AP Psychology PSYCHOLOGY (Bernstein) Chapter 1: Introducing Psychology
PSYCHOLOGY: the science that seeks to understand behavior and mental processes, and to apply that understanding in the service of human welfare POSITIVE PSYCHOLOGY: a field of research that focuses on people s positive experiences and characteristics, such as happiness, optimism, and resilience
Where do psychologists go to work? Biological/physiological psychologists Developmental psychologists Cognitive/experimental psychologists engineering psychology/ human factors Personality psychologists Clinical/counseling psychologists community psychologists health psychologists Industrial-Organizational (I/O) psychologists rehabilitative psychologists Quantitative psychologists OTHER Sports psychologists Forensic psychologists Environmental psychologists Educational psychologists school psychologists Social psychologists
Relating Subfields to Human Behavior 1. On your paper, anonymously write down three questions about why people think or behave the way they do. Turn in card. 2. Pick a card (other than your own) and write which subfields might address ONE of the questions on the card. 3. Suggest ways to study the selected question.
Linkages within Psychology and Beyond different subfields of psychology overlap (ex. developmental and educational psychology) psychology linked to and interacts with other disciplines (ex. neuroscience--cellular biology and psychology) psych theories used in other disciplines like law, medicine, engineering, etc.
RESEARCH: The Foundation of Psychology conduct experiments and other scientific procedures systematically gather data analyze data draws conclusions generates new ideas/questions for study Psychology relies on EMPIRICISM--knowledge based on experience and observation rather than imagination and intuition
Interest in Behavior and the Mind throughout History Pick a dude or set of dudes below. (dudes selected from the History of Psychology, pp.13-17 in Rubenstein) Create a chart like the one below. Fill in your dude s/dudes box on the chart, explaining his interest in behavior and the mind. what contribution(s) did your dude(s) make to the field that would become PSYCHOLOGY? Socrates, Plato, Aristotle John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume Gustav Fechner Wilhelm Wundt Edward Titchener Hermann Ebbinghaus Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler Sigmund Freud William James G. Stanley Hall James Mark Baldwin John B. Watson B. F. Skinner
Interest in Behavior and the Mind throughout History Socrates, Plato, Aristotle debated nature of mind and soul; relationship of mind and body; some knowledge is innate John Locke, George Berkeley, David Hume Gustav Fechner Wilhelm Wundt Edward Titchener Hermann Ebbinghaus Max Wertheimer, Kurt Koffka, Wolfgang Kohler Empiricism; tabula rasa; no knowledge is innate but gained through sensation/direct sensory experiences (17th c.) psychophysics--relationship between physical stimuli and psychological experience of them Father of Psychology ; introspection--quality and intensity are the two essential elements of any sensation; first psych lab in Leipzig, Germany (1879); used empirical research also used instrospection but added clarity as an element of sensation; structuralism--attempt to define the structure of consciousness focused on capacities, limitations, and other characteristics of mental processes such as learning and memory; participant in own experiments German Gestalt psychologists who saw consciousness as a totality; believed the whole is greater than the sum of its individual parts (e.g., analogy of a strip of film)
Interest in Behavior and the Mind throughout History Sigmund Freud believed all behavior is motivated by psychological processes, especially unconscious conflicts within the mind William James first U.S. psych lab (Harvard); functionalism--focused on the role of consciousness in guiding decisions, solving problems, etc; emphasis on how we adapt to environment G. Stanley Hall functionalist who founded first psychology research lab in the U.S. (1883) at Johns Hopkins University James Mark Baldwin functionalist and pioneer in research on child development; founded first Canadian psych lab at the University of Toronto (1889) John B. Watson B. F. Skinner consciousness unobservable and should be ignored; behaviorism-- observation of overt behavior and responses to various stimuli (learning determines behavior and adaptations) champion of behaviorism; functional analysis of behavior--explained how rewards and punishments shape, maintain, and change behaviors through operant conditioning
Approaches to Psychology Research Topic Approach Questions, Assumptions, and Methods (pick a topic...any topic) BIOLOGICAL EVOLUTIONARY PSYCHODYNAMIC BEHAVIORAL COGNITIVE HUMANISTIC assumes biological factors (genes, hormones, and the activity of the central nervous system--esp. the brain) affect behavior and mental processes emphasizes how behavior and mental processes emerge as generation-to-generation adaptations to help organisms survive in their environments (process of natural selection) sees constant unconscious conflicts within each person as the main determinant of behavior and mental life; conflict primarily between impulse to satisfy personal desires and the need to live by rules of society (based on Freud s theories) sees behavior as primarily the result of learning; a person s learning history, esp. patterns of rewards and punishments, influences behavior; problem can be solved by unlearning old habits and developing new ones emphasizes the importance of thoughts and other mental processes; focuses on how people take in, mentally represent, and store information; how they perceive and process info; and how cognitive processes are related to observable behavior sees behavior as determined primarily by each person s capacity to choose how to think and act based on each individual s unique perceptions; believes people control themselves, each person is essentially good and has innate tendency to reach highest potential
Most psychologists use an ECLECTIC approach... meaning they combine the features of several approaches in both their research and practice dealing with individual cases. (ex. social-cognitive or cognitive-behavioral psychologists)
HUMAN DIVERSITY in Psychology I. What is CULTURE? the accumulation of values, rules of behavior, forms of expression, religious beliefs, occupational choices and the like fora group of people who share a common language and environment II. SOCIOCULTURAL FACTORS INFLUENCING BEHAVIOR AND MENTAL PROCESSES Race Ethnicity Social Class Culture of Origin (religion, language, customs, traditions...) III. IV. INDIVIDUALISTIC v. COLLECTIVIST CULTURE (see chart on p. 23 in Bernstein) MULTICULTURAL COUNTRIES AND SUBCULTURES V. IMPACT OF SOCIOCULTURAL DIVERSITY ON PSYCHOLOGY???