Psychology Introduction PDF

Let’s get introduced to Psychology again CHAPTER 1. PART 1 & 2  WHAT DO YOU THINK? MYTH OR FACT? Psychologists can read people’s minds Psychology is not a true science People cannot change—they are what they are Psychotherapy is useless WILHELM WUNDT (1832- 1920) INTROSPECTION STR...

Let’s get introduced to Psychology again CHAPTER 1. PART 1 & 2  WHAT DO YOU THINK? MYTH OR FACT? Psychologists can read people’s minds Psychology is not a true science People cannot change—they are what they are Psychotherapy is useless WILHELM WUNDT (1832- 1920) INTROSPECTION STRUCTURALISM - structure or internal workings of the mind (sensations, perceptions and feelings) 1st Lab in Germany Movement of Psychology from Philosophy to Science WILLIAM JAMES (1842-1910) Father of Psychology Why we do what we do? FUNCTIONALISM- role of mental processes  JOHN WATSON Dropped introspection Psychology will not advance as a science BLACK BOX  Give me a dozen healthy infants, well-formed, and my own specified world to bring them up in and I’ll guarantee to take any one at random and train him to become any type of specialist I might suggest—doctor, lawyer, merchant-chief and, yes, even beggar-man and thief, regardless of his talents, penchants, tendencies, abilities, vocations, and the race of his ancestors. (Watson, 1924, p. 82)  Behaviouralism became dominant in the 1920’s Environment shapes behaviour b=f(e) Remained dominant for several decades Behaviourists studied animals and said the same can be applied to humans  COGNITIVE REVOLUTION 1950’s response to rise of behaviourism in the US- the black-box theory Focus on information-processing, computational abilities of the mind The most cited paper in psychology- George Miller's 1956 article "The Magical Number Seven, Plus or Minus Two” Bruner’s contribution- found the Harvard Center of Cognitive Studies. Bruner (1967)— study on coins on rich and poor children Challenged psychologists to study not just an organism's response to a stimulus, but also its internal interpretation  PARALLEL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT Max Wertheimer (1880–1943) GESTALT : an organized whole that is perceived as more than the sum of its parts Do you know everything about your mind?  PARALLEL SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT Sigmund Freud (1856–1939) Psychoanalysis  To understand any question in psychology one must choose a lens (school of thought like Gestalt, Behaviourism, Psychoanalysis etc) or a combination of lenses CONTEMPORARY SCHOOLS OF THOUGHT BEHAVIOURAL - Behaviour and thoughts PSYCHODYNAMIC - Dreams, fantasies, defense mechanisms HUMANISTIC - Meaning and purpose in life, perspectives, experiences PHYSIOLOGICAL - Biology and behaviour COGNITIVE- Learning, decision making, memory, language SOCIOCULTURAL- influence of culture on self  To understand any question in psychology one must choose a lens (school of thought like Gestalt, Behaviourism, Psychoanalysis etc) or a combination of lenses  QUIZ The scientist generally credited with the founding of psychology as an independent science was ……………..… The early school of psychology called structuralism a. rejected the use of introspection as a research method b. focused on overt behavior. c. investigated the structure of the mind d. was concerned with the functions of behavior The school of psychology that believes psychology should be limited to the study of observable behaviour is …………………….. Gestalt psychology focuses on the organization of the mind the ways in which the brain organizes and structures our perceptions of the world the functions of behavior the role of self-actualization in motivating behavior Which psychological perspective originated with Sigmund Freud? RESEARCH IN PSYCHOLOGY  A WORD OF CAUTION Most research occurs in university settings, college students are readily available. Typically, they cost the researcher very little: They participate for either extra course credit or a relatively small payment. The problem is that college students may not represent the general population adequately. In fact, undergraduate research participants are typically a special group of people: relative to the general population, college students tend to be from Western, educated, industrialized, rich, and democratic cultures. That description forms the acronym WEIRD, which led one researcher to apply the nickname to research participants (Jones, 2010; Lancy, 2015) A decade later, however, many psychologists say that little has changed. In the process, they are raising questions about how, exactly, psychology researchers should account for nationality, class, gender, sexuality, race and other identities in their work — and expressing frustration at the lack of concrete reform.  A WORD OF CAUTION Problems with WEIRD: In the late 1990s, psychologist Stanley Sue expressed concern that his field paid too little attention to the experiences of non-white ethnic groups. A 2008 study that found that the research in six major psychology journals only rarely examined people outside the West Especially after World War II, intellectual currents swung in the direction of emphasizing the universality of human experience. Researchers often downplay the social identities of participants in published research — a tack that serves to highlight the universality of their results. Choosing a certain group and making conclusions about how human minds work as a species. Often, psychology papers do not even mention the nationality or socioeconomic status of, or other basic demographic statistics about, the study participants. Undermining other identities. HOW TO INTERPRET RESEARCH Example: Research on Pornography https://www.apa.org/monitor/20 14/04/pornography https://journals.sagepub.com /doi/full/10.1177/263183181 8821535 https://link.springer.com/article/1 0.1007/s13178-022-00720-z https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/porn-addiction#research