Prateek Garg 1 7 2010 Psychology 111 The scientific investigation of mental processes and behavior Psychology Defined Reflects the influences of o Biological Processes It s different for each person o Individual Differences E g getting a flu shot and asking if it hurt or not o Time and Culture Used to say that autism was the fault of the mother not bonding with their children Therefore the study of psychology may change over time 4 Goals of psychology Describe how people and animals behave Understand and explain the causes of behavior Predict behaviors reactions across situations Control behavior through understanding its causes and consequences o People are more likely to behave in certain ways in different situations A Sample of Psychological Perspectives Biological Perspective o Understand the mind and behavior through biological processes in the brain E g serotonin chemicals in the brain to change emotions thoughts o Electrical and chemical processes of neurons o Localization of function Phineas gage Famous Patient to survive severe brain damage Tamping iron went through his head during construction Before the accident he was a very efficient worker After the accident he became very moody and the workers didn t enjoy working with him Learned that he could still function but the part of his brain that handled personality was damaged Psychodynamic Perspective According to Sigmund Freud o Conscious and Unconscious forces determine behavior Most motivation is unconscious behavior o Behavior as an interplay between thoughts and feelings Thoughts and feelings can conflict o Talks about how some feelings are repressed Prateek Garg 1 7 2010 Psychology 111 Freudian slip out o When you re talking about something but then your repressed thought makes its way Behaviorist Perspective Said Freudian theory was crap because unconscious is not able to be tested o Only tests responses it doesn t account for the mind thoughts o The environmental impact on a person s actions o Observe behavioral responses o Classical conditioning Two stimuli are paired together so the first stimuli brings a behavior that it wouldn t have brought If you give a dog a treat after a whistle repeatedly after a while the dog will expect a treat after the sound of a whistle o Operant conditioning When you re rewarded for something you repeat the same behavior If you re punished for something you avoid that behavior o Social learning theory somewhat accounts for thoughts and the mind Bandura Bobo doll Study If kids see parent beat up bobo doll then kids are more likely to beat up the bobo doll in a room full of toys Cognitive Perspective o How you know things how things are stored o Mental processes involved in knowing o Focus on storage and retrieval of information o Mind is like a computer Positive Psychology focus on the adaptive creative and positive aspects of the human experience Seligman Peterson o Look at subjective experiences of positive emotions contentment happiness optimism Some people are just randomly happy or randomly sad o Identify positive traits such as kindness caring resilience o Explore social elements of adaptive and positive functioning families communities work environments There are some families that work better than other What is it in those environments that makes people want to be part of it Nine Areas of Research Study Developmental change and growth over the lifespan o May look at if couples want children over time o May look at getting old helping people grow old gracefully Developing Self Awareness Prateek Garg 1 7 2010 Psychology 111 o Assessing self awareness putting dot on nose and see if they can identify there is something on their nose in the mirror o Elephants have been able to identify it o Tests to see if they can recognize themselves in the mirror Social Individual and group behaviors and responses across situations o Cross Country you want to run with people o Having people around energizes are performance o Ants carry more dirt when there are other ants around o People are influenced by the behavior of people around then Experimental conduct lab studies of learning motivation emotion sensation and perception physiology and cognition Physiological Looks at genetic influences and factors on behavior o Cortical levels for stress Cognitive Explores higher level mental processes like memory reasoning information processing and creativity o How do you know when you know something o How do you solve problems o What approaches do you take Trial and error Algorithms Personality Define describe and measure the stability of behaviors and personality traits over time o Measures the stability of behaviors and traits over time o Harry Potter Quizzes o It should be durable consistent over time o When you re shy at 6 years of age will you still be shy Pyschometric Looks at the measurement of behavior through the development of psychological tests o Tries to quantify behaviors Health Interaction between psychological factors and physical well being and illness o Stress leads to suppressed immune system o Are happy people more likely to recover from illnesses o More emphasis on health than physiological o The positive angle on the health piece Educational How to create the best learning environment explores curriculum design teacher training and student assessment o What are the best ways of teaching o What are the ways that students learn o How do you assess students o How do people learn Applied Psychology Prateek Garg 1 7 2010 Psychology 111 Clinical diagnose and treat emotional problems o Neuropsychology focus on cns disorders trauma dementia o Forensic Psychology interaction with the legal system involving competency custody and risk assessment Criminal insanity plea Different legal and psychological definitions Counseling deal with problems of everyday life and transitions o Similar training to clinical psychologists but they specialize on college students for example better School Educational enhance school performance and resolve emotional problems curriculum and teacher training o School Counselors o They try to help explain to teachers how to work with students to help them learn Industrial Organizational Staff human service departments in businesses working on isssues of morale job satisfaction and productivity issues 7 Organizing Themes for Psychology Empirical Theoretically Diverse o Many different theories for different psychological events Sociohistorical Context impacts