Intro to Psychology & Behavior: Unit I

• The presentation introduces Unit I: Introduction to Psychology and Behavior

What is Psychology?

• Psychology originates from the Greek words "psique" (soul) and "logia" (study)
• Psychology is defined as the study of the mind and behavior, according to the American Psychological Association (APA)
• Encompasses all aspects of human experience

History of Psychology

• The origins of Psychology as a science are in the origins of philosophy, in Ancient Greece
• Ancient Greek philosophers identified the special value of reason as a decisive criterion of truth
• Before then, humans sought explanations through magical stories called "myths"
• Early thinkers explained the particularities of people's psychic content as the action of the soul
• This theory was developed by materialist thinkers like Heraclitus (6th century) and Democritus (5th century)
• Heraclitus considered the soul as "corteza ardiente" (burning cortex) while Democritus regarded it as an "atom of fire"
• The soul exists and changes due to the same natural causes that affect the universe
• Mental life was included in the general laws of natural processes
• Alcmeón in the 6th century, discovered that the organ of the psyche is the brain
• Aristotle argued that the main organ of the psyche is the heart
• Hippocrates proposed the theory about temperaments, explaining that individual differences are due to the mixture of four elements (substances) that form the human body
• The prominence of one of the elements in the mix creates the corresponding temperament
• Representatives of materialism were unable to logically explain where abstract thought originates, how moral qualities of personality are formed, or how the capacity to choose and control the body is determined
• This limitation led to the development of idealist criteria about the psyche
• Plato proclaimed that the soul was immaterial and immortal
• Plato introduced the thesis about the parts of the soul and placed them in different parts of the body, thus separating them:
  • Reason (head)
  • Valor (chest)
  • Sensuality (abdominal cavity)
• The distribution of the parts of the soul varies among individuals
• The dominant part determines the individual's belonging to one social group or another
• Plato is the father of dualism in psychology which focuses on the material and the spiritual, the body and psyche are considered independent and antagonistic
• Aristotle advocated for an experimental and objective method to study spiritual activity
• Aristotle proposed the idea of the indivisibility of the soul and the living body
• The soul cannot be divided into parts but is manifested in different capacities for activity:
  • Nutritious
  • Sensory
  • Motor
  • Rational
• Nutrition is specific to plants, sensory and motor to animals, and rational to humans -The theory on the plant, animal, and rational soul introduces the principle of development -Aristotle also presented the theory on the formation of character in real activity -A person becomes fair and moderate as production of frequent repetition of acts is carried out with fairness and in moderation
• Heraclitus, Democritus, Plato and Aristotle's theories became the starting point for the development of psychological ideas in later times -The physicians of Alexandria, Herófilo and Erasistrato, discovered the nerves -They systematically studied the dependence of psychic functions (sensations and movements) on irritations and cuts of the brain -It is not the whole body, but certain organs, like the nerves and the brain, that are inseparably linked to the psyche
• Descartes proposed that the work of the heart's muscles is governed by an internal mechanism of blood circulation, other muscles work at all levels of behavior
• Descartes introduced the notion of the reflex as a normal response of the organism to an external influence
• Descartes showed that the muscle was able to react to the external stimulus without any intervention of the spirit, because of its structure having a nervous system
• This conception a revolution in the approach to the study of psychic phenomena and became the compass for objective of muscular nervous activity

Object of Study of Psychology

• Psychology has specific scientific tasks in the study of the psyche and has its specific object of investigation
• Psychology studies mental activity, its essence and state of man, investigates in transformation of external influence of the individual and the regularity of these processes and their dependence on practice
• The psyche is characterized by being active and motivation composes an indispensable part of it
• The mental reflection is not like that of a mirror; it is not passive, but is linked to the search, to the election, and to the balance of the action's variants
• This is a necessary aspect of the activity of the individual's personality
• The active regulation of behavior involves the functioning of the afferentiation system of return
• Each act of response is valued by the brain from the point of view of resolving the task
• It is one unique form of cyclic system, in which not a single moment, of whatever is being sanctioned, can be concluded without immediately sending back information on the results of the process that just occured
• Return afferentiation gives feedback on the process, the action taken with its image is given. This is anticipated as a particular model of reality
• The existence of the psyche allows us to construct a consequent program of action and to produce internal operations within the subject where they take place prior to action

Explore the definition and origins of psychology. Psychology is the study of mind and behavior, originating from Greek philosophy. Early thinkers like Heraclitus and Democritus explored the concept of the soul, setting the stage for modern psychological thought.