Chapter 1

Psychology : An Overview
Psychology

A. Definition of Terms

1. Psychology
i. coined from two Greek words, psyche (soul) and logos
(study).

ii. It is the scientific study of behavior and mental processes.

iii. People often confuse psychology with psychiatry, which

is a branch of medicine concerned with the diagnosis and
treatment of psychological disorders (Franzoi, 2011).

2. Science
i. It is a group of related facts and principles of a particular
subject.

ii. In science we collect related facts by the use of objective

methods to develop a theory to explain those facts.

iii. From a given set of conditions, science helps us to predict

future happenings.

3. Behavior
i. Generally, it refers to all types of human activities or
everything that human does.

ii. It can be categorized as motor activities (talking),

emotional activities (fear), and cognitive activities
(remembering).

iii. It is also the reaction of an individual to a particular

environment. The environment exerts influence on
individuals. That influence is called stimulus. The
 stimulus in turn arouses an activity from the individual and
this is called the response (Lemma, 2006).

B. Key Issues in Psychology

1. Nature versus Nurture

i. How much of our behavior is due to heredity or how
much is due to environment?

2. Conscious versus Unconscious

i. How much of our behavior is produced by forces of which we

are fully aware?

3. Observable behavior versus Internal mental processes

i. Should Psychology only focus on what it can see?

C. Goals of Psychology

1. To describe behavior. This will help psychologists understand the

basic patterns of behavior and allows them to develop theories or
assumptions about behavior.

2. To make prediction about behavior. These predictions are often

based on the description psychologists have obtained.

3. To control behavior. Behaviors can be controlled or modify through

giving or withholding rewards.

4. To give explanation of the behavior. This is made possible through

the insights they gained from describing, predicting and controlling
the behavior.

D. Historical Background and Schools of Thought

 1. How did Psychology evolve as a discipline?

i. The founders of psychology were philosophers – the ancient

Greeks were important antecedents to modern Western
ideals.

a) Plato. For him, all knowledge is innate and can

be attained only through introspection, which is
the searching of one’s inner experiences.

b) Aristotle. For him, information about the

environment is provided by the five senses:
sight, hearing, taste, touch, and smell. He also
believed that the active reason part of the soul
provides humans with their highest purpose.

iv. During the 18th century – Psychology began to emerge as

a science in conjunction with studies of the nervous system
(Physiology).

v. Founder of Experimental Psychology: Wilhelm Wundt

(1832-1920).

a) Established the first laboratory for the study of

psychology in Leipzig in 1879;

b) Defined psychology as the scientific study of conscious

experience.

2. Schools of Thought (Lemma, 2006, pp. 11-18)

i. Structuralism

a) Wilhelm Wundt founded the first psychological

laboratory in 1879 in the University of Leipzig in
Germany. It is also where formal research in psychology
began.
 b) He limited the subject matter of psychology to the study
of conscious experience. The elements of conscious
experience were considered to be of two kinds. These are:

 Sensations: sights, sounds, tastes, smells and touch,

which arise from stimulation of the sense organs;
 Feelings: love, fear, joy, and so on

c) Its method of study was introspection.

 In introspection people are taught, trained to

observe and report the 'content' or 'elements' of
awareness in a particular situation. For example;
people are presented with stimulus such as a
sentence on a card and asked to describe in their
own words their own experiences.
 Introspection is detailed description and how
people perceive things in the world.

ii. Functionalism

a) The American psychologist William James pioneered

functionalism.

b) It focused on what the mind does on the functions of

mental activity and the role of behavior in allowing
people to adapt to their environment.

c) Functionalism was strongly influenced by biology. The

work and ideas of Charles Darwin had a great impact on
the emergence of functional psychology.

d) According to Darwin’s theory of evolution, living

organisms change and develop over time through a
process of natural selection. Organisms whose
characteristics were best suited to their environment
survived and reproduced. While organisms whose
characteristics were less adaptable died out. Survivors
 would transmit to the next generation those
characteristics that enabled them to survive.

iii. Gestalt

a) The leading proponents of the Gestalt view were the

German psychologists Max Wertheimer, Kurt Kafka and
Wolfgang Kohler.

b) Instead of considering separate parts that make up

thinking, Gestalt psychologists concentrated on the
‘whole’. Their slogan is ‘the whole is greater than the sum
of its parts’. Gestalt means shape, form or configuration.

c) Their belief was that the whole is different from the sum
of its parts. In order to understand our environment we
have to perceive it in its totality not in its individuality.

iv. Psychoanalysis

a) The Viennese neurologist and psychologist Sigmund

Freud (1856-1939) pioneered the psychoanalytic
perspective.

b) These unconscious motivations and conflicts have

powerful influences on our conscious thoughts and
actions. Therefore they are responsible for much of
human behavior including physiological problems.
According to Freud, all behavior whether normal or
abnormal is influenced by the unconscious mind. This
belief is called psychic determinism.

c) They cannot be directly studied through introspection.

According to Freud the methods of studying the
unconscious mind are:

 Free association
 In this method the psychoanalyst
gives the client a word and asks to reply
with the first word that comes to mind be it
 nonsense or irrelevant. The psychoanalyst
makes associations and meanings between
ideas, words, and thought.
 Dream analysis based on case studies
 The contents of dreams are analyzed
for underlying or hidden motivations.
 Dreams are viewed as indication of
what a person is truly feeling within the
conscious mind. Freud said dreams are ‘the
royal road to the understanding of the
unconscious.

v. Behaviorism

a) John Watson (1878-1958) revolutionized psychology by

changing the subject matter of psychology from the study
of conscious experience to the study of behavior.

b) Watson believed that the study of psychology should be

about observable behavior and its aim should be to
describe, predict, understand and control behavior.

c) Watson’s focus on the study of observable behavior

enabled to formulate clear hypotheses, which could be
tested by experimentation.

Table 1. Summary Presentation of the Different Schools of Thought in Psychology

School of Early Advocates Goals Methods

Thought

Structuralism Edward Titchener, To study conscious experience Experiments;

trained by Wilhelm and its structure introspection
Wundt
Gestalt Max Wertheimer To describe the organization Observation of
psychology of mental processes: “The sensory/perceptual
whole is greater than the sum phenomena
of its parts.”

Psychoanalysis Sigmund Freud To explain personality and Study of individual

behavior; to develop cases
techniques

for treating mental disorders

Functionalism William James To study how the mind works Naturalistic observation
in allowing an organism to of animal and human
adapt to the environment behavior

Behaviorism John B. Watson, B. To study only observable Observation of the

F. Skinner behavior and explain behavior relationship between
through learning principles environmental stimuli
and behavioral
responses

E. Today's Perspectives or Approaches in Psychology

1. Biological

i. Our brain is a complex biochemical organ that affects how we

think and how we behave. To understand behavior you must
understand the roots of behavior, the working of the brain and
nervous system.

ii. It is focused on investigating how physiological processes shape

behavior and mental processes.

2. Evolutionary

i. It is focused on understanding the adaptive aspects of behavior.

 ii. The brain and the mind evolved to solve problems encountered by
our hunter-gatherer ancestors during the upper Pleistocene
period over 10,000 years ago (McLeod, 2007).

iii. Behaviors that we see have developed because these are adaptive
and crucial to the organism's survival.

3. Psychoanalysis/Psychodynamic

i. This is based on the work of Sigmund Freud. Freud saw

psychology as the study of unconscious because he believed
unconscious motivation controlled behavior.

ii. It studies how human behavior is determined by hidden and

unconscious drives and conflict.

iii. It delves deeper to topics like dreams, childhood experiences,

aggression, sexuality, motivation, creativity and personality.

4. Behavioral

i. It studies the observable/overt behavior rather than the hidden

mental processes.

ii. It is specifically focused on how organisms learn observable

responses.

iii. B.F. Skinner places emphasis on the consequences of behavior.

He found that people and other animals tend to repeat behaviors
that are followed by positive consequences and avoid behaviors
that bring negative consequences (Franzoi, 2011).

5. Cognitive

i. It focuses on the process that helps people to know, understand,

and think about the world.

ii. To undertand people's behavior, we have to understand how they

think or process information.
 Iii. According to Franzoi (2011,15), the rise of cognitive psychology
occurred about the same time as the development of computer
technology. Cognitive psychologists argued that the mind was
like a computer. The mind, like a computer, receives input from
the environment. It then transforms, stores, and later retrieves
this input using a host of “programs,” which then generate
specific response outputs.

6. Humanism

i. It emerge as a reaction to the deterministic view of Psychoanalysis

and behaviorism and is regarded as the third force in Psychology.

ii. It emphasizes people’s inborn desire for personal growth and their
ability to consciously make choices (Franzoi, 2011).

iii. A new approach related to Humanstic Psychology is Positive

Psychology which is a relatively new approach to psychology that
studies how people find mental health and happiness in their
everyday living (Franzoi, 2011).

F. Areas of Specialization in Psychology (Franzoi, 2011, pp19-20)

1. Research Psychology- acquisition of psychological knowledge

through scientific methods.

i. Biopsychology (also called psychobiology)- Studies behavior by

examining biological processes, especially those occurring in the
brain.

ii. Developmental psychology- Studies how people mature and

change physically, cognitively, and socially throughout the life
span.

iii. Experimental psychology- Studies basic psychological processes

such as sensation, perception, learning, motivation, emotion, and
states of consciousness.

iv. Cognitive psychology- Studies all aspects of thinking, including

problem solving, decision making, memory, reasoning, and
language.
 v. Personality psychology Studies how people are influenced by
relatively stable internal traits.

vi. Social psychology Studies how people are influenced by others.

2. Applied Psychology- utilization of psychological knowledge to

solve real-life problems.

i. Clinical psychology- Diagnoses and treats people with

psychological disorders, such as depression and schizophrenia.

ii. Counseling psychology- Diagnoses and treats people with

personal problems that do not involve psychological disorders,
including marriage counseling, social skills training, and career
planning.

iii. Industrial–organizational psychology- Focuses on ways to select,

motivate, and evaluate employees, as well as improving the
management structure and working conditions.

iv. Educational and school psychology:

a) Educational psychology- Conducts and applies

research on teaching and learning,

b) School psychology- Specializes in assessing and

alleviating children’s academic problems.
v. Forensic psychology- Focuses on understanding people’s
behavior in many areas of the criminal justice system such as
determining whether a defendant was insane at the time the crime
took place or judging the competence of a defendant’s ability to
stand trial.

G. Scientific Processes and Methods in Psychology

1. The Scientific Method

i. The approach used by psychologists to systematically acquire

knowledge and understanding about behavior and other
phenomena of interest.
 ii. Scientific processes involve:

a) Identify questions of interest

b) Formulate an explanation
 Specify a theory. A theory is an organized
system of ideas that seeks to explain why two
or more events are related (Franzoi, 2011, 33)
 Develop a hypothesis. A hypothesis is a
prediction stated in such a way that it allows
to be tested.

c) Carry out research

 Operationalize hypothesis
 Select a method
 Collect data
 Analyze data

2. Research Methods

i. Naturalistic Observation- It describes how people or animals

behave in their natural environment.

ii. Case Study- An in-depth, intensive investigation of an individual

or small group of people

iii. Survey Research- A sample of people are asked a series of

questions about their behavior, thoughts, and attitudes in order to
represent a larger population.

iv. Correlational Studies- The relationship between two sets of

variables is examined to determine whether they are associated,
or “correlated”.

a) Ranges from +1 to -1 (positive, zero or negative

correlation)
 b) Correlation does not mean “causation”.

v. Experiment- A scientific method in which researchers manipulate,

or change, a variable to observe the effect on some other variable.

a) The variable that is manipulated is called the

independent variable. It is the one the researcher is
testing as the possible cause of any changes that might
occur in the other variables.

b) The variable that may change in response to the

manipulated changes in the independent variable is
called the dependent variable.

Table 2. Different Research Methods Used in Psychology

Method Features Strengths Pitfalls

Naturalistic Observation Observation of human or Provides descriptive data Observer bias and
animal behavior in the about behavior participant self-
environment in which it presumably consciousness can distort
typically occurs uncontaminated by results
outside influences

Case studies Intensive examination of the Provide detailed May not provide
behavior and mental processes descriptive analyses of representative picture of
associated with a specific new, complex, or rare phenomena
person or situation phenomena

Surveys Standard sets of questions Gather large amounts of Sampling errors, poorly
asked of a large number of descriptive data relatively phrased questions, and
participants quickly and response biases can
inexpensively distort results
Correlational studies Examine relationships Can test predictions, Cannot confirm causal
between research variables evaluate theories, and relationships between
suggest new hypotheses variables
Experiments Manipulation of an Can establish a cause-Confounding variables
independent variable and effect relationship may prevent valid
measurement of its effects on a between independent and conclusions
dependent variable dependent variables