psychology
 Began in late 19th century.
 Wilhelm Wundt- 1st Psychological laboratory at
University of Leipzig in Germany in 1879.
 Aimed to study mind & behaviour, like chemicals
or human organs with scientific analysis.
 Primarily concerned- senses, esp. vision, emotion
and memory.

Methods in Psychology
 Discovery of new knowledge about behaviour
is based on experiment and observation.
 These are the ways psychologists make
observations-
 a. Experimental method,
 b. Systematic observation and
 c. Clinical method

Experimental method
 A hypothesis is formulated in terms of
observable events and the experimenter
changes or varies the events which are
hypothesized to have an effect, keeps other
conditions constant and looks for an effect of
the change or variation on the system under
observation.
 The psychologist focuses on effect of the
experimental changes on behaviour.

Systematic method
 Here variables are measured but here researchers do
not manipulate the independent variable.
 Psychologists make the most exacting and systematic
study of the naturally occurring behaviour.
 After making a number of observations, using the
rules of logic, an inference is reached for the causes
of the behaviour being studied.
 By making observations and drawing logical
inferences  find the reasons for behaviour.

Clinical method
 Used when people come with personal problems. Not
all require thorough study. But when they do, it usually
begins by getting a detailed account of the person’s
history.
 The information is gained by interviewing the person
and his associates.
 Psychologist may also administer some tests- like
personality tests, intelligence tests etc.
 These along with history gathered psychologist may
try to diagnose and treat the problem.

Schools of psychology
 Exists: difference of opinion on what psychology
should study & how it should do.
 School- group of like minded psychologists which
formed around influential teachers who argued for one
view or another.
 Time has tended to blunt the old arguments
somewhat, and the early schools have largely passed
into history.
 Many agree to look at behaviour, but disagree to
about what they see and what it means.

Early schools
 Formal ideas began with the classical Greek
philosophers & continued to this day as part of
philosophy.
 Psychology got split from philosophy over 100yrs.
 1st decades of 20th century, psychologists came to
hold different views about the nature of mind and best
ways to study it.
 Schools of psychology- set the direction for much of
the research on mind & behaviour in the early years.

Structuralism/ Introspection
 Proponents- Wilheim Wundt & Edward Titchener.
 Goal- Analysis of mental elements
 Thought as in chemistry, 1st step should be
description of basic, elementary units of
sensation, image and emotion.
 Did experiments to find the elementary
sensations- red, cold, sweet and fragrance.

Functionalism
 Proponents- John Dawey, James Angell and
Harvey Carr.
 Studying how mind works to enable organism to
adopt to and function in the environment.
 Did experiments on the ways in which learning,
memory, problem solving and motivation help to
adapt to their environment.
 In brief they studied the functions of mind and
brain.

Behaviourism
 Originated with John Watson.
 Insisted that psychology be restricted to the study of
behaviour, the observation of activities of people and
animals.
 Had three important aspects- Conditioned responses,
Learned behaviour and focus on Animal behaviour.
 Argued that all behaviour is a result of conditioning
and environment shapes behaviour by reinforcing
specific habits.

Gestalt psychology
 Founded by- Max Wertheimer, Kutt Koffka and Wolfgang
Kohler.
 “Gestalt” is a German word, which means ‘form’ or
‘configuration’.
 Primary interest was perception, believed that perceptual
experiences depend on the patterns formed by stimuli and on
the organisation of experience.
 Perceptual experiences depend on patterns formed by stimuli
and on organisation of experience. Whole is different from
sum of its parts.

Psychoanalysis
 Founded by Sigmund Freud in Vienna, Austria.
 It is both a theory of personality and a method of
psychotherapy.
 Freud developed a theory of behaviour and mind which said
that much of what we do and think results from urges, or
drives.
 These are hidden from the awareness of the individual, or in
other words they are unconscious. It is the expression of the
unconscious drives that show up in behaviour and thought.
 The motivations behind unconscious wishes almost always
involved sex or aggression.

Modern perspectives
 The contributions made by old schools of
psychology have become part psychological
knowledge; but the schools have vanished.
 In the last 50yrs new viewpoints have arisen
for the task of describing and understanding
behaviour

Biological perspective
 Relates behaviour to functions of the body, the
nervous system and hormonal system particularly.
 Psychological events can be related to the activity
of brain and nervous system.
 Attempts to relate overt behaviour to chemical and
electrical events taking place inside the body.
 Research seeks to specify neurobiological
processes that underlie behaviour and mental
processes.

Cognitive perspective
 Cognition refers to perception of the world around
us.
 Often rely on analogy between mind and
computer.
 Concerned with mental process such as
perceiving, remembering, reasoning, deciding and
problem solving.
 Differences in the way we process information

Social perspective
 Here it tries to understand normal social
interactions.
 Social psychologist attempts to get at the
cause of the behaviour by obtaining more
information about the participants and the
settings.

Developmental perspective
 It is concerned with the changes that occur in
people as they mature, changes in the way
they think.

Humanistic perspective
 It emphasizes the person’s sense of self. It was founded by
Abraham Maslow.
 Maslow believed that psychoanalysis focussed too much on
the sick half of psychology and not enough on the healthy
half.
 On the other hand, he believed that behaviourism did not
focus enough on how humans differ from the animals studied
in behaviourism.
 Fundamental- people are innately good and that mental &
social problems result from deviations from natural tendency.

Introduction to Psychology

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Introduction to Psychology