What is Psychology?

1. What is Psychology? • Psychology is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes • Scientific? • Not just common sense or guesses • Psychology uses the scientific method • Scientific Method is careful observations and the experimental testing of hypothesis • Behavior – what people do on the outside • Mental Processes – What is going on inside someone's head. We call this cognition. • Psychology includes the study of both humans and animals

2. Approaches to the field of Psychology • Biological • Evolutionary • Behavioral • Cognitive • Psychodynamic • Humanistic • Social

4. 1. Biological Psychology • Investigates the biological basis of human behavior, thoughts and emotions. Looks at how the following biological mechanisms effect your behavior and mental processes. • Brain • Neurotransmitters • Hormones • Drugs (both legal and illegal) • Gender differences in brain structure and function

5. 2. Evolutionary Psychology • Asks the question: How did our species get to be the way we are? • Language – Why do we talk? • Altruism – Why are we nice to each other? • Sexual attraction / mate selection – Why are some people considered beautiful? • Answers these questions by looking at what would most help us pass on our genetic code. • Very concerned with reproduction!

6. 3. Behavioral • This approach only studies observable human behavior focusing on how we learn, react and manipulate our environment. • We learn observable responses through conditioning or by trying to get rewards/avoid punishments. • Mind is a BLACK BOX. Can’t see it? Don’t study it. • Big names • Pavlov – Dogs • Watson – Little Albert • Skinner – Operant Conditioning

7. 4. Cognitive Psychology • School of psychology that studies mental processes • Thinking, feeling, remembering, making decisions and judgments • Studies how we encode, process, store, and retrieve information. • Studies behavior and makes inferences about the mental processes behind the behavior • Thanks to new technologies like CAT scans, MRIs and fMRIs, we can open the black box.

8. 5. Psychodynamic Psychology • Personality theory that says behavior springs from unconscious drives and conflicts • Unconscious is a dynamic cauldron of primitive drives, forbidden desires and nameless fears • Psychoanalysis – patient lies on a couch and recounts dreams and conducts free association. • Sigmund Freud

9. 6. Humanistic Psychology • School of psychology that emphasizes nonverbal experiences and altered states of consciousness as a means of realizing one’s full human potential • Importance of love, belonging, human potential, and self-esteem. • Abraham Maslow • Not mainstream, more a cultural and spiritual movement.

10. 7. Sociocultural Psychology • Study of how people influence one another • Topics include: • First impressions • Interpersonal attraction • Attitude formation • Prejudice • Behavior in a group • Obedience to Authority • Some Applications include: • Support groups • Family Therapy • Sensitivity Training

11. Careers in Psychology • Clinical and counseling • developmental • educational • experimental • human factors • industrial–organizational • personality • psychometric

12. 1. Clinical and Counseling Psychology • About 50% of all Psychologists • Counseling psychologists deal with “normal” problems, such as stress caused by career change or marital problems • Counseling psychologist’s focus more on the psychologically healthy individual where clinical focuses on individuals with serious mental illness (e.g. schizophrenia). • Clinical psychologists are concerned with diagnosis and treatment of psychological disorders • Split time between treatment and researching the cause of psychological disorders and the effectiveness of different types of psychotherapy and counseling.

13. 2. Developmental Psychology • Study of physical and mental growth from birth to old age • study of changing abilities from womb to tomb • Subfields • Child psychology • Adolescent psychology • Life-span psychology

14. 3. Educational Psychology • School Psychologist • psychological evaluations • consult with school personnel in relation to students’ learning, behavior, and environments • they are trained to look at the effectiveness of academic programs, classroom agendas, and treatment interventions, which assists in the development of specific interventions.

15. 4. Experimental Psychology • Design research experiments • May or may not have a direct impact on the treatment of patients • Animal subjects • Drug trials

16. 5. Human Factors • The science of understanding the properties of human capability (Human Factors Science). • The application of this understanding to the design, development and deployment of systems and services (Human Factors Engineering). • The art of ensuring successful application of Human Factors Engineering to a programme (sometimes referred to as Human Factors Integration).It can also be called ergonomics.

17. 6. Industrial and Organizational Psychology • Study of psychological principles in industry and business • Examples • Selecting and training personnel • Productivity improvement • Optimizing working conditions • Managing the impact of automation on workers

18. 7. Personality Psychology • Study of how people differ from one another on traits such as • Conscientiousness • Agreeableness • Neuroticism • Openness • Extraversion

19. 7. Psychometics • Test creation • Validity • Reliablity • Culture fair • Statistics

20. Psychiatry • A branch of medicine dealing with psychological disorders • Practiced by physicians who sometimes use medical (for example, drug) treatments as well as psychotherapy

21. Licenses in Psychology • Psychologists - Ph.D., Psy.D. • Psychiatrists - M.D. • Psychoanalysts - M.D. or Ph.D. • Social Workers (M.S.W.) - LSW • Marriage Family Therapists - M.A.