Introduction to Psychology Overview

Introduction to Psychology

• Psychology studies how humans think, feel, and behave using scientific methods.
• Psychologists apply this knowledge to help people understand, explain, and change behavior.
• Psychologists engage in research, practice, and teaching across many topics related to human thought, feelings, and behaviors.
• Some psychologists work in university research and teaching positions, while others work as practitioners in various settings.

Careers in Psychology

• Developmental, clinical, counseling, and educational psychologists are different types of psychologists.

Wilhelm Wundt

• Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920) was a German scientist considered the first psychologist.
• He viewed psychology as the scientific study of conscious experience.
• Wundt believed psychology's goal was to identify the components of consciousness and how they combine to create our experience.
• His approach, introspection, involved examining one's own conscious experience as objectively as possible, using specific experimental conditions.

Is Introspection Scientific?

• Introspection, though used by Wundt and colleagues, is unreliable.
• Results vary greatly between individuals due to subjective interpretation.
• The data collected is often non-observable by outsiders.

The Four Goals of Psychology

• Describing behavior (what people do)
• Explaining behavior (why they do it)
• Predicting behavior (what will happen)
• Changing behavior (how to influence it)

Perspectives in Psychology

• Perspective is how you see behavior.
• Approach is the strategy psychologists use to understand behavior.
• Psychologists use various perspectives, including psychoanalytic, behavioral, and more.

Psychoanalytic/Dynamic Perspective

• This perspective emphasizes the role of the unconscious mind in explaining human behavior.
• It focuses on childhood experiences influencing adult personality.
• Sigmund Freud developed this perspective.

Conscious and Unconscious Mind

• Conscious mind: information we are aware of.
• Unconscious mind: thoughts, feelings, and memories outside of conscious awareness.

Structure of Personality

• Id: pleasure principle (seeking gratification)
• Ego: reality principle (meeting demands of the id in a safe, acceptable way)
• Superego: moral standards (influencing behavior with socially acceptable standards).

Defense Mechanisms

• Mental processes used to protect the ego from overwhelming stress.
• Used unconsciously to cope with unwanted thoughts/emotions, thoughts that cause distress.

How the Unconscious Mind Affects Behavior

• Unconscious elements like feelings, anger, and past experiences affect behavior.
• Many factors contribute to behavior.

Learning through Consequences

• Learning is an active and responsive process, shaped by environmental responses.
• Behavior is learned by associating it with positive or negative reinforcement.

Behavioral Perspective

• Behaviorists focus on observable behaviors and actions.
• They focus on environmental stimuli for altering behavior and do not consider mental processes.
• They consider learning to occur through classical and operant conditioning.

Classical Conditioning

• Learning through association between a neutral stimulus and an unconditioned stimulus (natural stimulus).
• Eventually the neutral stimulus alone becomes a conditioned stimulus that triggers the unconditioned response.

Pavlov's Dogs

• Pavlov's experiment demonstrating classical conditioning.
• Dogs salivated at the sounds of a bell after associating it with food that used to trigger salivation.

Behaviorists and Classical Conditioning

• The conditioned stimulus (bell) will eventually lead to a conditioned response (salivation)
• Classical conditioning plays a significant role in explaining phobias, and fears.

Personality

• Personality comprises stable, consistent thoughts, feelings and behaviors.
• Personality traits are these characteristics.
• Personality is shaped across the lifespan through nature(genes) and nurture (environment).

Nature and Nurture

• Nature refers to the role of genes in behavior and personality.
• Nurture refers to the impact of environmental factors on behavior and personality.

Epigenetics

• Study of how environmental factors modify how genes are expressed.
• Trauma can chemically alter the body, even impacting future generations.

Defining Trauma

• Trauma is a highly distressing and overwhelming event.
• The impact of trauma is individual and subjective, depending on how the person interprets it.
• Different categories of trauma exist

Categorizing Trauma

• Acute: single traumatic event.
• Chronic: prolonged or repeated exposure.
• Complex: varied traumatic exposures usually during childhood.

Impact of Trauma on Personality

• Trauma can significantly affect personality traits.
• Stable traits can be changed, which is influenced by understanding that our experiences shape us.

How Trauma Changes Personality Traits

• Various psychological changes can occur due to trauma.

Healing and Personality Reintegration

• Trauma-related changes in personality do not always mean permanent alteration.
• Psychotherapy, such as CBT (Cognitive Behavioral Therapy), DBT (Dialectical Behavior Therapy), or EMDR (Eye Movement Desensitization and Reprocessing) are commonly used to treat trauma.
• These forms of therapy help process trauma and reestablish control and safety.