PsychologyPrinciples in Practice

Psychology

Psychology: The scientific study of human behavior and mental processes

Where do we Psychology around us?

Behavior/Cognitive

Cognitive: Mental processes including thoughts, dreams, perception, and memories

Behavior: Actions people can observe or measure

Behavior Any action people can observe or measure

Includes: Eating/Drinking Brain Activity Walking/Running Anything almost

Psychological constructs Things we can’t touch or measure

Anger, Happiness, Hurt – These are behaviors that usually can not be see or measured

-Behavior or Psych Construct? –

1. 1. You think about how much you dislike the Kardashians

2. 2. Walk to the TV to turn off Tosh.O

3. 3. You think how much you hate women’s tennis

ODE Observe, Describe, and Explain

The ODE gives us a theory

Theory: A statement that

explains your findings

Theories create Principles: A truth or law

Look around You Have you ever judged people…chances are you have

Have you ever people watched?

The Lecture Circuit:

http://www.imdb.com/video/hulu/vi3409773337/

Traditional Schools of Psychology

Structuralism

Functionalism

Psychoanalysis

Gestalt

Behaviorism

Early Beginnings Officially a science in the late 1800’s

Willhelm Wundt is considered the “father of Psychology” “Voont” applied scientific principles to studying the

mind

He did this through “objective introspection” Def: Measuring one’s own thoughts and metal activities

Wundt would place an object in front of someone and ask them what they thought

Objective Introspection Example

Look at the Chalkboard

What are you thinking about?

How does it make you feel?

What are you repressing?

What flaws does this approach have?

Structuralism Major Influence: Wilhelm Wundt and Edward Tichener

Based on Wundt’s beginnings this focuses on the structure of the mind and how it works

Focus: Each thought is believed to come from an experience or thought about something else

Each person has to think through his/her own mind to answer – This is Introspection

Functionalism Major Influence: William James; Father of American

Psychology

Focus: How the mind functions effect daily life

James argued that once you started thinking about what you were thinking about its was no longer what you would have been thinking…

Studying the conscious (what you are thinking right now) was not possible to him

Rather, he asked why do some people avoid eye contact, walk a certain way, etc

Gestalt (Gesh-Talt) German for – An organized whole

Major influence: Max Wertheimer

Focus: How the mid perceives parts and wholes

Wertheimer believed if you break things down then they are just components, no longer a whole

Example: You take apart an engine – Now you have engine parts but not an engine

Gestalt Drawings

Gestalt Cont’

Continuity: Lines are seen as following the smoothest path

Proximity: Objects near each other get grouped together

Pragnanz: We organize in the simplest way possible

Closure: Objects grouped together are seen as a whole

Similarity: Items that tend to be similar we group together

Examples Name the correct law suggested by Gestalt

Psychology:

Create You Own Take an 8 ½ by 11 sheet of paper and create your

own Gestalt Drawing

Be creative, take your time, make them pretty

10 Points

Psychoanalysis Major Influence: Sigmund Freud

Focus: The unconscious, repressed memories and experiences that determine behavior

Freud was the first to look beyond the now (conscious) and explore why people think/act outside conscious thought

Freud harped on childhood memories and sexual desires believing personality was formed by age 6. More on Freud later

Behaviorism Major Influence: Ivan Pavlov and John Watson

Focus: Observable behavior that is learned over time, not conscious or unconscious thought/feelings

This was a return to science and data, not thought or feeling

Ivan Pavlov: Conditioning Experiment

John Watson: Little Albert Experiment