Introduction to Psychology

Defining Psychology

• Psychology is the systematic, scientific study of behaviors and mental processes.
• Behavior refers to observable actions, including eating, speaking, and sleeping.
• Mental processes are internal, unobservable activities such as thinking and imagining.

Goals of Psychology

• Explain or understand why organisms behave in certain ways
• Predict how organisms will behave in the future
• Control behavior (positive & negative aspects)

Psychological Research: Objective and Repeatable

• Key features of scientific research: objectivity, repeatability, communication, and systematic approach.
• Objectivity: using clear, precise definitions and accurate observations to avoid personal biases.
• Repeatability: others should be able to repeat a study and get the same results.
• Scientific research is crucial for ensuring reliable results and avoiding bias.

Traditional Branches of Psychology

• Clinical Psychology: Diagnoses and treats mental health issues (depression, anxiety, PTSD).
• Counseling Psychology: Helps people deal with everyday life challenges.
• Developmental Psychology: Studies how people change and grow throughout their lives (physical, emotional, social, and cognitive development).
• Educational Psychology: Examines how people learn, improving teaching methods.
• Experimental Psychology: Uses scientific methods to study basic psychological processes (perception, memory, learning, and motivation).
• Industrial-Organizational Psychology: Studies workplace behavior and organizational processes.
• Personality Psychology: Studies individual differences in behavior and emotions.
• Health Psychology: Explores how psychological factors affect health and illness.
• Neuropsychology: Studies the relationship between brain function and behavior.

New Directions in Psychology

• Positive Psychology: Focuses on strengths and virtues to help individuals and communities thrive.
• Cognitive Psychology: Investigates internal mental processes like perception, memory, and problem-solving.
• Environmental Psychology: Studies how people interact with their physical surroundings.
• Community Psychology: Focuses on social issues and community well-being. Also, promotes social justice, improvements in community health and addressing community development problems, collaboration with communities.
• Quantitative Psychology: Involves developing and applying statistics to study psychological phenomena, creating new techniques for analyzing data, and designing experiments and surveys to ensure reliable results.
• Community Mental Health: Focuses on providing mental health services to communities and underserved populations, offering care for mental health, early intervention, and prevention services.
• School Psychology: Combines educational and clinical psychology to support student learning and mental health.
• Human Experimental Psychology: Studies basic human behaviors through controlled experiments.
• Animal Experimental Psychology: Studies animal behavior to understand psychological processes.

Methods

• Experiments and observational studies, offering various approaches for understanding human behavior and mental processes.

Major Schools of Thought

• Structuralism: An early school of thought that aimed to understand the structure of the mind by breaking down mental processes.
• Behaviorism: Focuses on observable behavior, rejecting subjective experiences, with major principles of observable behavior and conditioning (classical and operant).
• Psychoanalytic Approach: Explores the impact of unconscious desires and childhood experiences on behavior.
• Humanistic Approach: Emphasizes personal growth, self-actualization, and the inherent goodness of people, focusing on individual potential and self-improvement.
• Social-Cognitive Approach: Examines how people's thoughts, beliefs, and social interactions influence their behavior, focusing on learning by watching others and modeling through cognitive and social factors.