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Questions and Answers
What is an example of Applied Psychology?
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What are the three categories of professional activities for psychologists?
What is the main difference between Clinical Psychologists and Psychiatrists in terms of education?
Psychiatrists completed medical school, whereas Clinical Psychologists completed PhDs.
Clinical Psychologists can prescribe prescription drugs.
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Who helps with everyday problems and typically requires a Master’s degree?
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Match the following professional organizations with their respective countries:
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Define pseudoscience.
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Hippocrates suggested that mental illness had natural causes.
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What is the primary goal of Structuralism in psychology?
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Behaviorists believe in studying only observable __________.
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Match the psychological perspective with its focus:
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Study Notes
The Evolution of Psychology as a Science
- Science: knowledge and understanding of the natural and social world based on the collection and analysis of empirical evidence
- Pseudoscience: statements, beliefs, or practices that claim to be scientific but lack empirical evidence
What is Psychology?
- The scientific study of the human mind, behavior, and mental processes
- Understanding how we think, act, and feel, and why
- Concerned with behavior and mental processes and how they are affected by the organism's physical state, mental state, and external environment
Critical Thinking and Creativity
- Critical thinking: the ability and willingness to assess claims and make objective judgments based on well-supported reasons and evidence
- Empirical evidence: evidence gathered through careful observation, experimentation, and measurement
Psychology's Past
- Hippocrates (400 B.C.E.): believed mental illness had natural causes and emotion and thought were located in the human brain
- Aristotle (350 B.C.E.): claimed the human psyche was part of the body and based on input from the senses
- Phrenology: a discredited theory that different brain areas account for specific personality traits, which can be "read" from bumps on the skull
Early Psychology
- Conscious Mind: awareness of one's self and surroundings
- Unconscious Mind: mental processes that we are not aware of
- Three Early Psychologies: Structuralism, Functionalism, Psychoanalysis
Birth of Psychology
- Wilhelm Wundt (1832-1920): established the world's first psychological laboratory, taught the first psychology course, and published the first psychology textbook
- Goal: to make psychology a science
Structuralism
- Wilhelm Wundt: believed psychology's primary goal should be to understand the facts of consciousness, its combinations, and relations
- Focus on the conscious mind and how humans perceive objects using their senses
- Empirical research: answering questions through scientific method, systematic observations, and laboratory testing
Functionalism
- William James (1842-1910): disagreed with structuralists, emphasizing the function or purpose of behavior and consciousness
- Interested in how and why something happens
- Functionalists broadened the field of psychology to include the study of children, animals, religious experiences, and stream of consciousness
Psychoanalysis
- Sigmund Freud (1856-1939): created psychoanalytic theory, a theory of personality and a method of psychotherapy
- Believed disorders such as hysteria were caused by painful unconscious experiences
- Emphasized the unconscious mind and desires, and believed humans suppress their desires, leading to mental illness
Psychology's Present
- 5 major psychological subfields today:
- Biological psychology
- Learning & Behavior psychology
- Cognitive psychology
- Socio-cultural psychology
- Psychodynamic psychology
Biological Psychology
- Focuses on how bodily events affect behavior, feelings, and thoughts
- Involves hormones, brain chemistry, heredity, evolutionary psychology, and the connection between the mind, brain, and body
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Description
Explore the evolution of psychology as a science, understanding the natural and social world through empirical evidence and differentiating it from pseudoscience.
