PSY 111 Introduction to Psychology (Module 1) PDF

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course presents a broad coverage of the conceptual and empirical foundations of...

COURSE DESCRIPTION: This course presents a broad coverage of the conceptual and empirical foundations of psychology in its main fields. The discussion of the theories, PSY 111 concepts and empirical findings focuses on complex human behavior; how and why we think, Prepared by: MS. JUDY ANNE A. ANTOLIN feel and behave the way we do; how we act and interact with others; and why and how we become the unique individuals that we are.  PSY 111: Introduction to Psychology (Module 1) MODULE 1: PSYCHOGENESIS OF PSYCHOLOGY AND ITS EVOLUTION I. LEARNING OUTCOMES: After successfully completing this module, you should be able to: 1. Defined and explained the nature of psychology. 2. Traced the historical development of Psychology 3. Compared the different characteristics of the schools with movements of Psychology with its pioneers. TRY THIS! PRETEST. Write True if the statement is True and False if the statement is False. _____ 1. When you study Psychology, you learn how to read minds. _____ 2. In psychology, we easily make conclusions based on what we see, hear and feel. _____ 3. Psychology and psycho are the same _____ 4. Psychology is the study of human mind and behavior _____ 5. Freud is the father of American psychology _____ 6. Psychology do not have research and statistics _____ 7. Psychology comes from the Greek word psyche and logos _____ 8. William James is the founder of World’s First Psychological Laboratory. _____ 9. Psychology is actually a science _____ 10. Psychology can explain the evolution of evil spirits. INTRODUCTION: Many cultures throughout history have speculated on the nature of the mind, heart, soul, spirit, and brain. Philosophical interest in behavior and the mind dates back to the ancient civilizations of Egypt, Greece, China, and India, but psychology as a discipline didn’t develop until the mid-1800s, when it evolved from the study of philosophy and began in German and American labs. This section will teach you more about the major founding psychologists and their contributions to the development of psychology. DEFINITION AND NATURE What is PSYCHOLOGY? The term psychology came from the Greek word “psyche” which means the mind or soul and “logos” or study of. When combined psychology literally means the study of the mind or soul. On the modern sense, psychology can be defined as the scientific study and practical application of observable behavior and mental processes of organisms. It basically deals with the systematic study of behavioral processes of different organisms. Psychology is a relatively young science with its experimental roots in the 19th century, compared, for example, to human physiology, which dates much earlier. As mentioned, anyone interested in exploring issues related to the mind generally did so in a philosophical context prior to the 19th century. Two men, working in the 19th century, are generally credited as being the founders of psychology as a science and academic discipline that was distinct from philosophy. Their names were Wilhelm Wundt and William James. 1  PSY 111: Introduction to Psychology (Module 1) EVOLUTION OF PSYCHOLOGY 7000 years ago, people assumed that psychological problems were caused by evil spirits. To allow these spirits to escape from the patient’s body, ancient healers chipped a hole in patient skull with crude instrument- procedure called trephining Right now, this is also being practice by ‘’ neurosurgeons and call it brain surgery. Rather than a belief of releasing the bad spirits, they do this kind of operation to release clogs and pressure that causes mental disorders. 430 BCE. Hippocrates argues about the four temperaments of personality. He believed that certain human moods, emotions, and behaviours were caused by an excess or lack of body fluids called "humours", which he classified as blood, yellow bile, black bile, and phlegm. Galen elaborated on this. He stated that a lack of balance between the four humors affected people’s way of acting, feeling, and thinking. Galen ended up outlining the existence of four temperaments: Melancholic: In these people, black bile predominates. They have a melancholic temperament, are very sensitive, and enjoy artistic pursuits. Choleric: People in this category have a higher amount of yellow bile, which is the source of their passionate temperament. They have enormous vitality and get angry quickly. Sanguine: Blood is the predominant humor in these people. They’re confident, joyful, optimistic, expressive, and sociable. Phlegmatic: The phlegmatic have a high amount of phlegm in their systems. They’re deep thinkers, fair, calm, willing to compromise, and hard workers. 1690 – John Locke introduces the idea of tabula rasa. Tabula rasa is the notion that individual human beings are born "blank" (with no built-in mental content), and that their identity is defined entirely by events after birth. These events provide data fulfilling the blank sheet. 1879- The World's First Psychology Lab. Wilhelm Wundt a German doctor, and psychologist was responsible for creating the world's first experimental psychology lab. This lab was established in 1879 at the University of Leipzig in Germany. By forming an experimental lab devoted to the scientific study of the human mind and behavior, Wundt was able to formally establish psychology as a separate field of study. Indeed, Wundt is often regarded as the father of 2  PSY 111: Introduction to Psychology (Module 1) psychology. Wundt wanted to study the structure of the human mind (using introspection). A procedure used to study the structure of the mind in which subjects are asked to describe in detail what they are experiencing when they are exposed to stimulus. Wundt believed in reductionism. That is, he believed consciousness could be broken down (or reduced) to its basic elements without sacrificing any of the properties of the whole. Wundt concentrated on three areas of mental functioning; thoughts, images and feelings. Some of these areas are still studied in cognitive psychology today. Cognitive Psychology revolves around the notion that if we want to know what makes people think then the way to do it is to figure out what processes are actually going on in their minds. In other words, psychologists from this perspective study cognition which is ‘the mental act or process by which knowledge is acquired.’ 1890 - William James formed a psychology lab at Harvard University. James published a highly influential, two-volume synthesis and summary of psychology, Principles of Psychology. The books were widely read in North America and Europe, gaining attention and praise from Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung in Vienna 1895 – William James contributed to one of the schools of thought. Functionalism has the most influence of any theory in contemporary psychology. Psychological functionalism attempts to describe thoughts and what they do without asking how they do it. For functionalists, the mind resembles a computer, and to understand its processes, you need to look at the software, which is what the mind does, without having to understand the hardware that includes the underlying how and why. It focuses in mental operations. 1900 - The psychodynamic perspective emerges founded by Sigmund Freud. It emphasizes unconscious psychological processes (for example, wishes and fears of which we’re not fully aware), and contends that childhood experiences are crucial in shaping adult personality. It is also connected to the technique “psychoanalysis”. This school of thought emphasized the influence of the unconscious mind on behavior. Freud believed that the human mind was composed of three elements: the id, ego, and superego. The id consists of primal urges while the ego is the component of personality charged with dealing with reality. The superego is the part of the personality that holds all of the ideals and values we internalize from our parents and culture. Freud believed that the interaction of these three elements was what led to all of the complex human behaviors. 1904- Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist best known in psychology for his discovery of classical conditioning. During his studies on the digestive systems of dogs, Pavlov noted that the animals salivated naturally upon the presentation of food. However, he also noted that the animals began to salivate whenever they saw the white lab coat of an experimental assistant. It was through this observation that Pavlov 3  PSY 111: Introduction to Psychology (Module 1) discovered that by associating the presentation of food with the lab assistant, a conditioned response occurred. 1920 – Gestalt Psychology started and became influential. Originating in the work of Max Wertheimer, Gestalt psychology formed in part as a response to the structuralism of Wilhelm Wundt. The development of this area of psychology was also influenced by a number of thinkers, including Immanuel Kant, Ernst Mach, and Johann Wolfgang von Goethe. Gestalt psychology is a school of thought that looks at the human mind and behavior as a whole. When trying to make sense of the world around us, Gestalt psychology suggests that we do not simply focus on every small component. Instead, our minds tend to perceive objects as part of a greater whole and as elements of more complex systems. This school of psychology played a major role in the modern development of the study of human sensation and perception. 1924 – John B. Watson an early behaviorist, publishes behaviorism. Watson believed that one could gain a complete understanding of behavior by studying and modifying the environment in which people operate. In fact, Watson thought that it was possible to produce any desired type of behavior by controlling person’s environment. This type of approach suggests that observable and measurable behavior must be the focus of a specific study. 1951 – Carl Rogers publishes Client Centered Therapy healing to establish humanistic perspective. Humanistic perspective emphasizes looking at the whole individual and stresses concepts such as free will, self-efficacy, and self-actualization. Rather than concentrating on dysfunction, humanistic psychology strives to help people fulfill their potential and maximize their well-being. 1953 – B.F. Skinner publishes Science and Human Behavior advocating the behavioral perspectives. Behavioral perspective grew out of a rejection of psychology’s early emphasis on the inner working of the mind. Instead, behaviorists suggested that the field should focus on observable behavior that can be measured objectively. 1954 - Abraham Maslow publishes Motivation and Personality developing the concept of Self- Actualization, the highest level in Maslow's hierarchy, and refer to the realization of a person's potential, self-fulfillment, seeking personal growth and peak experiences. Maslow (1943) describes this level as the desire to accomplish everything that one can, to become the most that one can be. 1985 – Increase emphasis on cognitive perspective. The cognitive perspective is concerned with “mental” functions such as memory, perception, attention, etc. It views people as being similar to 4  PSY 111: Introduction to Psychology (Module 1) computers in the way we process information (e.g., input-process-output). For example, both human brains and computers process information, store data and have input an output procedure. 2010 – New subfield develop such as neuropsychology and evolutionary psychology. Neuropsychology is the discipline which investigates the relations between brain processes and mechanisms on one hand, and cognition and behavioral control on the other. The purpose of this approach is to bring the functional way of thinking about biological mechanisms such as the immune system into the field of psychology, and to approach psychological mechanisms in a similar way. In short, evolutionary psychology is focused on how evolution has shaped the mind and behavior. Evolutionary Psychology proposes that the human brain comprises many functional mechanisms, called psychological adaptations or evolved cognitive mechanisms designed by the process of natural selection. REFERENCES: Textbooks Aguirre, Felisa U; Monce, Rosario E. (2008), Introduction to Psychology. Malabon City, Mutya Publishing House. Frando M.F. (2014) General Psychology Simplified. Books Atbp. Publishing King L. (2012), Experience Psychology: Second Edition. McGraw-Hill Higher Education Rathus S., (2012) Sensation and Perception 2nd Edition. Macmillan International Higher Education Chance P., (2014). Learning and Behavior7th Edition. Cengage Learning Birion J C., Austrias, M & De Jesus E. (2013) General Psychology. Mutya Publishing House Inc. Website McLeod, S. A. (2015, January 14). Psychology research ethics. Simply Psychology. https://www.simplypsychology.org/Ethics.html 5